It’s commonly known that there are a lot of bacteria in the workspace, but what are the exact numbers? Have you ever thought about how dirty the space is where employees spent hours a week, working? Did you know that your desk is dirtier than the toilet seat at an average company? You might feel like taking the bleach to your office-space after reading this…

The 5 dirtiest things you deal with every day

5. How many bacteria are on the desk?

The desks in the office contain 499 times more bacteria than an average toilet seat. Only the place where your hand rests contains 10.000.000 germs.

4. Think twice before using the soap dispenser

Thinking of soap and a soap dispenser it is normal to suppose it’s clean, but fact it isn’t. Obviously everybody who washes their hands is doing that for a reason, that is basically the reason why the soap dispensers are full of germs. In fact this even increases the chance to get ill, this is caused by for example wounds, blood and food residuals.

3. The microwave

Then we have the microwave on the third place, germs like a warm and moisture place and they multiply the best in these environments. One positive thing, if you put the microwave on for a longer time it will kill the bacteria.

2. How to avoid bad germs in the fridge

The fridge is a place full of germs as well with 7.850 germs every square centimeter. Of course they are there because of food laying there too long but there are more reasons. Like for example when the fridge is too packed, this is because the cold air has to be able to circulate which isn’t able in this case.

1. Why it is better to drink from a bottle

The water cooler; the dirtiest thing in the office, with 2.7 million germs every square inch on average. Besides this it is proven by scientists at Boston’s Northwestern University that it is better to drink water from a bottle than from a water cooler. This because bacteria infected the cooler itself, while the water was fresh. But of course because of the cooler the water contains more bacteria than necessary as well.

How to keep your workplace clean

Clean hands are important for a clean workspace

If you don’t want that many germs at your desk there are several options to clean it. First of all, it is important to wash your hands, every 30 minutes you touch more than 300 things and drop the bacteria on all those places as well. Maybe you could be more aware of what you touch and if it is really necessary. Very important; don’t eat at your desk, the crumbs attract germs.

Clean your desk

Last of all, clean your desk and things you use often in your office, there are special wipes to clean them. The best thing to do is to do this every 1 or 2 weeks, because every time when you talk, sneeze or eat loads of germs will flow over and on the desk.