Is Your Keyboard Dirtier Than Your Toilet?

In this busy life, where no one can spare a moment and everything needs to be done yesterday, more and more office workers are eating their lunch at their desk. Most desk eaters are careless with the way they eat – resulting in crumbs, grease and other food stuffs ending up in their keyboard.

Worse still, more than a few people don’t wash their hands before or after eating and interacting with their keyboard. Other people still don’t properly wash their hands when visiting the toilet which has resulted in studies showing that as many as 25% of people have faecal matter on their hands.

You can imagine the results of this lazy, fast-paced and unhealthy living. Recent studies found that these sorts of keyboards harbour all sorts of germs with some holding as much as five terms the amount found on a toilet seat. When you consider that these sorts of keyboards had between 150 times the limit for bacteria and 400 times the level of bacteria found on the average toilet seat – it is obvious that office cleaning is just as important as bathroom cleanliness.

Streptococcus, Salmonella, MRSA, Ecoli and the flu virus can all happily live on your computer keyboard if you don’t properly clean and care for it (and regularly wash your hands thoroughly) and this can lead to illness, work absence and spreading of germs among co-workers where ‘hot-desking’ or desk sharing schemes are common place.

If you are curious, you can do a test to discover just how many germs are nesting on your keyboard here – http://www.oneplusyou.com/bb/keyboard

Keeping Your Keyboard Clean and Germ Free

Now you know the gruesome facts, you’ll probably want to know how to keep your keyboard clean or (for the professional cleaner) how to keep keyboards in general clean in the office place.

First and foremost it’s essential to remember that keyboards are electronic and sensitive to water. So you’ll need to unplug them and avoid using too much water or other cleaning chemicals.

Turn a keyboard upside down and give it a bash on its back to remove loose debris, crumbs and dirt particles that have built up over time.

The use of anti-bacterial wipes on the surface of the keys should be enough to remove the majority of germs and contaminates. If your keyboard deserves a stronger treatment then you can use a flat head screwdriver to remove each key by simply popping them off. Once they’re off it will be a lot easier to clean the keys and remove any germs. Just remember to make a note of where the keys belong so they go back on in the right place or you might come unstuck!

Cotton buds and more anti-bacterial surface wipes can be used to wipe underneath the keys in the recesses to ensure they are thoroughly clean, then you just need to ensure the keyboard is dry before plugging it back in and outing it to good use!

A can of compressed air can be used to blow out unwanted dirt and dust on a regular basis and ensure your keyboard is as clean as possible.

Happy cleaning and remember to keep your keyboard clean!