6 Steps to a Clean Home Office
Sitting at our desk over sustained stretches of time, we do a lot more than just “work.” We chew, sneeze, cough, touch, and spill—day after day.
It’s no wonder that home offices can so quickly become a microbial zoo. The University of Arizona found that 10 million bacteria set up light housekeeping on the typical modern work station.
Ten million is a number that’s hard to wrap our minds around, but it amounts to a lot more germs than even kitchen counters and toilet seats.
Whether you use your home office a lot or a little, it needs regular cleaning attention. Molly Maid is a professional residential maid service that can keep your home office tidy, clean, and disinfected.
Here are six steps recommended by Molly Maid to get those 10 million germs down to a number you can rest easy about:
Job One: That keyboard. Detach it and shake it out—over the compost pile or your garden if it’s bad enough. But that’s just the beginning:
- Use a can of compressed air (psssshhhht!) to force the remaining dust and food particles out from behind the keys.
- Dip Q-tips in alcohol and swipe between the keys.
- Lightly spray disinfectant on the top of the keyboard and wipe clean.
You're off to a great start.
Job Two: The monitor. Disconnect it and wipe it down with non-abrasive microfiber cloth. These special but not especially expensive cloths leave nothing behind: no streaks, lint, scratches or spots. Without needing to dampen them, microfiber cloths capture and collect dust. Just swipe and rinse out the dirt and dust in the sink when finished.
Job Three: Take on the dust. And vacuum. Moving left to right, don’t overlook door panels and windowsills, the top of your monitor, the tops of picture frames, under mouse pads, the works. Remove your papers, file folders, calendars, stapler, Pet Rock…and wipe down your desk chair, too and equipment like computer tower and printers. Then vacuum.
Job Four: Sitting at our desks we do lots and lots of touching, founding new micro colonies with each keystroke, mouse click, and phone call. So disinfect that mouse and office phone: keypad, headset, mouthpiece, the whole thing.
Job Five: Clear clutter. An organized desk helps to calm the mind and organize thoughts. Your stress will go down, and your productivity will go up.
Job Six: ;Put it on your Outlook or desk calendar to clean weekly if you work from home or have a telecommute job, or bi-weekly if you use your office less often. If you spend ten minutes to use these cleaning tips on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, your home office will never become a huge clean-up project.
…Or a metropolis for microbes.
Molly Maid has been providing professional home cleaning to busy families since 1984. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Find out the seven dirtiest places in your office or workspace and how to prevent them in this infographic. While germs are not fun to share, print, send or share this infographic with others and help prevent the spread of germs this cold and flu season.
