Home Tech Cleanup
One of the advantages of working in an office in Winnipeg is that a service like Bison Janitorial cleans surfaces such as your computer and, admittedly, this can be taken for granted very easily.
Working from home, as many of us are currently doing, means that we’re likely not being as diligent as we should be in cleaning our tech. Anything we touch regularly can be very easily contaminated from our hand and airborne bacteria.
A lot of the cleanliness issue comes from our fingertips, and not surprising its the surfaces we touch (or tap) that accumulate the highest number of bacteria and particles. Smartphones, for example, are horrendously coated, with more than 25,000 bacteria per square inch. Comparatively speaking, kitchen counters have more than 1,700 per square inch.
So bad news right? Here’s where it gets worse. Smartphones, more and more, are being integrated into our professional lives, not just for phone calls and email, but for web browsing, video conferencing and so many other applications, and often done with your computer and peripherals handled immediately afterward. That means that your keyboard, mouse, tablet, laptop and other devices are getting touched with those same fingers. After all – we don’t clean our hands between handling devices, nor do we clean those platforms that frequently.
Now let’s add another element. Many of us, amid the transition from office to work from home, did not factor in that we no longer had a designated lunch room or other space to eat. Even if we did snack at the office or occasionally eat at our desks, it wasn’t on as continual a basis as we do now. With lunch hour effectively disappearing in many cases, we’re eating at our computers often, and as a result food particles are getting trapped in our keyboards. Witness what Wall Street Journal writer Jeremy Wagstaff had to say on the topic:
“An exhaustive poll of my friends reveals that all sorts of stuff is being spilled over the average keyboard: biscuit crumbs, mango, fizzy beverage, the odd stray cornflake, nail varnish, rice, soy sauce, coffee, wine (red and white), hand cream. Under your keys lie a faithful record of every snack, lunch and beverage break you’ve had at your desk since you joined the company. It’s like typing on a pile of week-old dirty dishes.”
Ultimately, we all need to do a better job of keeping our home offices clean (and hopefully carry our practices back to our work places). Using sanitary wipes, sprays and canned air on these devices and surfaces can help keep your tech clean and keep germs and bacteria off your frequently used devices.
For more expert cleaning tips from Winnipeg’s sanitary professionals, contact Bison Janitorial and watch for more tips right here on our blog!