Stamping Out Germs at Home and the Office: Avoiding Unnecessary Illness

Germs are all around us and everyday whether we are at home or at work, we are exposed to bugs and viruses that can inflict illness on us at short notice.Taking some simple precautions and making the people around you aware of the need to be vigilant will help to stamp out germs and keep everyone fit and well.Germs ready to attackAsk yourself some simple questions to see how vigilant you are in protecting yourself against the threat of germs. Can you remember the last time that you disinfected your computer mouse or keyboard and how long have you been using the same sponge in the kitchen?These are just two examples of how everyday objects that we all use have the ability to harbor germs if they are not cleaned and disinfected on a regular basis. If somebody around you has cold and flu symptoms and then shares the same equipment or environment as you for a period of time, then without a regular cleaning regime in place, you could soon be showing exactly the same symptoms as the bug has had a chance to thrive in the various nooks and crannies and surfaces that were not as clean as they could be.Identify the office hotspotsOffices are a potential breeding ground for germs with so many different bugs and viruses being introduced from a variety of different sources. If you want to know how dirty your office is then imagine an everyday situation where a co-worker comes into the office with a cold and touches the doorknob to get in, touches the door handle to the kitchen and the handle to the cupboard to get their coffee cup and then touches the refrigerator door, need we go on?You can see that it is very easy to transmit germs around the office in a very short space of time so you need to make a concerted effort to have a regular cleaning routine that keeps communal items like door handles and other breeding grounds like work surfaces and desktop items like phones, clean and as free as possible from germs.Many of us keep our toilets sparkling clean because we know that they can harbor germs if not cleaned and disinfected regularly but here is the irony, there are an estimated 200 times more bacteria on the average desktop than on a toilet seat!Identify those office hotspots and use some cleaning products regularly to make sure that your desk is as clean as your toilet.Around the homeA communal space like an office is always going to be a challenge to keep germs at bay but you should not think that you are immune from the same potential problems around your own home.It is not a pleasant thing to say, but if you want to find some fecal bacteria in your home then you are more likely to find it in the kitchen than in the bathroom. The kitchen is the room in our homes that is the most likely to be harboring some germs and items like sponges and cutting boards are often the perfect place for bacteria to grow.Without wishing to put anyone off their food but it is likely that you will find 400 times more fecal matter on a cutting board than on your toilet seat, so don't just rinse it under the tap and put it away. Wash the board with something like Clorox each week or more regularly than that and maybe your sponges that you use in the microwave for 30 seconds to blast away the germs, or change them often.There are plenty of good cleaning products available to keep your home and office clean and free from germs, so make sure that you do what you can to keep germs at bay.