apparently cell phones are the new toilet.

[3arthb3nd3r]

Also be sure to disinfect your keyboard, mouse, desk, lightswitches, bathroom doorknobs and all the faucets in your house.
I used to disinfect my dorm room once a week with clorox cleanup wipes, any surface of mine or my roommates that was nonporous....when i got there the first day, once a week, and when i left the last day. it did really keep us from getting any more sick than we needed to.

[ComradeM]

I feel like I should maybe be more concerned, but I'm not...germs don't really freak me out. If I wandered around being freaked out by everything that was gonna make me sick or hurt me, I wouldn't have time to do anything else.

[ghouliina]

also, ice machines are a lot more germarific than one would expect. a few years ago there was a middle school girl in florida that took a bunch of samples for her science fair & tested fast food ice against toilet water from those same restaurants & 70% of the time the ice had more bacteria. more than one sample was found to contain e.coli too.

i mean we need consistant exposure to bacteria to maintain healthy immune systems, but that;s just gross.

ice machines are the grossest when you clean them out they always have flies and stuff all stuck in them

i read about that study! now i get drinks with no ice... it always works in favor of me. this way i don't get a ridiculous amount of germs in my body, i get more of the drink, and it'll last a while because i won't throw it out when the ice melts and makes it all watery!

[Madame Fatale]

I'm slightly germphobic, I clean my phone daily. Use a disinfecting wipe for best results.

Me too! lol I love disenfecting wipes.

Oh and also Isopropyl Alcohol for my makeup ect. I'm almost ocd about it actually. And I put Tea Tree oil and Eucalyptus in when I do my washing.

[miss.annthropy]

Just as a side note, after repeated testing at my university college (and I bet many others) hand sanitisers and household disinfectants where found to be pretty useless in the fight against the kinds of bacteria you'd find on your hands, and hence on your phone.

Anyway, happy disinfecting! Or not, as the case is quite likely to be.

[FrankensteinsBride]

every night before i go to bed, i put mint scented alcohol on a cotton ball and wipe the shit out of my phone. I have a touch screen, so not much is getting stuck in any buttons or anything, but still, i keep my phone in my bra and im sure boob sweat is completely germified.
Also, if anyone is trying to get rid of zits on their cheeks/ear area, clean your phone, its probably the cause, from all of the sweat, makeup and face grease.

Why didn't I think of that!?!?! When I first read this I started cleaning my phone and know the acne on the side of my face that is the bane or my existence is totally clearing up!! It seems so simple, I wish I would have thought of it before

[kissmycombatboots]

had a roommate that had terrible acne on one side of his face. turns out it was because he always slept on that side, and never washed his pillow case. when he started washing the pillow case, his acne cleared up.

[rowanalabaster]

I got terribly grossed out after reading this thread when I saw the greasy screen on my phone. eeewwww

[originalhipster]

grocery shopping cart handles were recently found to have more feces on them than toilet seats.

Also, I was at the courthouse the other day and had to use the bathroom. Sat down on the pot and read the ad on the back of the stall door. It said "If you knew what was on the door handle you wouldn't be worried about whats on the seat." I laughed my ass off.

[JadedScorpion]

also, ice machines are a lot more germarific than one would expect. a few years ago there was a middle school girl in florida that took a bunch of samples for her science fair & tested fast food ice against toilet water from those same restaurants & 70% of the time the ice had more bacteria. more than one sample was found to contain e.coli too.

i mean we need consistant exposure to bacteria to maintain healthy immune systems, but that;s just gross.

That sooo makes me want to go out and get a fountain drink. GROSS!!!

[poorandweird]

Human beings have a natural microbiome (ie tonnes of both GOOD and OPPORTUNISTIC bacteria) and unless you're really immunocompromised and could die if someone sneezed on you really do not need to disinfect everything! Honest to God you will survive if your handbag's been on a toilet floor in a nightclub for a bit or if you've gone on a public computer then touched your face, or whatever. I'm not saying be gross, I mean obviously you should be clean and wash your hands after using the loo and before making food for someone and that, but there's not much need to be really over-the-top with disinfection in general everyday life.

[ghouliina]

Human beings have a natural microbiome (ie tonnes of both GOOD and OPPORTUNISTIC bacteria) and unless you're really immunocompromised and could die if someone sneezed on you really do not need to disinfect everything! Honest to God you will survive if your handbag's been on a toilet floor in a nightclub for a bit or if you've gone on a public computer then touched your face, or whatever. I'm not saying be gross, I mean obviously you should be clean and wash your hands after using the loo and before making food for someone and that, but there's not much need to be really over-the-top with disinfection in general everyday life.

i have to agree. antibacterial whathaveyous have made more resistant strains of bacteria that are more likely to stick around for longer. it's the same with taking antibiotics. over time, the bacteria mutates into a different strain that's harder to kill. while wiping down a phone every now and again or washing your pillow case every week or so (which you should do anyways), i don't think that you need to go overboard and wipe everything in the house. if it didn't kill you or make you sick before, i'm sure you'll be fine now.

[poorandweird]

washing your pillowcase is mainly about getting the grease from your skin and face off the covers so's you don't get more gross. But yeah you are entirely right. panicking over germs is needless

[ComradeM]

Human beings have a natural microbiome (ie tonnes of both GOOD and OPPORTUNISTIC bacteria) and unless you're really immunocompromised and could die if someone sneezed on you really do not need to disinfect everything! Honest to God you will survive if your handbag's been on a toilet floor in a nightclub for a bit or if you've gone on a public computer then touched your face, or whatever. I'm not saying be gross, I mean obviously you should be clean and wash your hands after using the loo and before making food for someone and that, but there's not much need to be really over-the-top with disinfection in general everyday life.

Word.

[MooMooMonster]

i have to agree. antibacterial whathaveyous have made more resistant strains of bacteria that are more likely to stick around for longer. it's the same with taking antibiotics. over time, the bacteria mutates into a different strain that's harder to kill.

Ooh I was going to mention this

In my botany class we grew cultures from "sanitized" surfaces. The only thing that we couldn't grow a culture from was stuff swabbed down with 70% Isopropyl alcohol. But the stuff with hand sanitizer, sanitary wipes, and antibacterial soap all grew some pretty healthy bacteria cultures. Case in point...the bacteria is gonna be there anyway. That stuff just makes them adapt. Better to form immunities to the stuff your body is already used to.