Wash Your Hands the Right Way

You probably touch germy objects all day like doorknobs and keyboards. There’s no way to avoid germs. The danger lies in touching your face or other people with those germy hands. To prevent spreading illnesses, it’s important to wash your hands often and correctly. Otherwise, your sick time will be gone before you know it. According to the CDC, handwashing education reduces the number of people who get sick with illnesses like colds by 16-21%. Reduce your chances of getting sick by brushing up on the correct handwashing techniques. Keeping the CDC’s recommendations in mind, ServiceMaster Twin Cities compiled the following tips to help you and your office stay healthy all year round.

Why?

Many types of illnesses and diseases are spread because people don’t wash their hands. Obviously getting a cold is never fun but it may be more serious than that. Salmonella, norovirus and many other diseases can quickly spiral out of control without correct hand hygiene. You can spread germs directly by shaking hands or coughing on others, but there are many indirect ways as well. Preparing food or touching communal objects with unwashed hands are sure ways to spread your germs. Wash your hands before cooking, eating and treating a wound. Make sure after you go to the bathroom, blow your nose or touch garbage you wash your hands as well.

Steps:

1. Use clean running water to wet your hands. Warm or cold doesn’t make a difference.
2. Turn the water off and apply any type of soap. You don’t need to use antibacterial to reap the benefits of freshly washed hands.
3. Lather your fingertips, the back of your hands and under your fingernails. Cover every corner of your hands up to your wrists with soap.
4. Scrub your hands together for at least 20 seconds.
5. Turn clean running water back on and rinse off the soap.
6. Dry your hands using a clean towel or let them air dry.

Hand Sanitizer:

Many offices display bottles of hand sanitizer on every desk. You just learned the correct way to wash your hands so where does that leave hand sanitizer? Washing your hands with soap and water is always the best option. However, if you are unable to wash your hands, hand sanitizer is the next best solution. The CDC recommends choosing a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Just keep in mind that if your hands are visibly dirty, you’ve been in contact with harmful chemicals or you want to remove as many germs as possible, hand washing is the way to go.

Hand washing keeps the germs on your hands at bay but what about the rest of your office? ServiceMaster Twin Cities in Little Rock, Arkansas has been making local businesses shine for almost 30 years. Choose from floor care, specialty cleanings like window washing or regular janitorial services. Contact us to learn more about our services and a free commercial cleaning quote.

Photo by: © Narin Eungsuwat | Dreamstime.com