There are many important tools that people use when working in an office environment including phones, computers, paper, and much more.

For lots of people, the most important ‘tool’ for their job is none other than their favorite coffee mug. Without it, they wouldn’t get to enjoy their delicious coffee that gives them the energy they need to get the day started.

With that being said, however, a surprising number of people fail to take proper care of their mug properly.

When drinking coffee at home, most people will simply put the mug in the dishwasher when done and grab a different one then next day.

Most workplaces don’t have dishwashers, which is where the problem starts.

A recent post on Reddit revealed that while most people do claim that they wash their mug at work each day, a surprising number don’t.

Some say that they just rinse it out in the morning, and others just dump out any remaining coffee from the previous day and add the new into their undoubtedly stained cup.

This leads one to wonder just how gross this really is, and how much a daily wash would help to improve the health of the drinker.

Well, Dr. Jeffrey Starke, an infectious disease specialist, recently talked about this with the Wall Street Journal, and he said:

“If I went and cultured the average unwashed coffee cup, of course I’m going to find germs. But remember the vast majority came from the person who used the cup.”

So, while there are certainly germs in the cup, the fact that most of them come from the owner of the cup does seem to make it a little better.

The fact is, however, that this should still be a concern for most people. Why?

Let’s let a professor of microbiology, environmental sciences, and public health at the University of Arizona, Dr. Charles Gerba explain:

“Around 90% of most office coffee mugs harbor dangerous germs, and 20% of those carry fecal bacteria.”

Okay, that’s enough reason for me. Clearly it is a good idea to wash your mug everyday before using it.

Not so fast.

Washing your mug with the sponge in the break room at the office might actually make it worse. In fact, unless the sponge is replaced very frequently, it likely has more bacteria than almost anything else in the office.

In most cases, the sponge at the sink in the office is used by dozens (or even hundreds) of people, collecting germs from each one.

Those germs are then left in a warm, damp environment where they can multiply very quickly.

For this reason, it might be best to wash your mug using disposable paper towels, hot water, and soap every day.

Or, if you prefer, using disposable paper coffee cups could be even better (as long as those cups are kept sealed away so they don’t collect germs before they are used.

No matter what you do, you can’t avoid all germs in the office.

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