The Right Way to Disinfect Your Phone and Other Gadgets

Your handset is teeming with bacteria, yet giving it a proper wipe-down is simpler than you might think. Below is a rundown of why—and how—you should be disinfecting your smartphone and other household electronics on a routine basis.

Microbes, pathogens, and all sorts of unpleasant organisms surround us constantly. Plenty are entirely benign, and some even beneficial, but it's still easy to encounter bacteria, fungi, and viruses capable of triggering illness. Your mobile device happens to be one hotspot where countless microorganisms happily reside.

Up Close Inspection

When picturing the grimiest spots in your house, you'd naturally imagine the bathroom or perhaps the kitchen sink. Your phone, mouse, keyboard, and television remote likely wouldn't make that mental list.

Surprisingly, your toilet is likely cleaner than your phone and other electronics. We tend to scrub bathrooms far more frequently than other areas due to our ingrained fear of restroom germs. Additionally, toilet seats have a non-porous surface, leaving fewer crevices for grime to accumulate.

To verify this, I picked up a petri dish kit and swabbed various household items, including my toilet bowl interior—which I deliberately left uncleaned for two weeks in the name of experimentation. I then waited around ten days before checking back for results. Here's what turned up:

As visible in the results, the bacterial colonies from my phone screen matched the nastiness growing from the toilet bowl sample. You wouldn't dream of dragging your finger across the inside of a toilet bowl and skipping a hand wash afterward. Yet swiping your finger across your phone screen repeatedly throughout the day barely registers as a concern.

This is precisely why we recommend giving your phone the occasional cleaning.

Cleaning Your Phone and Electronics Safely

Disinfecting your electronics isn't overly complicated, though smartphones require extra caution. The display in particular needs gentle handling.

The majority of smartphone and tablet displays feature an oleophobic coating designed to repel fingerprint smudges and skin oils, simplifying cleanup. That said, applying harsh chemicals or abrasive materials can gradually strip away this protective layer.

While isopropyl alcohol works wonders as a disinfectant, it's poorly suited for gadget displays.

Given this limitation, your cleaning options narrow significantly—to water and a microfiber cloth, primarily, though some users swear by alcohol-free and ammonia-free sprays formulated for eyeglasses. Whichever solution you pick, dampen your cloth first before wiping down the device. Spraying liquid directly onto the phone dramatically raises the risk of moisture seeping into seams and openings, potentially causing harm.

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If the oleophobic layer eventually wears off completely, it's not catastrophic—the coating can be reapplied—but preserving it for as long as possible is ideal.

With other electronics in your home—such as keyboards, mice, and TV remotes—you can take a more aggressive approach using isopropyl alcohol or general household cleaners like Clorox wipes or disinfectant sprays. Personally, I prefer keeping things straightforward with just isopropyl alcohol. Remember to dampen the cloth first before wiping down your gadgets.

No Need to Panic

Ultimately, even if your phone carries as many germs as a toilet bowl, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger—right?

Germ paranoia is easy to develop. One pathologist even suggests daily phone disinfection, yet most of us fall well short of that kind of routine—and we're all still alive and kicking.

Our recommendation? Don't stress over it excessively. Simply stay mindful of which items need attention—particularly the devices you handle most—and incorporate them into your regular housekeeping routine.

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