With how often you touch your phone, it’s no wonder it can be a breeding ground for all sorts of viruses and bacteria, not to mention all the oily smudges that can build up. In addition to washing your hands, you’ll want to wash your phone, too! But before you try to clean your phone by running it through the dishwasher, you’ll want to follow these simple steps to keep your phone crisp and germ-free.

Why Clean Your Phone

From door handles, to handrails, to elevator buttons – Even the door to your car – There are many surfaces that we come in contact with outside our home daily whose cleanliness we can’t control. This is why washing our hands is so important – You never know what’s out there! But there is one surface that you likely touch all day, every day that you may be forgetting to clean in between all that hand washing, and it can be passing germs back and forth between your hands and whatever else you touch.

If you’ve read the title of this article, you may be suspecting that surface is your phone – And you’d be right. A study published in the 2017 journal Germs looked at a collection of phones owned by teenagers and found the screens covered in Streptococcus, Staphylococcus aureus, and E. Coli, among other nasty things. While phones aren’t a top spreader of disease, it’s worth considering how often you touch them without thinking twice, especially during flu season.

On top of that, aren’t those fingerprint smudges just awful to look at?

How NOT to Clean Your Phone

High on the list of products not to use on your phone are home cleaners for glass or hard surfaces. These cleaners include hard bleach, metal cleaners, or bathroom-specific cleaners for tile. Harsh chemicals like these can break down your phone’s ability to read your inputs, and chemicals that advertise a specific “scrubbing power” can even permanently scratch your screen. You should never spray anything directly on a touch screen – You never want your electronics to get saturated or wet with any liquid. This can stop them from working altogether.

Apple products specifically warn that harsh cleaners can wipe away their fingerprint-resistant coating, so what should you do to clean your screen and phone?

How to CORRECTLY Clean Your Phone

Shut Everything Down

First thing first – Take your phone out of its case and turn off the power. For added safety, remove the battery. This makes sure that if the worst happens and a stray bit of liquid gets into your phone, there won’t be a short circuit before it can dry. You’ll also want to wash your hands and dry them with a clean towel – There’s no point in cleaning your phone just to get it dirty again as you’re touching it.

Wipe it Down

Next, take a microfiber cloth and gently polish your screen. This not only makes it look nice, but it physically sweeps up germs which will stick to the towel thanks to the friction between the cloth and the glass surface. It doesn’t kill the germs, but it does get them off your phone. Microfiber does this a lot better than paper towels or a regular washcloth. Your next step will be to reach for a fresh and moist – Not wet! – Disinfectant wipe. You’ll want to use Lysol in particular for this part, as they tell us their products are safe for electronics. If it’s extra sopping wet, wring it out before running it over your screen and phone back.

Drying Time

Now let it air dry for at least ten minutes to a half-hour. After it’s air-dried, take another microfiber cloth – Hopefully not the same one you used to get rid of the germs – And polish up the screen. Lastly, clean the phone case. You can use slightly stronger chemicals here, but nothing that’s got bleach in it, as this can damage the materials or distort the colors.

Put it Back Together

Once you’re all done, put the battery back in, close up your phone, pop it in the case, and get back to texting and keeping up on your social media routine! Just avoid using your phone when eating, and be sure to clean it every couple of days if you’re a heavy phone user. Lysol and microfiber are the real secret weapons here – As they are safe and effective on electronic devices.