While all this advice is important, that last one—limiting what you touch—is especially challenging to remember while you’re out and about. Whether you’re going to the grocery store, picking up essentials at the pharmacy, or just spending time outdoors, you’re likely digging around in your pockets or bag for your phone, keys, water bottle, wallet, and more. Think about how many times you touch your phone in a day—and how many times you touch door handles, elevator buttons, gates, shopping carts, credit card pin pads, and more between touching your phone. Bacteria and viral matter can easily transfer between and survive for hours on hard surfaces. If you touch a door handle and then touch your phone—as many of us phone-addicts do—it’s very possible to transfer COVID-19 (or other germs) to your phone, an item you touch all the time. (The same could happen with your wallet, keys, and more.) The answer? Touch as little as possible, wash your hands thoroughly and often, and disinfect or clean items you touch regularly. Touching your possessions less often may sound like a challenge, but it can be easy—with the right tools. With the spread of coronavirus, new products are popping up everywhere to help people stay safer (and touch less) while out and about. (Some pre-pandemic products help, too.) Whether they’re keeping your possessions reachable so you don’t have to dig through a full bag, making it so you can touch fewer surfaces, or just keeping items out of your hands and in handy pockets, turn to these smart, hands-free finds for a less germy (and more convenient) outing. To buy: $25; getkeysmart.com. To buy: $99; bellroy.com. To buy: $29; markandgraham.com. To buy: $20; nathansports.com. To buy: $115; dagnedover.com.
