It’s no secret that the computer keyboard is not exactly the hygienic place in your home. But it isn’t the worst either.

I can’t quite remember when I read for the first time that keyboard is the dirtiest place in your home, far ahead of the toilet seat (which, in some cases, can actually be very clean.) But it is a story you occasionally like to hear again, especially if there is an update.

The German weekly Der Spiegel ran its own (unscientific) test and measured the contamination of a few devices and concluded that there is one device on your desk that is even dirtier than your keyboard.

The publication used a device to measure the presence of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which can be found in all animal and human cells. By using the lightning bug enzyme luciferase, it is possible to visualize ATP. A guideline measurement for an acceptable contamination level is 200 RLUs (reflecting light units) for even surfaces and up to 500 for uneven surfaces.

In its brief test, the publication found 861 RLUs on the touchscreen of the iPad after one week of use without cleaning, it confirmed more than 12,000 RLUs on a keyboard that had been used by several different people of a period of several years. The mouse topped the ranking with about 23,000 RLUs, while Apple’s Magic Trackpad was measured with 2036 RLUs.

The manufacturer of the ATP testing unit said that a surface is generally considered to be contaminated if the RLU value is higher than 1000. Der Spiegel notes that you should be kind to yourself and occasionally to buy a new keyboard or mouse as a result.

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