Many moons ago, I took a Food Safe course for the province of BC, which helped certify me for work in the food service industry. All the basics were covered, like food handling and basic hygiene.

One topic was the importance of washing hands. It was enough to make me a germaphobe for a few days, certainly impacted many habits in my life. The instructor pointed out that after we wash our hands, the effort is somewhat nullified by the door handle in the bathroom - especially at home (because doors at work usually pressed by clean hands when exiting, but not everybody washes their hands at work), because we close the door with a dirty hand when we commence our use of the facilities.

I am seeing an emergence of Hand Sanitizer dispensers being placed outside public washrooms at work places, which is the right idea. But those seem so optional!

With that I have devised this “self-cleaning door handle”, which basically cleans the handles with a sanitizing agent, after every turn of the door.

Here is how it works: there are two cylinder handles that intersect through a main drum. As the handle is turned, a cylinder would fall through the main drum handle (gravity at work) and get cleansed with a sanitizing coat. There will always be a clean handle at the ready. The sanitizer is stored in a reservoir above the handle (or can be built inside the drum). The cylinder handles will each be fitted with another sliding cylinder, which would be used to indicate which handle is clean using color markers (green is clean).

This would be ideal for the inside knob of the bathroom. You could probably make a more industrial-type version with squeegees wiping the surface of the handle cylinder, but eventually you’d need to open it up and clean all the grime. Ew.