Clean your keyboard & mouse right now!

[JosephLeo]

Hey guys, I just have to tell you something that I do every year. I just cleaned my keyboard and mouse. I didn't do the "wet nap and wipe" technique, and I didn't "take of the letters and clean under too" no, I cleaned the entire keyboard and mouse.

I opened up both devices to their bare parts, took away all of the electronic components, filled a small bucket with water and washed all the dead skin and food particles away from the plastic and rubber parts.

The result? Well, my keyboard feels and looks like new, but also the keys are more "springy" now because there is no more grime slowing the keys down, this also reduced the clickity-clack sound they make as well since I don't have to press as hard anymore, and thus my typing speed actually improved a little bit as well. My mouse, well, it glides like it's floating in air now and the tracking also improved- but what's really nice about it is that the texture of it is all smooth and silky instead of oily.

I do this once a year around this time of year, but I heard some people do this twice a year. Oh by the way, in my mouse I found a ball the size of a penny that was made out of lint and oil...yuck!

[TopLevelComp]

I throw my keyboards in the dishwasher. Always put them as brand new.

[AdamsAPlus]

Maybe I should start offering that as an extra, to make more money.

[Ccomp5950]

From an environmental standpoint: Cleaning your keyboard and mouse make good sense.

From an economic standpoint: Throw them away and purchase a new pair, you just saved yourself 2 hours worth of time for 10 dollars.

[tankman1989]

No optical mouse Joseph? Any specific reason?

[rapidcom]

I think this has been brought up on another thread, but it is worth mentioning here too.

Cyber Clean is what I use, it is a goo like thing that makes it much easier to clean keyboards. I buy mine at Target (for the US Techs).

[muncherw]

Originally Posted by TopLevelComp

I throw my keyboards in the dishwasher. Always put them as brand new.

That's the way I do it too.

[JosephLeo]

Originally Posted by AdamsAPlus

Maybe I should start offering that as an extra, to make more money.

Why not, sounds like a good idea Just make sure for your clients you take extra precaution in making sure it's dry. Just because it looks dry doesn't mean it is.

Originally Posted by Ccomp5950

From an environmental standpoint: Cleaning your keyboard and mouse make good sense.

From an economic standpoint: Throw them away and purchase a new pair, you just saved yourself 2 hours worth of time for 10 dollars.

$10...can you tell me where you buy your keyboards from because the cheapest I can find them is $15 for those ugly loud clickety-clack ones.

Originally Posted by tankman1989

No optical mouse Joseph? Any specific reason?

I'm using an optical mouse, unless maybe you confused "ball of the size of a penny" with ball mouse.

Originally Posted by rapidcom

I think this has been brought up on another thread, but it is worth mentioning here too.

Cyber Clean is what I use, it is a goo like thing that makes it much easier to clean keyboards. I buy mine at Target (for the US Techs).

That's good, but it won't remove 100% of everything that's DEEPLY embedded in there. Plus, it's still gross because of the hair and dead skin involved.

[Ocelot]

I just deep cleaned my keyboard after about a year of usage and I was surprised at how much stuff came out from inside the keyboard

I'm too afraid to open my mouse and clean it though

[tankman1989]

Originally Posted by JosephLeo

I'm using an optical mouse, unless maybe you confused "ball of the size of a penny" with ball mouse.

I assumed a ball mouse because I didn't see how dust could get inside an optical (he types as he examines his mouse closely). I guess I will have to disassemble my mouse and see what I find (buttons are starting to stick).

I just took apart 2 Logitech optical mice (6-7 years dirty, lol) and didn't find any lint/dirt in mine and they get some heavy usage at times. I'm still having trouble seeing how the dust got inside your mouse. I want to thank you for posting this because I have 2-3 keyboards which need cleaning and the one mouse does click much better.