For those of us whose work involves using a computer, a typical day can mean up to eight or more hours glued to it.
With us spending so much time interacting with this device, it can get quite grimy after a while and it makes sense to clean your desktop regularly.
The biggest culprit to trap dust and grime is the keyboard and if you’re notorious for eating your lunch at your desk, crumbs are likely to fall between the keys and get trapped somewhere between the F-keys and the spacebar.
A few cleaning tools come to mind, but is an old toothbrush the right tool for the job and do you use water or is that just asking for an expensive accident to happen?
Here are some quick cleaning tips to get you started.
The screen
- Switch-off and unplug the screen. Make sure it’s cool to the touch.
- Dust it with a clean feather duster.
- Use a microfibre cloth to remove stubborn dust and fingermarks or dampen it slightly with water, but make sure it is only damp and not wet.
- Move the cloth up and down or left and right rather than in a circular motion.
- Don’t use abrasive cleaners, especially if you have a flat-screen monitor or HDTV screen.
The keyboard and mouse
- Unplug them.
- Turn the keyboard upside down and tap it lightly to remove dirt.
- Use a small dusting brush or a microfibre cloth to get rid of dust.
- For grime trapped on and between keys, use an old toothbrush or cotton bud and alcohol. Moisten the bud with alcohol and gently scrub the top of the keys and in between them. Use isopropyl alcohol as this type won’t remove the lettering from the keys.
- A cotton bud works well to clean a mouse. Use a toothbrush to remove stubborn dirt trapped in the grooves of the mouse’s clicker.
The box
- Switch it off and unplug it.
- Remove peripheral cables.
- Dust the outside of the box with a feather duster or microfibre cloth.
- Use a damp, not wet cloth to remove dust trapped in ports and enclosures.
Other useful tools that you can get from your nearest electronic store include a screen polish, foam cleaner and screen wipes. An air pressure cleaner and cleaning putty are useful to remove dirt between keys. Some screen cleaners won’t streak the screen and they’ll also eliminate static.