Clean a Computer Keyboard
If you're anything like a lot of people I know, you've never even THOUGHT about cleaning your keyboard. Look at it right now... It's covered in crumbs, dust, dirt and grime which is pretty god damn disgusting - isn't it? I bet you didn't know that the common household keyboard harvests more germs and bacteria than your toilet seat, did you? Enough with the facts and figures though, let's get down to business assuming you want a nice clean keyboard.
Unplug your keyboard from the computer. Place it on a flat surface, and get yourself an instrument to pry the keys away from the base of the keyboard. Don't worry, it's perfectly safe and won't harm the keyboard if you do it correctly. Failing this step should result in you being legally retarded, but if done correctly, it should look like this;
Take all the keys off - be careful with the longer ones such as the spacebar and the shift keys as they have metal braces underneath which give them stability. Don't snap anything, and if you don't think you're capable of putting the braces in again then I'd advise against removing them. Anyway, if you're badass then you'll have something which looks like this;
Also, you may have some shit which looks like this. It's a mixture of dust, pubic hair and tobacco. Says a lot about the person I got it from
Gather up all of your keys, and place them into a plastic bag of some sort. I used a sandwich bag, although a ziplock freezer bag would work fantastically. Just make sure your bag is watertight.
Get yourself a few squirts of washing-up liquid. I chose Fairy liquid because it's the dog's doo-dah's at removing grease and congealed scud from pretty much anything, but you can use whatever you want. In the past, I've used shampoo or even shower gel - just as long as it lathers up nicely and is good at breaking down grime. Now, run some really hot water into the bag - the hotter the better. I used my shower turned up to full heat, but a hot tap would work just fine. Depending on how quickly your water lathers, you should be left with something which looks like this;
Grab the bottom of the bag and shake the keys around to make sure they're all covered with hot, soapy water. Now leave them to sit in the sink for 10-20 minutes. This will let the Fairy liquid remove as much grime as possible. When you come back to the bag, give it another shake and then empty it all out into the sink. It should look like this;
Run some cold water over the keys to get rid of all the lathery goodness. You should now be left with some fresh, clean, wet keys. Mine looked like this;
When they're all clean, take them out and place them all on a towel. Rub them around a bit to get rid of any major water sitting in the keys, and leave them out to dry. It shouldn't take too long, but you can accellerate the process by using a hairdryer to evaporate any excess water.
Now all you have left to do is put the keyboard back together again. If you can't remember where all the keys go, just look at my pictures on here, or Google the make and model of your own keyboard (it should be on the back somewhere). Look at pictures, work it out
Here's what the finished product should look like - nice and clean! Most importantly, it's free from dust, tobacco, pubic hairs and other detritus which may have accumulated over the years. I went over my keyboard with some office-cleaner just to finish the job, and it actually turned out really well.
So there you have it - a step by step guide to cleaning a computer keyboard. Any questions? Feel free to contact me.
Unplug your keyboard from the computer. Place it on a flat surface, and get yourself an instrument to pry the keys away from the base of the keyboard. Don't worry, it's perfectly safe and won't harm the keyboard if you do it correctly. Failing this step should result in you being legally retarded, but if done correctly, it should look like this;
Take all the keys off - be careful with the longer ones such as the spacebar and the shift keys as they have metal braces underneath which give them stability. Don't snap anything, and if you don't think you're capable of putting the braces in again then I'd advise against removing them. Anyway, if you're badass then you'll have something which looks like this;
Also, you may have some shit which looks like this. It's a mixture of dust, pubic hair and tobacco. Says a lot about the person I got it from
Gather up all of your keys, and place them into a plastic bag of some sort. I used a sandwich bag, although a ziplock freezer bag would work fantastically. Just make sure your bag is watertight.
Get yourself a few squirts of washing-up liquid. I chose Fairy liquid because it's the dog's doo-dah's at removing grease and congealed scud from pretty much anything, but you can use whatever you want. In the past, I've used shampoo or even shower gel - just as long as it lathers up nicely and is good at breaking down grime. Now, run some really hot water into the bag - the hotter the better. I used my shower turned up to full heat, but a hot tap would work just fine. Depending on how quickly your water lathers, you should be left with something which looks like this;
Grab the bottom of the bag and shake the keys around to make sure they're all covered with hot, soapy water. Now leave them to sit in the sink for 10-20 minutes. This will let the Fairy liquid remove as much grime as possible. When you come back to the bag, give it another shake and then empty it all out into the sink. It should look like this;
Run some cold water over the keys to get rid of all the lathery goodness. You should now be left with some fresh, clean, wet keys. Mine looked like this;
When they're all clean, take them out and place them all on a towel. Rub them around a bit to get rid of any major water sitting in the keys, and leave them out to dry. It shouldn't take too long, but you can accellerate the process by using a hairdryer to evaporate any excess water.
Now all you have left to do is put the keyboard back together again. If you can't remember where all the keys go, just look at my pictures on here, or Google the make and model of your own keyboard (it should be on the back somewhere). Look at pictures, work it out
Here's what the finished product should look like - nice and clean! Most importantly, it's free from dust, tobacco, pubic hairs and other detritus which may have accumulated over the years. I went over my keyboard with some office-cleaner just to finish the job, and it actually turned out really well.
So there you have it - a step by step guide to cleaning a computer keyboard. Any questions? Feel free to contact me.
Comments
However, the optical mouse became common and so people did not have to clean them. Another pathway of failure for humanity.
You're very welcome. The best thing about this method is that it doesn't take very long at all, and it allows you to get into the underneath of your keys and vacuum out all the garbage in there too. It also teaches you where the keys go on a keyboard
LOL, I bet that took a long time. Pretty good method though, although maybe you should have taken all the keys off and bathed them in rubbing alcohol instead of toweling them individually. Whatever works for you I guess