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Home · Homekeeping · Cleaning · Get The Gunk Out Of Your Gadgets!

32

Get The Gunk Out Of Your Gadgets!

Jill Nystul  ·  February 25, 2014

Cleaning Your Electronics

With as much as we use our electronic devices these days, it is more imperative than ever that we keep them clean! Our electronics can easily become breeding grounds for germs and bacteria if we’re not careful. Start by identifying which electronic devices you use most often, and then aim to clean each of those thoroughly once a week. An even better practice is to give them a quick wipe-down every day!

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Today I’m going to walk you through the steps to getting those electronics germ-free and sparkly!

Cleaning Your Electronics

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Laptops

To clean your laptop, you’ll want to get a can of compressed air. You can find these at any office supply store. They’re incredibly useful for helping to blast dust and dirt out of the areas they like to hide, such as the keyboard, your ports, and the air vents. Make sure to give these areas a few good passes with your compressed air.

Cleaning Your Electronics

Next, give your keyboard and trackpad a good wipe-down. I recommend using something alcohol-based for cleaning all your electronics, because it will eliminate bacteria and it dries quickly. I used some lens-cleaning wipes and electronic cleaning wipes interchangeably throughout my cleaning because they were handy, but if you’ve got some rubbing alcohol lying around, just use a bit of that on a paper towel and you’ll get the same effect. If you’ve got a lot of gunk between the keys, try dipping a q-tip in alcohol and running it between and around your keys.

Cleaning Your Electronics

Now it’s time to tackle that screen. I wiped it down first with a lens-cleaning wipe (the electronic cleaning wipes or alcohol would work just as well), and then I gave it a second go-over with a microfiber lens-cleaning cloth. If you don’t already have a lens-cleaning cloth in your home, I would highly recommend picking one up. Alcohol-based wipes are perfect for getting grimy messes and fingerprints off your electronics, but they can often leave tracks of their own. So I like to use a two-part system for screens, alcohol then microfiber cloth, to make sure that my screens are super clean and shiny.

Cleaning Your Electronics

After the screen is clean, take a look at your ports. Pretty dusty and a bit grimy, like mine? Go over them with your compressed air, and then use your alcohol wipes to get the grimy stuff out.

Cleaning Your Electronics

I snapped one end off a q-tip and wrapped an alcohol wipe around it in order to clean my power port. Obviously, I wouldn’t recommend shoving a q-tip deep into the ports, but some shallow cleaning is fine. :-)

Cleaning Your Electronics

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Tablets & Smartphones

Once my laptop was clean, I moved onto my tablet. One word for tablets: SMEARS. Smear-y fingerprints everywhere! Never fear, a screen-cleaning wipe will make short work of them.

Cleaning Your Electronics

After blasting the headphone jack and plug port with compressed air, wipe them down with your trusty lens-cleaning cloth. Easy!

I did the same process on my phone that I did on the tablet. Although I didn’t take any pictures of it, I also made sure to clean my phone CASE, inside and outside, with alcohol wipes. There’s no point in putting a dirty case back onto your clean phone!

Cleaning Your Electronics

Desktops

That takes care of mobile devices, but what about desktop computers? The process is essentially the same as for the laptop computer, with the exception of the mouse.

Cleaning Your Electronics

Computer mouses can get pretty gross! Not only does the top get smeary and sticky, but the underside collects dust and grime too. Give it a good wipe with an alcohol wipe, and if you’ve got an optical mouse, give it a blast with the compressed air. If you’ve got a ball mouse, you can remove it to make sure it’s clean all the way around.

Cleaning Your Electronics

Desktop keyboards can take a lot of abuse. If you’re like me your desk often doubles as your “dining table” at lunch time, so crumbs and spills can be a problem. Also, dirty hands over time can cause some serious grimy build-up on the keys. So if wiping your keyboard down with alcohol wipes just isn’t enough, I swear by magic erasers.

Cleaning Your Electronics

Using a little section of a magic eraser will get all the icky ground-in oil and dirt off your keys with minimal effort. You’ll be amazed! A word of caution though: you’ll want to be careful if you’ve got an aluminum keyboard like the one shown here, because you don’t want to scratch it. Keep your magic eraser on the plastic parts as much as possible.

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Cleaning Your Electronics

As for your monitor, just make sure that you’ve wiped it down (alcohol then microfiber!) and that your ports are clean. Done! Your computer will be so happy. :-)

Cleaning Your Electronics

See? It’s not so hard to get your electronics clean and germ-free. And once you’ve done it a few times, it becomes a task that takes only a minute or two to accomplish. Those shiny, germ-free screens will keep you happier and healthier!

I may include affiliate links to products sold by others, but only when they are relevant and helpful. I always offer my own genuine recommendation. Learn more.  
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Hi, I’m Jillee!

I believe we should all love the place we call home and the life we live there. Since 2011, I've been dedicated to making One Good Thing by Jillee a reliable and trustworthy resource for modern homemakers navigating the everyday challenges of running a household. Join me as I share homemaking and lifestyle solutions that make life easier so you can enjoy it more!

Every day I share creative homemaking and lifestyle solutions that make your life easier and more enjoyable!

Read More
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newest oldest most voted
Diane Roark
Diane Roark

Wow! I do need this. Thank you so much for the great tips. I will be using them. I will also pin this for later.

Blessings,
Diane Roark
recipesforourdailybread com

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5 years ago
Ellen
Ellen

Whenever I travel, even if I’m staying in a hotel just for 1 night, I bring either a can of lysol (or my clorox wipes) with me to spray down the phone and remote (among other things). Hotel rooms are notorious for not being cleaned the way they’re supposed to. I carry a canister of the wipes in the car and periodically wipe down the steering wheel and controls, etc, too. They’re also handy for cleaning hands after pumping gas. Thanks for a great post, Jillee!

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5 years ago
jenw
jenw

Glad I’m not the only one! My family makes fun of me, but the first thing I do when I get to a hotel is wipe down all the logical surfaces with antibacterial wipes. The curtain pulls, door handles, light switches, knobs/levers in the bathroom, etc.

And you couldn’t pay me to walk barefoot on a hotel floor either!

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5 years ago
Pretty Florals
Pretty Florals

Eeeeeesk! I just had a look at my laptop and phone and they are gross! Thanks for prompting me to clean :)

http://prettyflorals.co.uk

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5 years ago
Shelley
Shelley

Electronics and phones at work are the absolute worst, especially if you’re “inheriting” your work station!!

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5 years ago
Lisa W.
Lisa W.

One of the computer techs I used to work with said that if you unplug the keyboard you can just wash it off in the shower. I haven’t tried it, but it makes sense.

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5 years ago
Kay
Kay

You used to be able to put the old Mac keyboards (not laptops) in the dishwasher. I don’t know if I would try it with newer ones.

One important note — always make sure your computers are turned off before you start wiping the screen.

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5 years ago
flerbiejean
flerbiejean

My brother has been a systems analyst for 30+ years. He also recommended giving a keyboard a bath, literally. I doubted at first and started with three keyboards in the computer dungeon at work. They had all been identified at non-functional. Two of the three worked after having several days (about 5) to dry out. Obviously, you wouldn’t want to do this with a laptop (HA!), but after that I subversively went around to everyone’s work stations and swapped out usable keyboards (since we all use ergonomic) for their dirty ones. Eventually everyone had a washed keyboard, and we were… Read more »

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5 years ago
CTY
CTY

Question: How can I get one of those OGT cleaning cloths?

If you use a shared computer at work/school use Glad Press n Seal to cover the keyboard. It is not a very green solution but its better than getting the flu. They also sell keyboard skin covers that you can use & I suppose you can sanitize that everyday, but they come in lots of sizes and at my job it probably would have “walked away”.

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5 years ago
Jill Nystul
Jill Nystul

Hey CTY! I’m actually giving away 20 of them on Facebook. Head on over and enter to win one :)

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5 years ago
Rita Montague
Rita Montague

I actually ruined a pair of $500.00 eyeglasses using alcohol which a friend recommended I do because it worked for her. I never did that again even though the gals at the eye doctor’s office said it would be okay. Really? Even with my antireflective coating? No way.

I also ruined the small screen in front of a word processor I was renting, back in the day, by cleaning it with alcohol.

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5 years ago
JenRheault
JenRheault

Am I the only one curious about where the personalized microfiber cloth came from?

I keep a separate laundry bin for all microfiber, since it picks up thread and other stuff from all the other clothes, I wash it all on its own when the bin is full. I clean my house with the big cloths from Sam’s Club/Costco, so I end up with a good amount of them.

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5 years ago
Jill Nystul
Jill Nystul

I actually had those made and I’m giving away 20 of them on Facebook today! https://www.facebook.com/onegoodthingbyjillee

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5 years ago
Ramona Robuck
Ramona Robuck

I open my laptop, turn it upside down & gently shake crumbs out. Not all laptops are as tough as my Toshiba, but I haven’t had a problem with damage. I also use microfiber cloth that came with my eyeglasses to clean the screens and lenses on electronics. No smears or smudges! Thanks Jillee.

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5 years ago
Nena
Nena

Ladies, if you own mac’s, it is best to carefully read the fine print on screen cleaning. I have a very large Apple monitor and I was told expressly by the Apple guys NOT to use wipes with alcohol in them on the screen, a slightly damp with water cloth was allowed but no alcohol, it will ruin the coating on the glass.

Nena

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5 years ago
Sharon
Sharon

The same thing holds true with my Asus touch screen–never use alcohol on the screen it can ruin it and it is a very expensive repair

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5 years ago
Marianne
Marianne

I just aquired an iPad and was told exactly the same thing by all my techie friends…NO cleaning wipes or alchohol in that particular device! However, when I do use the alchohol on my laptop and PC and phones, I use a cotton pad with it. I find that the alchohol just evaporates too quickly from a paper towel

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5 years ago

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Hi, I’m Jillee!

Every day I share creative homemaking and lifestyle solutions that make your life easier and more enjoyable!

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