Your PC or laptop not only needs to be free from viruses and malware but also dust, dirt, and other grime. The practice of keeping your work system clean has a lot of benefits. Above all, your workspace remains clean which radiates positive energy in your working environment. The other advantages of cleaning your working accessories (your PC being the nerve center of them) are as follows…

It hinders the spread of sickness

An unclean and undusted computer monitor and other computer accessories harbor considerable amounts of germs and filth that contaminates the surroundings and catalyzes the spread of illnesses.

It ensures the proper working of your system

When dust and food particles seep underneath the keys of your keyboard, the normal functioning of the hardware is inhibited. A similar logic applies to all other computer peripherals as well!

Tips to clean your computer and other work accessories

Keyboard cleaning

Your keyboard cleaning should essentially include the following steps –

1. Shut down your PC and unplug the keyboard, turn it upside down and shake it carefully. This removes the dust and other dry dirt that’s present in between the keys.
2. Following this, a can of compressed air would work best in shooting out the stubborn dust particles that would not go away otherwise!
3. The top surface of the keys may be cleaned with a moist cloth or paper towel that has been dampened with alcohol. (Beware of any direct application of alcohol to the keys!)

When there’s a liquid spill on your keyboard

As soon as there's a liquid spill on your keyboard, it needs to be disconnected immediately and turned upside down. Be careful, the keyboard needs to be in that position for at least 2 days so there’s no trace of the liquid anywhere anymore. Do not reconnect it unless the liquid drains away completely and you are certain that the peripheral has dried.

When the spilled liquid is sticky, it can be a little tricky! You might have to take the keyboard to a professional repair shop. Getting tempted to reconnect the hardware any time before this period may prove to be dangerous for your system!

Cleaning your optical or mechanical mouse

Cleaning is more necessary when it comes to a mechanical mouse. Accumulated dirt and dust particles make the scrolling of the trackball difficult and the mouse lags behind when smooth pointing is needed.

Your mouse cleaning could be similar to that of your keyboard cleaning process. Unplug your mouse after shutting down the system. The tracking ball of your mechanical mouse needs to be removed (by turning the ball covering counter-clockwise). Both the trackball and the inner parts of the mouse can be cleaned with monitor wipes (that had been moistened with the alcohol).

Don’t forget to dry them out completely before reconnecting.

Monitor-cleaning essentials

Spraying any sort of liquid on the monitor screen is inadmissible. You never know the liquid may seep in through any pore or opening and damage the internal components! Often, cleaning kits for glass surfaces may not work on the non-glass LCD screens.

You need to repeat the same steps as you had applied in the case of the other electrical parts. Turn off the system and unplug it from the power source. Clean the screen using specially designed computer screen wipes.

Cleaning the inside of your PC with the right computer cleaning supplies is an equally important thing to be considered. After unplugging and disconnecting all other peripherals, get hold of a screw-diver. After dismantling, you can use that same can of compressed air to blow out the debris. Touching the inner parts of the machine is pretty unnecessary as your body could dispense a static shock to the internal parts such as the memory or the CPU!