Cleaning Your Computer

Keeping your computer and computer accessories clean is not only important to their operation, but to your health. One way to ensure that dust and germs stay away from your computer and its accessories is to enclose, organize, and protect them in a computer desk or computer armoire.

Clean Your Computer Keyboard and Mouse
But even with a computer armoire, you still need to take steps to keep your computer clean.

Depending on your environment and who uses your computer, the computer keyboard and mouse can be one of the most effective ways to spread germs. These pieces will also fail to operate properly when they are not kept clean.

Cleaning your computer keyboard will simply require a can of air (which can be found at your local computer hardware store), some long Q-Tips, rubbing alcohol, a clean cloth, and some disinfectant spray.

• Start by using the can of air to spray between the keys to remove dust and debris.
• Next, spray your clean cloth with the disinfectant spray and scrub the entire keyboard and keys to remove dirt stains and kill germs. *Getting the inside of your keyboard wet can possibly damage its operation.
• Finally, wet the ends of the long Q-Tips with rubbing alcohol to clean hard-to-reach spots between the keys, and pop off keys if necessary to clean sticky spots under them.

Rubbing alcohol is used because it dries quickly on contact. If you accidentally spill a liquid into your computer keyboard, quickly turn the keyboard upside down and turn off your computer. It is recommended that you leave the keyboard upside down for at least one night to allow it to dry completely.

To clean a computer mouse, you will simply need a clean cloth and some rubbing alcohol. Gently scrub the mouse surface and buttons to kill germs.

If you own a computer mouse with a ball and it is making odd, jerky moves across the screen, then you probably need to clean the inside because the ball is dirty and is sticking. First, you must remove the bottom cover of the computer mouse by rotating it in the direction of the arrows. Once you remove the cover and the ball, you will be able to see three rollers inside the mouse. Use your fingernail or a Q-Tip to remove any obvious debris from this area, such as hair or lint. Replace the bottom cover.

If you are still having problems, try cleaning your mouse pad to see if the problem lies there. If you cannot solve the problem, it is possible that your mouse has malfunctioned.

Clean Your Computer Monitor
Your computer monitor can become dirty and unreadable. If you have an LCD computer monitor screen, please skip to the paragraph below. For a glass computer screen, simply spray a glass cleaner onto a lint-free cloth and wipe down. Vacuum the vents on your computer monitor to ensure proper ventilation so that overheating will not occur.

If you own an LCD computer monitor, then your screen is not glass. Liquids can create an even streakier screen. If wiping with a dry, lint-free cloth does not work, try using some rubbing alcohol on the cloth. This will evaporate quickly and be less likely to leave streaks.

Clean Your Computer Tower
The best thing that you can do for your computer tower, besides ridding it of dust and germs, is to be sure that the vents are not obstructed. Vacuuming the vents and removing pile-up around your computer tower can help it perform to its maximum abilities. One way to ensure that nothing can pile against your computer tower is to store it in an organizational computer desk or computer armoire.