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Cleaning your keyboard – How to clean your computer keyboard
This guide – Cleaning your keyboard – explains the steps I took to clean my computer keyboard. You can use this guide to clean your keyboard too. It is amazing how with some forethought one can clean a keyboard using the common ingredients available in any household.
Guide to cleaning your keyboard
Here I will explain the steps I took to clean my computer keyboard – that too without spending a penny.
But before I start, here is how my keyboard looked prior to cleaning it.
Keyboard before cleaning
What you will need
- Some mild detergent – Any detergent which you use to wash clothes will do.
- A plastic bag – Preferably with zip lock (but not compulsory) – to wash the keys.
- A piece of white cloth – soft to touch and lint free – to clean the keyboard.
- A flat tip screwdriver – to pry out the keys from the keyboard.
- Another small screwdriver with a cross tip. This one can be used to clean hard to reach corners within the keyboard.
- A small paint brush to dust off all the loose dirt you will find in the keyboard.
What you will need to clean your keyboard
Step 1 : Turn off your computer and detach the keyboard from the computer.
Step 2 : Jot down the position of all the keys on your keyboard on a piece of paper. This helps you later in putting back the keys in it’s right place after the cleaning is over.
My keyboard key positions I jotted down.
Step 3: Use the flatbed screwdriver and gently pry out all the keys from the keyboard.
Gently pry out the keys using the flatbed screwdriver
Warning:Don’t apply too much pressure lest the keys break. Be patient and gentle while prying out the keys.
Don’t be shocked when you see the innards of your keyboard. My keyboard contained copious amounts of hair and bits of paper apart from the grime and dirt – as you can see in the following pictures.
Check out what was inside my keyboard.
Do I see hair and pieces of paper in there ?
Step 4: Using the brush, gently dust the insides of the keyboard so as to remove all the loose grime and dust. You can also overturn the keyboard and shake it so that the loose dust will fall off.
Brush the keyboard to remove loose dust.
This was how my keyboard looked after completion of step 4.
Look at all the dust collected - Truly shocking!
Step 5: Take a little detergent powder and mix enough water in it to make a solution. Now dip a corner of the cloth into the solution and start gently scrubbing the keyboard. Take care that no water seeps into the keyboard itself. Once the keyboard sans the keys is clean, keep it under a fan to remove moisture if any.
Dip the cloth in the solution and remove the dirt from the keyboard.
This is how the keyboard looked after I finished cleaning it.
Step 6: Pour the remaining detergent solution you prepared earlier into the plastic bag and add sufficient water so that the keys will be fully submerged. Now drop all the keys into the plastic bag and closing the zip lock, give them a good shake. Let the keys soak into the solution for 10 minutes.
Keys of the keyboard soaking in detergent solution.
Step 7: After 10 minutes, take out each key and scrub it with the piece of cloth till all the dirt and grime is removed. Do this for all the keys. After this, rinse the keys in running water till all traces of detergent is gone.
Step 8: Dry the keys. If you have good sunlight where you live, you can place them out in the sun to dry.
Dry the keys in sunlight.
Step 9: Replace all the keys on to the keyboard at their exact position. You can refer the keyboard diagram you jotted down in Step 2 to ascertain yourself.
Final image of cleaned keyboard.
Step 10: Hook the keyboard to the computer and your keyboard is ready for use.
Keyboard before and after the cleaning.
It took me 2 hours to clean the keyboard and set it back together. The keyboard works flawlessly as usual but now it is all the more cleaner and looks brand new. I hope you have enjoyed reading Cleaning your keyboard guide I have put together.