No More Dirty Words

Does your keyboard look like a hazardous waste site? Of course not, because you are a responsible person that takes care of your possessions, keeping them clean and maintained at all times.

Yeah, right.

Earlier this week, I got a very rare take-out soda on the spur of the moment. I didn't take my own container so it was in a non-recyclable cup with a plastic lid and straw. Shame on me. The next stupid thing I did was to take it into the office. There were papers strewn all over the computer desk because I was working on our taxes. Underneath the papers were a couple of coasters. As I set the soda down, I realized - too late - that it was hanging halfway off a coaster under the papers. It tipped over and spilled a few drops on my keyboard. (Thank goodness the lid didn't come off!) I quickly wiped them up and thought I was in the clear.

No such luck. I noticed later that the N was stickinnnnng. I used a Q-tip (still working from a huge stash bought years ago) and rubbing alcohol to clean the edges. This didn't stop the sticking but I hoped it might get better. All on its own. Yeah, how often does that happen?!

This mornnninnnng, it was worse. NNNNot onnnnly would the key stick annnnnnnd repeat, sometimes it would't come back up ad words would be missig the nnnnn. Quite annnnoying as you might imagine.

Years ago, I worked at a nonprofit that received computer donations from individuals, schools, and governments, usually when such entities were upgrading their entire system. We tested all of the donated equipment. Anything that no longer worked went to a local electronics recycling firm. Anything that did work was cleaned up and either sold in our discount store or donated to needy schools. I learned then that keyboards can be cleaned up pretty easily.

My keyboard is pretty old but I'm not ready to replace it even though some of the keys don't work well all the time. It's an ergonomic design that I just love. I hate spending money on electronic upgrades all the time and I certainly hate creating electronic waste. It was time to deal with this N though before it drove me bonkers.


I used a letter opener and carefully pried up the N from the keyboard so that I could clean any sticky syrup off of it. Holy Cow! There was all kinds of crap underneath it: dirt, dust, lint, and grime. Sigh. It took a while but I popped off all of the other keys so that I could clean up this mess.


I duplicated the position of the keys on the desk so I would be sure to put them back in the right places.


I dug out my mini attachments for the Shop Vac so I could begin cleaning. These little tools are great for getting in small places.


After vacuuming, however, the keyboard was still a mess. I poured some rubbing alcohol in a small bowl and began cleaning the crevices with Q-tips. While I feel bad about the disposable waste involved in this cleaning, it is better than wasting an entire keyboard simply because grime is slowing it down.


Once the keyboard was as clean as it was going to get, I used a rag dipped in the rubbing alcohol to clean the keys before pressing them back into place.

I put everything in the right place, except the up-down arrows inexplicably ended up upside down. That was easy to fix as was the one key that was still a little sticky. See the slightly dirty spot in the middle of the picture above the previous paragraph? Yep, had to go back and clean that better.


The keyboard looks like new, other than worn letters, and works great.


In other cleaning news, this is what happens when I ask my sweetie to put away the laundry.