How clean is your keyboard?

One of my earlier posts was about the cleanliness of your phone, that’s your mobile rather than the phone on your desk, if you have a desk and still have a phone on it, that is.

If you do still have a desk there’s a good bet that it has a keyboard on it, either a laptop or regular desktop keyboard. I just hope it doesn’t look like this one.

Turn your keyboard upside down and give it a little shake to see what falls out. For a lot of people it’ll be a mix of the following

A very dirty keyboard
  • Dust
  • Dead skin
  • Breakfast
  • Snacks
  • Lunch
  • Sometimes dinner

Grossed out yet? You might be after you read this.

Consumer group Which? tested keyboards at its London office found keyboards regularly carrying bugs that could cause food poisoning

They tested 33 keyboards by taking a swab and sending the swabs of to be biologically tested for bacteria Four of the keyboards (12.2%) were regarded as a potential health hazard whilst one of them actually had five times (yes 5 times) more germs than one of the office’s toilet seats.

Even more disturbingly, tests from a survey carried out by the University of Arizona found that the average desktop actually has 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat and, apparently, women’s desks were worse than men’s.

Chicago’s North-western Memorial Hospital found two deadly drug-resistant types of bacteria (vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)) could survive for up to 24 hours on a keyboard, while another common but less deadly bug (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) could survive for an hour.

One of the microbiologists said “your keyboard was often a reflection of what is in your nose and in your gut”………

How to clean your keyboard

It’s a good idea to give your keyboard a regular spring clean (and not just in the spring). Start off by shutting down your PC. Don’t put it to sleep, or stand-by, you’ll wake it up when you start.

Some keyboards are waterproof – if you are lucky enough to have one of these then just pop it in to the dishwasher……BUT CHECK FIRST

If not but you have access to a can of compressed air, then use that to blow debris out from between the keys. If you don’t have a can of air you can just turn your keyboard upside down and give it a gentle shake to get all the crumbs out.

Now get a cotton bud and dampen it with water or rubbing alcohol and use it to clean between the keys.

You can also use silly putty

Finally, gently wipe your keyboard soft, lightly damped link-free cloth and finally, finish off by disinfecting with alcohol wipes.

Alternatively, you might be able to pop the key-caps off and wash them separately. However, make a note of where the keys go first. I can remember the time when a former colleague decided this was a great way to clean his keyboard so he popped all the key caps off and washed then in a bowl of warm, soapy water. Once clean he left them to dry and then was faced with a lot of little places where the key-caps belonged……..but he didn’t have a clue which ones went where so ended up buying a new keyboard anyway

Suddenly it makes sense to keep a packet of alcohol wipes in your desk drawer

Obviously I can’t help you with the cleanliness of your desk and keyboard but I can help you with the cleanliness of your SEO, Social Media and other forms of digital marketing so if you’d like to talk about your online marketing then just pick up your phone (wipe it first) and give me a call on 01793 238020 or email andy@enterprise-oms.co.uk