When I figured out how to clean a keyboard with a post-it, it was like some sort of divine organizational intervention. I've mentioned a time or two that I work from home and tote my trusty laptop along pretty much everywhere. I may have also told you all that I'm pretty much obsessed with post-its.
Post-it, meet laptop. Laptop, post-it.
How to Clean a Keyboard: Dust Collection, in-depth Scrub
Since I work at home while simultaneously juggling three little kids, my laptop keyboard is subject to ALL sorts of exploration from grubby hands. Between milk droplets and muffin remnants and outright toddler sneeze attacks, it gets dirty pretty quick!
The traditional method I was using for cleaning a keyboard involved a can of air being blown in-between the keys, followed by a swab with a q-tip dipped in a bit of rubbing alcohol. Since I only use a small amount and rubbing alcohol is highly-evaporative, it won't drip down and destroy the electric components. I still do this on occasion, but I've found that I can go a lot longer between “scrubbing” if I just use the post-it trick every time my laptop starts to seem a little crumby.
Take a fresh post-it and run it in between the seams of the keys. The sticky part will pick up all sorts of particles that have settled down in there. Depending on how long it's been since a cleaning – and how dirty your environment is – you may be able to get through the whole keyboard with just one, or you could be yanking several notes off your pad. In any case, it's good to get that stuff up before it settles in underneath the keys!
Did you know how to clean a keyboard with a post-it? Got any other office hacks?