How to Clean Dirt Out of a Keyboard

Computer keyboards are dirt magnets. They are one of the few components of a computer that comes into constant physical contact with humans. Dirty fingers can lead to dust and crumbs falling into the cracks in between the keys of your computer's keyboard. Dirty fingers can also lead to blemishes all over individual keys, causing your keyboard to have lingering brown smudges all over the keys. Whether you have a Mac or PC computer, here's how to clean dirt out of a keyboard.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A can of compressed air
• Rubbing alcohol
• Cotton swabs
• A computer keyboard

1. 
    
   Shake your keyboard to clean it out

   The first thing to do is to get out any crumbs and dust that rest inside a keyboard's cracks and crevices. A good way to get a lot of the dirt out of a keyboard is to simply grab your computer's keyboard, turn it upside down, and give it a few good shakes. You will probably see a good amount of crumbs fall out of the keyboard. To prevent from making a mess, hold your keyboard over a trash can as you do this to clean the dirt out of a keyboard.

2. 
    
   Used compressed air to clean dirt out from a keyboard

   To get the rest of the dirt out from under the keys of the keyboard, take a can of compressed air and shoot short, quick bursts of air between the computer keyboard's keys. For the best results in cleaning out the dirt from a keyboard, try tilting it upside down and shooting air up towards it. Remember to be careful when using compressed air - turning the can upside down, or shaking it will cause liquid to come out of the can.

3. Another problem with cleaning dirt out of a keyboard is removing the smudges from individual keys on the keyboard. These smudges can be very stubborn to remove. To remove the dirt from these keys, dip some cotton swabs into rubbing alcohol. Then rub down the individual keyboard keys and the dirt should rub off. Repeat for however many keys you have on your computer's keyboard that have smudges.

[stephybc00]

on 8/27/2009 Thanks for these tips. Keyboards can be a pain when they're dirty.

[sweetpea63]

on 8/26/2009 My keys always stick, thanks for the tip

[luckylindy333]

on 8/21/2009 My son is a computer technician. They put keyboards in the dishwasher to clean them where he works. When the wash cycle is done (don't let it go through the heat dry), turn the keyboard upside down on a towell to finish drying. I did this with one of my home keyboards, and it works! They are all sealed, so water cannot get inside.

[davidomar]

on 8/20/2009 I usually only use small brush to clean dust in the outside part of the keyboard, but it also cleans small parts of the inner side. Nice additional tips though!

[tnpos]

on 8/19/2009 Very helpful tips! Keyboards can sure hold germs! Thank you! 5 and rec!