How do you keep your keyboards non-sticky?
Hi. I work from my tiny studio and I only have one table for eating and for the computer.
Might be a very silly question but: I'm usually too lazy to put the external keyboard away when I'm having lunch and so the keys eventually get sticky with oil from the food and whatnot. Is there some way to clean them? Is there a type of keyboard that would be easier to clean?
The spacebar and the ctrl / shift keys in particular are the ones to get sticky first.
I understand that one solution would be to just put it away while eating -- and maybe that's the best solution? But maybe there are alternatives?
Thanks in advance.
Edit: Thank you again to everyone for taking the time helping me with my silly problem. Especially to the ones who tried their best not to be judgmental. :)
Aside from all of the other answers here, you can also avoid touching the food with your hands.
I have chopsticks at the office specifically for eating cheetoes and potato chips to avoid getting my hands (and by extension the keyboard) dirty. I have converted several coworkers to this strategy.
Every year on my birthday, I get a giant tub of cheese balls. I have found that the ideal implement is actually a bamboo skewer because you can spear the cheese balls more easily than trying to grab then with chopsticks. Plus I can tape a straw (with one end folded) to the side of the tub and use it as a holster for my skewer.
I think Cheetos and chips are probably best dealt with using chopsticks, but every year when I plow through those cheese balls skewering away, I feel like I am living my best life.
Using chopsticks for finger food is a pro-level hack. I do it all the time. They're particularly great for popcorn. Also nachos.
Yep, do this with little glass snack bowls and chopsticks on the odd occasion I eat at my home office desk. Works great.
You said it: Just don't eat by the keyboard. Maybe a wireless keyboard would be easier to manage and put away during lunch? :)
I can't speak for non mechanical keyboards but you can remove keys from a mechanical keyboard and clean all components more easily than for a flat keyboard
+1 on maybe just not eating, i'll add maybe getting a split keyboard to make it easier to put away lol.
I don’t think it necessarily has to be “not eating with the keyboard nearby” – what sometimes works for me in the situation is to stringently get up and wash the hands first, and only then use the keyboard again. This keeps it clean as well, without the need of moving anything around.
that's true! wet wipes or hand sanitizer at the desk would proably work too!
Wash your hands before you start typing again after eating. To help with that you can always keep some wet wipes, or hand sanitizer next to your computer. Although even keeping my hands clean, my mouse tends to get pretty gross pretty quickly (I regret buying a white mouse!), so I keep some alcohol wipes handy too, and use those whenever I need to clean the oil and dead-skin gunk off it.
As for the best way to clean your peripherals, rubbing alcohol + cotton pads and Q-tips is the way I usually do it. And I also use compressed air cans to blow the junk out from under the keys, and out of any tight spots and grooves.
Maybe just have a plastic mat to put between the plate and keyboard sitting nearby. Make it a habit to place the mat before you place your plate.
Thanks! I guess prevention is really better than cure!
Yw! Also for any finger foods, keep hand sanitizer and paper towels (or a fan will dry them quickly, too) plus a trashcan nearby to clean up afterward.
It just amazes me how people will do stuff with their hands, that gets residue (or dirt, oil, anything really) on their hands, and then handle their (keyboards, phones, mice, remotes, anything) with those contaminated hands.
I consider my hands busy if I'm using them for stuff like that. Dirty. If I'm eating, and handle the food directly (not with a utensil), I don't touch other stuff with my hands. Period. I'll eat, then wash up, then my hands are available again.
When I eat at my desk, the keyboard gets moved aside. I will cover the mouse with a tissue or napkin so I can click a little (like when reading through threads, or watching a vid), but even then if something really messy is involved I still won't touch the mouse at all. When the meal doesn't need both hands to manage the food, only one hand will be involved, so the other stays clean and I can not get shit all over my stuff.
But hey, you do you. You did ask though, and the way to keep your stuff clean is to ... not touch your stuff when your hands aren't clean. Or ... invest in cleaning supplies and I guess cleaning things after each meal becomes part of the routine. Rubbing alcohol works decently until you get heavy grease involved.
Just as a related aside, there's a scene in Air where Damon and Bateman's characters are having a conversation in the restroom. While Bateman is in a toilet stall, presumably using the stall for what you use it for. He comes out and buckles his belt, okay you do that and it's a little gross but shit happens.
But then he runs the fingers from both hands through his hair before he washes his hands. He was just in there, presumably wiping his ass. Sure paper (hopefully) was between fingers and ass, but ... touching your face, hair, anything you don't absolutely have to ... before you wash? Gross.
Wash my hands frequently. Clean my keyboard regularly.
If you really need keyboard contact during your eating, get another keyboard just for that. There are washable silicone keyboards. Use that until you can get your hands clean, then clean that keyboard at the same time. Your (presumably) nicer keyboard stays in good shape.
Get a mechanical keyboard where the keys are mounted on a flat surface. Mechanical keyboards generally allow for easy taking off of the keys and if you get one where keys are not in some sort of lowered bed it allows for very easy cleaning of the surface under it.
So not this: https://imgur.com/q6GsMt5
But more like this (as a bonus this is how I imagine your keyboard looks like ;) ): https://imgur.com/a/isEsQ9C
Anyway, to the people that just say to put the keyboard away... I invite you to take a look under your keys anyway. Keyboards simply aren't clean devices even if you don't have food around them and you want to clean them on a semi regular basis.
I have white keys on my mechanical keyboard and can see a forest of hair under the keys.
Are you talking about the surfaces of the keys gaining a sticky texture, or are you talking about the keys sticking and messing up what you type?
For the former, I stand with @helgso about not eating by the keyboard. If you must, there are some keyboards you can buy with a silicone cover that you can type on. It should be slightly more resistant to things sticking to it, and can be removed for cleaning.
For the latter, that's a sign of a cheap poorly manufactured keyboard, so I'd simply invest in a nicer one.
The keys sometimes get stuck pressed down. Is that the first case or the last case?
That’s the second case.
I've never tried this, but: Maybe just tear off a moderate length of plastic wrap (i.e. the kind used for food), and lay it across the keyboard during eating+computing sessions? Keep it as long as you are comfortable with before disposing and applying fresh wrap.
The patient told the doctor "I don't know why, but it hurts like hell every time I touch my nose. Can you help me?".
"Yes", said the doctor. "Don't touch your nose".
You can throw a cloth over your keyboard by the way. You won’t be able to type on it but food particles aren’t going to get on it during that time. Something like a pillow case.
I hesitate to suggest it here, but one possible solution is keyboard cleaning gel.
There's a certain irreducible amount of cat hair that comes with being owned by the little beasts. Though vacuuming and air dusting help, nothing messes with a mechanical keyboard like a tightly wedged accumulation of pet hair. Keyboard goo pulls it right out, and the solvent base generally cleans up any fingerprint oils in the process.
What the manufacturers don't tell you is that the cleaning gel is a use-once product. Once dirty, the goo will lose cohesion and turn to a messy liquid when stored.