Your got a new gadget, why not take care of it.
Instead of making New Year's resolutions you can't possibly keep like going to the gym every day, why not make one you can keep like cleaning up your dirty, filthy gadgets? All of them.
Yeah, we know cleaning all the machines that run our comfortably chill lives is a chore and requires time and work, but they need love, too, if you want to them to live long and prosper (sorry I had to do it).
Here are the best and simplest ways to clean your gadgets without spending a ton of money.
And remember: Before doing any cleaning, always make sure the devices are powered off. Safety first!
1. Compressed Air
Over time you may find your keyboard gunked up with dust, dirt, lint and all kinds of disgusting debris. The easiest way to remove this stuff from a keyboard and its hard-to-reach into cracks is with a can of compressed air.
Shake a can of compressed air gently and then blast the particles right out with the thin nozzle.
Compressed air is also useful for getting nasty dust out of electronics with lots of vents, like game consoles and PC towers.
2. Use a microfiber wipe
Next time you want to cuddle or bring your phone into bed, maybe don't. Recent studies suggest cellphones are dirtier than toilet seats. Eww, gross!
It makes perfect sense, though. Think about all the things your hands make contact with a day and then think about how many times you touch your phone. Exactly. You're constantly transferring bacteria to your phone.
It's no fun, for sure, but if you just wipe your phone down with a microfiber cloth and a little bit (just a little) of warm water every night, you'll keep the bacteria away.
Microfiber cloths are good for cleaning pretty much all kinds of tech as well. Use the same warm water and wipe technique to clean your TV, set-top boxes, computer, tablets, remotes, etc.
Pro tip: Always apply the warm water to the microfiber cloth and never on the gadget itself.
3. Use a fine toothbrush or regular brush
You don't need to spend money on compressed air to blast out the "ick" from your gadgets.
An old toothbrush or a fine brush (like an old makeup brush) will work just fine to remove dust. It'll just require more manual brushing and a cloth or paper towel to wipe off the removed particles afterwards.
4. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are great for cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, but they're also a godsend for removing tough residue that may have built up on, say, your laptop palm rest or the lid over time.
The secret to using a magic eraser to make your gadget gleam again is to use it gently because it is abrasive and can create scratches. Wet an eraser, wring out the water, and gently rub out the residue on your device. Use a slow circular motion for best results.
5. Q-tips and pipe cleaners
For small holes and ports where a toothbrush and compressed air can't get into, try using a Q-tip, toothpick with a little piece of tissue wrapped around its tip or a pipe cleaner to get in and swab out the grime.
This is useful for cleaning ports like Micro USB and Lightning ports that don't seem to charge properly because the contacts are filthy, and headphone jacks that keep creating static in your headphones.
It may help to add a little bit of isopropyl alcohol to the tip to really get any debris out, like the earwax that refuses to unstick from your earbuds.
6. Use a lint roller
I saw this tip on PopSugar a while back and it's ingenious. To clean a speaker with a soft cover, roll a lint roller over it and it'll pick up all the hairs and other nasty particles that may have built up on it. If your speakers sounded muffled before because of the dust, they shouldn't anymore.
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