Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Cleaning Beyond the Basics Week 4: Computer Screens

I'm back to Cleaning Beyond the Basics after several life interruptions...

I'm always nervous about cleaning our computer screens. As a result they are really gross! The worst is when I need someone else to use my computer. I feel so bad that it is so yucky.


I have a microfiber cloth that came with a laptop computer, but a) it's filthy and b) it doesn't seem to do much more than dust the top layer of 'uck' off the screen. (I threw it in the washing machine so that it will be more effective for future dusting--note that I don't recommend using fabric softener on it so that it will continue to pick up dust fibers!) It works fine for the rest of the computer, though.

It's difficult to see, but trust me, this screen is covered with gunk. Why I do not know, I don't often eat at the computer. The gunk just builds up!

I recently bought an economy size pack of lens cleaning cloths, which were supposed to be for my perpetually dirty glasses and smart phone--I am a very oily person and need to clean my phone basically every time I use it as a phone. :(

I noticed that the picture includes laptops, so I went ahead and tried them out on the screen. They cleaned the screen safely, and it only took 6 of them to scrape off all the layers! I then repeated the process with two other cloudy household screens. It took a bit of elbow grease, but now you can actually see what's on the screen! Or in the case of this photo, what is reflected in the screen. :)

I'm stowing a few packets of cleaning wipes in my office, purse, and computer bag so that I can keep up with the gunk a little better in the future.

Time Investment: 20 Minutes--lots of rubbing involved to de-gunk the screens
Materials: magic disposable lens cleaning cloths
Payoff: Immediate: I can share my devices with others and not gross people out!

 So far I've washed a door, cleaned ice cream out of a utensil drawer, cleaned my dishwasher gasket, and found a computer screen cleaner. Up next...

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