How Do You Clean/Disinfect Your Laptop?

[jp1]

My keyboards and mouse get filthy quickly. Big globs of dirt are on several of the keys, especially home row. There must be something in the oils my fingers secret or something, because my clarinets always had the same problem when i was in school. I've given up trying to keep my keyboards clean because it would be at least a weekly effort. I imagine that it would be pretty gross to anyone else using my computer though.

My iphone (and ipod before it) though, I clean the screen with rubbing alcohol at least once a week. I can't stand looking at the fingerprints on it. And I've also read that it's one of the germiest thiings that many people touch regularly.

[catherine]

I spent 30 minutes a couple of days ago cleaning my keyboard, because I was in a hotel, and the sun came in the window, and I, too, was grossed out by all the dust, etc. So I happened to have a wet-nap in my pocketbook, a freebee from traveling--and I happened to have a big toothpick (another freebee from the the olives I had on the plane), and I just wrapped the wet-nap around the toothpick and started scraping the crud off and between the keys. It worked great.

On a side note, I am also of the opinion that we are, on the whole, too clean. I noticed that there is a real germ paranoia out in the world--when I was with my clients, I noticed that they often took out a sanitizer from their pocketbooks and wiped down their hands. I also noticed that between my interviews, the facility assistant came in with Clorox wipes and wiped down the table. That never used to happen.

I'm sorry, but I think that's excessive. I am NOT a germphobe--I'm clean, but I'm not a germ freak. And I never get sick (knock on wood). Can't remember the last time I caught a cold. My kids were not raised in an antiseptic bubble, and they are also extremely healthy (knock on wood).

OTOH, I had a friend whose father was a toxicologist, and the way he talked, it was clear that the family had become hypersensitive to germs as a result. Ironically, he had all kinds of allergic reactions, especially during pollen season.

I read a really interesting article once where they used East Berlin and West Berlin as controlled environments for a study on sickness. They found that those who were raised on farms were the least vulnerable to infection, asthma and allergy. Not because of the fresh air, either. They found that those who were raised with pigs roaming the house tended to be the healthiest. I'm not kidding.