All purpose gentle surface cleaner + good paper towels on most surfaces, including my mouse and a light brush over keycap surface. It's usually dust accumulating, so using a damp surface to collect it helps. I soak keycaps in unscented detergent every month or two, depending on when it seems like they get dirty enough. Mostly if there are particles of stuff on the desk they get brushed to the floor during cleaning, and I vacuum regularly.
That said, how dirty a desk (or any surface) gets is a function of 2 things, in my experience (as I clean 2 desks: mine and my significant other's):
1. do you eat at your desk? If you do, you probably will have a lot of food residue everywhere, unless you are very careful to not touch anything while you eat, and then take your plate away as soon as you're done. If this is the case, practice not eating at your desk or else don't touch anything on the desk while you eat and not until you wash your hands.
2. dust at home. In my previous 2 places, there was SO much dust to deal with, it was always a losing battle. One was from living next to a busy road with cars driving by all the time, and the other was from having a lot of old exposed brick walls with old mortar crumbling in fine powder over time (sealing the walls in clear protection coating helped somewhat for a while). Regular vacuuming helps somewhat.
Clean my desk and boards with a datavac. I need a reliable and quick way to clean keycaps. any recommendations? Ive been using a few drops of dish soap in a ziplock with water, then lay them out and use data vac to dry. but the thing is, for really grimy caps it doesn't do the job. Cleaning a set of og model m caps and stems that have thirty years of food, bodily fluids, and dust with a toothbrush isn't my idea of fun. :confused:
Clean my desk and boards with a datavac. I need a reliable and quick way to clean keycaps. any recommendations? Ive been using a few drops of dish soap in a ziplock with water, then lay them out and use data vac to dry. but the thing is, for really grimy caps it doesn't do the job. Cleaning a set of og model m caps and stems that have thirty years of food, bodily fluids, and dust with a toothbrush isn't my idea of fun. :confused:Datavac family represent! :p I love my Datavac, saved me so much money from buying cans of compressed air. :-* Anyways, denture tabs is a good way to clean caps, but not sure how well they would work on old model M caps that have been crusted on for years & years. Photoelectric's & Rayoui's suggestion sound like good ones for them. Although I suspect if they are that bad you're probably gonna have to get your hands dirty & scrub them with a soft toothbrush regardless of the cleaning method used. Also retobrighting is a great way to get them back to their original coloring, but you'd have to do the case as well so the caps don't look super out of place if you do that.
You could try one of those inexpensive ultrasonic cleaners you can pick up on Amazon.
(Attachment Link)But then horsehair would get all up in the keys! What you need is a paintbrush OR even better, hear me out; a silicon brush. Has to be thin though.
...Thank me later