How do you clean dirty charging cables and keyboard?

Have an external keyboard and there is ton of dust from usage. Also lot of food crumbs as well since I eat while I use it.


The other thing is I have cables that I use to charge my iPhones. The issue is my several times the cables fell on the floor... my floor is frequently dirty... but even if it isn't, well my cables have touched the floor. So imagine those cables you use to connect your iPhone to a surge protector or ups to charge it.


Can you put alcohol on tissue or bounty paper and then clean it? I'm a germaphobe so when something is dirty and I have to touch it, I would get a paper towel to touch or grab the item etc. So I want to disinfect my cables... these cables I use to charge my iPhones.

I use the sponge with a lot of foam about once a week, but I would not recommend it, I have already drowned/destroyed 3 keyboards like this, thus I prefer waterproof or membrane keyboards now, those are more resilient against water and spills. Alcohol is perfectly fine, you just have to let it dry completely, I do not use it, because it would be too expensive, wipes are not good enough for deep cleaning.

Use baby wipes or disinfectant wipes.

Tablet wipes I use to clean everything computer related

I use a cotton cloth with either alcohol or windows cleaning liquid. I wrap the wet cloth around the cable, hold it tight and slowly pass it from edge to edge. Just make sure you use an old cloth you don't mind ruining.

newmann said:

Can you put alcohol on tissue or bounty paper and then clean it?

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I use a clean cotton cloth with 70% isoprolol alcohol for keyboard and cables. Just a small amount.

On the iphone periodically use a paper clip to clean the charging port being very careful to just go on the outside with no liquid.

You can use paper towel but it is not very easy as the paper becomes soggy and tears, while you can hold the cotton cloth as hard as you like without it being torn. You can then wash the cloth for reuse.

For dusting in such a way that all the dust particles don't easily get airborne, in lieu of a moist (not soaked) microfiber towel you can use this:
It is completely dry, yet the dust still clings to it strongly enough that I don't have to breathe in so much dust while wiping. Else I have to take my stuff that's covered with dust and gently carry it outside the house before I wipe the dust. (Either that or carefully swipe in the direction of the vacuum cleaner with a brush, whichever method is more convenient to do.)

I grew a habit out of not spilling anything onto my keyboard. I always just move my Logitech K800 Wireless Illuminated keyboard out of the way first. I almost never have to pry off the key caps, as I don't let any grit/crumbs crawl underneath the keys. To wipe dust from between the keys I use a cheap, round tip watercolor brush with synthetic filaments (size 40 = 3/4 inch) that looks like this:



Plastic cables are easy to clean with a moist (again, not soaked...) microfiber towel. I just add a few drops of scent-free washing emulsion to the water, and then I make sure not to wring out the microfiber towel so forcibly that it gets torn.

The wet cloth is to remove dirt from the cables, not just dust. That's why I said to wet it with alcohol or windows cleaning liquid.

This is only the 2nd cleaning in 10 years of use...

Well I'm not a fan of using a cloth because if I do that... then I wash it and I reuse it again. So it's like washing a dirty iPhone charging cable and then washing it and then using it on say another iPhone charging cable or keyboard. I'm a germaphobe so this would bother me. Any issue with using bounty or toilet paper with 70% alcohol or not?


Someone suggested tablet wipes. So any would work? I use those on monitor screen. Can you use that on an iPhone screen? But it doesn't disinfect nasty charging cables right? Like imagine your iPhone charging cable has been dropped on the floor and the floor is really dirty and say it even had poop on the floor and you didn't clean the floor fully well... knowing poop touched your charging cable. Would anyone here just buy new charging cables or is disinfecting it good enough? Is it crazy to buy new charging cables because of this reason for the iPhone? Would need 2 new charging cables.


When another poster mentioned baby wipes, can you give me the name of it? Also you say disinfectant wipes... which ones exactly? You mean like wet ones? Would those disinfect it or not? What about walfort wipes? What about clorox wipes? What about Lysol wipes? I have used clorox wipes on my iPhone screen before with no issue. It even shows in the picture that you can use it on electronic screens. But I also read Lysol is actually better than Clorox wipes?


Now if you take a Clorox or Lysol wipe and just wipe clean your iPhone charging cables, is that more than good enough disinfecting it?


Also... you should not ever wipe or put any alcohol on the charging cable USB connector head ever right? As that would cause damage whether it's alcohol, wet ones, walfort wipes, Clorox wipes or Lysol wipes? Or it's fine as long as you wipe it or clean it and let it dry? Or should you just immediately take a bounty or toilet paper and wipe it immediately afterwards?

I don't use iPhone charging cables. (I am an iPhobe...)

I would scan or photograph the keyboard in case you drop all the keys, then take it apart, give it a good shake or vacuum. This is the only way to get all the toast crumbs out!
Keyboards are pretty cheap now, unless it's a special gaming board. Just bin it and get a new one from Amazon.

You can use a very old t-shirt or underwear with alcohol, thoroughly clean the cables and then discard of it. The alcohol not only cleans them and make them look like new, but also disinfects them. To clean a keyboard you can take a photo as suggested, remove all keys, clean them with alcohol or even wash them. Then make sure they are thoroughly dry and put them back. There is a catch though, the large keys namely SPACE and ENTER are hard to put them back as there is a little metal wire involved that is hard to clip into place. I would avoid getting these ones out, I would only get out the rest. Also if the keyboard is too old most keys may have faded and difficult to read, so it might be best to just buy a new one. Especially if this in just a typical non-gaming keyboard.

newmann said:

Also... you should not ever wipe or put any alcohol on the charging cable USB connector head ever right?

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You can use Isopropyl Alcohol on anything, as long as you let it dry. (It dries very fast)
Just make sure the Isopropyl is 90% or higher. You can get it at any drug store.

Isopropyl Alcohol can leave white marks on clear plastics and can take the shine off opaque plastics. Test a small area first. I find gin or vodka safer.

kelper said:

Isopropyl Alcohol can leave white marks on clear plastics and can take the shine off opaque plastics. Test a small area first. I find gin or vodka safer.

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Not if you drink it first.

You can buy contact cleaner. As for cable sleeves, warm soapy water. Keyboards, a can of air or compressor, the outside of the keyboard, again, dampen a cloth with warm soapy water.
Back in the day, old keyboards I used to rinse with warm water, stand on their edge and let dry

antspants said:

Back in the day, old keyboards I used to rinse with warm water, stand on their edge and let dry

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Great idea, but unplug them first! You could probably put them in the dishwasher when she's out!

I had once attempted to take out the keys of my keyboard and clean them, it was rather tedious only to be dirty again in a matter of days. Not worth the effort. There are some special keyboard cleaning kits that have a sawtooth like sponge and liquid. The teeth of the sponge go between the keys and clean them. This is of course if the keys have standard volume. If they are too flat like on a laptop you hardly need the special sponge. You could use a cotton cloth instead.

One thing is for certain, newmann is going to need a desk first.