How to clean and disinfect your smartphone, keyboard, controller, headphones or mouse?

Here are some tips for cleaning and disinfecting your smartphone screen, headphones, gamepad, touchscreen tablet, keyboard or mouse.

Our smartphones, keyboards, controllers, headphones and mice are breeding grounds for bacteria and viruses. It is therefore important to clean and disinfect them regularly to avoid any risk of contamination. Here are some tips for doing it effectively.

Cleaning and disinfecting a gamepad, keyboard or mouse

You should already be cleaning and disinfecting your keyboardin addition to being a breeding ground for microbes, dust and dirt can have an impact on its performance and reliability.

Here are the steps to follow to properly clean and disinfect a keyboard:

1. If your keyboard is wired, unplug it (USB port), if it’s a laptop keyboard or a wireless keyboard… turn everything off!
2. Turn the keyboard upside down to drop the dirt, you can tap it gently and shake it. For a laptop, we advise you to hold the screen (open) with your second hand;
3. Then use a bottle of compressed air to blow away the debris, it’s less than 10 euros on Amazon;
4. Dip a cotton swab in a littleisopropanolyou will find some on Amazon, pass the cotton swab between the keys;
5. Then rub the keyboard with a cloth soaked in isopropanol (a cotton pad also works), you can then use a microfiber cloth to remove the isopropanol. If you don’t have isopropanol, you can use an antiseptic wipe.

For information, isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol) is an alcohol used for disinfection, but also as an antiseptic. Be careful though, this chemical compound is flammable and irritating. It must be kept away from heat and any flame. We also do not recommend breathing it, it causes headaches and dizziness.

For your mouse or gamepad, use an antiseptic wipe or a cloth soaked in isopropanol, after unplugging it of course. Gently pass the wipe or cloth over the whole thing. You can then wipe it with a microfiber cloth or a simple clean tissue.

Clean and disinfect a smartphone or tablet

The smartphone is a breeding ground for bacteria. Studies have concluded that there are more bacteria on its screen than on a subway bar or a toilet bowl… However, you touch your smartphone on average every 10 minutes. This is the problem with all touch screens, especially screens on public machines like ATMs. Fortunately, if you can’t disinfect everything, you can disinfect your smartphone.

1. To avoid scratching the screen of your smartphone, you will have to be careful!
2. We do not recommend using a window cleaner, a household detergent, compressed air, an aerosol, a solvent, ammonia or an abrasive product or one containing hydrogen peroxide (peroxide) to clean your smartphone or tablet. Touchscreens are often protected by an oleophobic coating. If you handle it incorrectly, you risk damaging this very useful coating;
3. Unplug everything and turn off your smartphone or tablet;
4. Wash your hands ;
5. Depending on your smartphone, you can use an antiseptic wipe or a cloth soaked in isopropanol. You can also use an alcohol-based gel on a clean sheet of paper towel;
6. Finally, wipe with a microfiber cloth in small circles. To wash the microfiber cloth, soak it in warm water with soap. Hot water is used to open the fibers and release the dirt contained in the microfibers. Do not wash your screen until the cloth is completely dry (or slightly damp) to the touch.

To avoid scratching or damaging it, you can also simply use a microfiber cloth. Unlike paper-based towels, microfiber cloths gently clean the sensitive screen of your smartphone or tablet without the risk of scratching it.

Please note that Corning’s Gorilla Glass coating which equips practically all high-end smartphones is a mineral glass, a glass tempered with alkali-alumino-silicates. You can clean it with any household product without risk. However, some manufacturers advise against the solutions mentioned above. If you have a screen protector, you can use an antiseptic wipe.

To go further, know that you can also disinfect your smartphone using UV (ultraviolet) radiation. A unique feature of UV light is its range of specific wavelengths, between 200 and 300 nanometers (billionths of a meter), which are considered germicidal, meaning they have the ability to inactivate micro- organisms such as bacteria, viruses and protozoa. There is a specific product for smartphones called PhoneSoap… but it costs a fortune.

Disinfect and clean earphones or headphones

We also advise you to disinfect your AirPods, true wireless headphones and other headphones. To do this, use a cotton swab soaked in isopropanol or an alcohol-based gel. A microfiber cloth will then come in handy for the exterior and charging case, while the cotton swab works well for cleaning the speaker grills. You can also use a toothpick to dislodge some residue.

As advised above, do not use water, sprays, solvents or abrasives.

Where to find microfiber cloths?

We simply recommend the AmazonBasics microfiber cloths, which you can buy in packs of six, twelve or twenty-four.

Bad advice not to follow

Let’s end with some bad advice

that you absolutely must avoid following:

• Don’t spit on your screen to clean it, you will dirty it even more;
• Do not press too hard on your screen, you risk damaging it;
• Do not use a paper towel or tissue paper. These contain wood fibers which can damage your screen;
• Avoid spraying water directly on the screen (e.g. under the water tap), even if your smartphone is water resistant (it is not resistant to water pressure);
• Again: do not use abrasive products.

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