I would like to declare today Clean Your Mouse Day. My fellow Dopers, take a few minutes to give your mouse a good cleaning! I am speaking of your computer mouse, but if you have pet mice you may clean them as well. Please be gentle.
I just cleaned mine this morning, and was it ever filthy. I’ve got one of those trackball dealies that was billed as never needing cleaning, but that’s a lie. It doesn’t need cleaning often, but after I borrowed a screwdriver from my neighbor and got the stupid thing open I discovered that over a year in my school’s infamously dusty dorms had made the inside of the poor thing look like the Sahara. I was astounded by how much gunk was in there. But now my cursor responds to the slightest touch.
If you use one of them old fashioned mice with the little ball in it. Do youreself and or your tech a favor. Dump the cloth covered mouse pad. Thats where all that fuzzy stuff you find wrapped around the rollers comes from. Get one of the plastic or rubber mouse pad, or switch to optical.
It’s so cool when you nudge off a little piece with tweezers, and then you slowly pull off the flattened crud in one long intact piece. Very satisfying for some reason.
Hubby cleaned ours last week. I love my track ball mouse, and curse my dad who won’t switch.
I told him if my husband could use one being left handed so could he!
While hubby was cleaning ours, our youngest (4) daughter brought in hers (our old one) and had him clean that one also.
Then she and her imaginary friend sat in her room for hours with the old mouse and an old keyboard in front of her little tv and played computer.
See, sometimes the heathens do cute stuff that makes me not want to keep them locked in a closet forever.
First unplug your mouse from the computer. Then open the mouse up. If you have a regular mouse, you can twist or pop off the ring around the rollerball on the bottom. If it’s a trackball like mine, you’ll probably have to get a screwdriver and unscrew the whole bottom section.
If your mouse is really filthy like mine was, a whole bunch of gunk will fall right out as soon as you get it open. You can then use your fingernail, a toothpick, and a tissue to clean out the rest of the gunk. If you have a regular mouse, make sure to clean away the rings of gunk that have likely formed around the metal rods.
I have heard that if things are really bad you may need to wipe your mouse clean with a mild soap solution (let it dry before reassembling), but I’ve never needed to do that. There are also commercial mouse-cleaning kits available, but I suspect they are a waste of money.
