7 Reasons You Need to Stop What You’re Doing and Clean Your Filthy Laptop

You could get sick

Much like on doorknobs and light switches, the grime that accumulates on our laptops often goes unnoticed and, therefore, uncleaned. But believe it or not, our grossest habits (think: eating at our desks and forgetting to wash our hands) transfers tons of germs and bacteria to our laptops the minute we put our fingers on the keyboard. As mighty as they are invisible, once those germs are allowed to grow and build up on your computer, they can make you more likely to get sick. In fact, a British study shows that keyboards swabbed at an average London office had more harmful bacteria than a toilet seat. Why? The survey found that most users cleaned their keyboards infrequently (if at all), and cleaned their mouses even less often. Yuck! To keep the germs away, use a soft, damp microfiber cloth to wipe the screen and keyboard at least once every other week.