While most PC and Mac users recognize that keeping their computers and peripherals clean are a top priority, the mousepad is something that’s often neglected. Learning how to clean a mousepad isn’t difficult, but anything worth doing is worth doing right. We’ll teach you how to clean a mousepad in a way that will keep everything spotless without doing any permanent harm to the mousepad. This how to guide should fulfill your needs regardless of the design or age of your mousepad.
Hand Washing
If you’re worried about the long term structural integrity of your mousepad, you might consider washing it by hand. Fortunately, you can clean your mousepad this way without devoting a significant amount of time to the process. And you don’t need to get a lot of materials either. A damp cloth, some warm water, and dish soap should be enough to complete the cleaning process.
First off, you’ll need to determine how badly your mousepad is damaged so you can more efficiently know how to clean mouse pad. If there’s just a little bit of dust or light stains, you can probably clean it off with some hot water and a damp sponge or cloth. Just rub down the surface vigorously to remove any stray detritus or stains. A rubber mouse pad can usually be cleaned with a decent rubdown with a towel, but a cloth fabric mousepad may require more serious work with a towel, especially if there’s grease built up.
If your mouse pad is seriously dirty, you may have to get a bit more in depth. The answer here is to use your sink to clean your mousepad. However, this method isn’t especially difficult either and can be accomplished in significantly less than an hour. Simply fill your sink with water. Warm or hot water with dish or hand soap is the best option to employhere, and the longer you soak it, the easier it will be to clean off more difficult stains.
Once you’ve set your mousepad soaking for a decent amount of time, all you have to do is scrub it down. You can try either a cloth or a sponge for equally effective results, but regardless of what you use to scrub your mousepad, you’ll want to make sure you thoroughly rinse off the soap suds with a damp cloth afterwards. The last thing you need is a soapy mousepad having a major effect on your gaming experience.
Machine Washing
If you don’t have the patience to wash your mousepad by hand, or you simply don’t want to expend the elbow grease, the most effective process for how to clean mousepads could be the washing machine. For the most part, you can just toss your mousepad straight into the machine without wiping it down first, but you shouldbe somewhat careful of the material used in it.
Rubber and silicone materials can melt in the wash, so you’ll want to make sure you put it on cold settings so it doesn’t overheat. Don’t worry too much here. The tumble settings should counteract any disadvantages that come from not using hot water. Machine washing is potentially the best way to clean a mousepad, as long as you keep in mind the potential dangers involved and make use of lighter wash settings.
Drying
You shouldn’t use your machine dryer to dry your mousepad for the same reason you shouldn’t use hot machine wash settings: it can cause components of your mousepad to melt or shrink. For that reason, we recommend that you air dry your mousepad. Setting a mousepad out to air dry will take a bit of time, but you should have a clean pad it in about 24 or 36 hours.
If you want to dry your mouse pad more quickly, your best option may be to get a hair dryer and use that for drying your mouse pad. Just be sure to not overexpose it to the concentrated heat, as that can cause pieces of your mouse pad to shrink or melt.
Can You Wash a Mousepad in the Washing Machine?
You absolutely can, but you need to be cautious about letting your mouse pad get too hot. We walk you through the specifics of washing a pad in the washing machine above.
How Often Should You Clean Your Mousepad?
That depends on how often you use your computer mousepad, but if you use it regularly, we generally recommend washing it every couple of weeks. Really, just check it on a regular basis and wash it when it starts to acquire stains or dust.
How Do You Clean Anime Mouse Pads?
Cleaning an anime mouse pad is exactly the same as cleaning any other type of mouse pad. You can use either of the methods above, but we recommend that you use gentle dish soap to keep the anime print looking great and like new.
In Conclusion
There’s no question that a mouse pad is one of the most important computer accessories that your computer can have, but the cleaning process is fortunately pretty simple. You can get your mousepad looking like new in just a few hours if you just try the steps we have outlined above.
