Dear Lifehacker, What is the best way to clean my mouse pad with the least amount of downtime? It’s one the expensive side ($20+) so I don’t want to ruin it or replace it. Thanks, Ash
Dear Ash,
Most mouse mats are designed to be wipe-friendly. Unless you’re having a picnic on it, it should be relatively easy to remove most stains by combining baby wipes with a hard application of elbow grease.
Baby wipes are designed to gently eradicate sticky, tacky and runny substances (eew) and should also remove most germs at the same time. As an added bonus, they’re not too wet which means you can clean at your desk and go straight back to gaming. Just keep a pack next to your computer desk and the problem is solved.
If any readers have solutions of their own, let Ash know in the comments.
Cheers
Lifehacker
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Comments
5 responses to “Ask LH: What’s The Best Way To Clean A Mouse Pad?”
If your mouse is a laser mouse, forget the mouse mat – it works fine on a flat surface.
If its one that is stitched around the edges I highly recommend just throwing it in the wash. Haven’t tried it with one that just has the top glued to the neoprene, too worried it might come apart. As for downtime just use good old piece of A4 as a placeholder.
I’d have spent the $20 on ten $2 ones and just bin a dirty one every couple of months. Life’s too short to worry about “downtime” of keeping a mouse mat clean, surely?
@pbgala I really need to invest in a decent mouse. I used to have a G9 and it was great but some dick head spilt coke all over it at a local LAN. Also I have a cheap desk it’s wood laminated and my mouse seems really slippery on it.
@stevethepirate that was my first thought just wasn’t sure how well it would hand a wash cycle ,etc. do you use detergents, hot/cold, etc?
@phil i’ve bought many cheapo mouse mat’s from krmat and azn stores ,etc but they just aren’t big enough for me.
They call me Ash…. Nathan Ash… well in this case just Ash 🙂
I have a Steelseries mouse mat that I’ve put in the washing machine many times with no problems.
personally i purchased a mousepad thats metal.. had it for 5 years and never had cleaning issues. gets cold on a winters night is the only issue