Are you having trouble with mouse precision? Is your gaming skills taking a hit because of your mouse? It must be as you can always do basic tasks like copy-paste without a mouse but not gaming. You may need to clean your mousepad to get back in the game.
The mousepad is the most overlooked part of your entire gaming gear. You may have done a thorough cleaning of your keyboard and your mouse, but you’ve forgotten your mousepad. It has been left at the mercy of sweat, grease from the countless bags of chips, snacks, and beverage spills.
Just follow these simple steps, and you’ll again be the proud owner of the best mouse pad with wrist rest.
There are a couple of ways you can clean your mousepad, depending on the type of mousepad you have.
Types of Mousepad
There are basically three types of mousepads: rubber, plastic, fabric, or cloth.
If you have a rubber or a plastic mousepad, you can get away with using wet wipes or a damp cloth for cleaning it, but your cloth or fabric mousepad is going to need a little more elbow grease.
What You’ll Need
Before you get started with the cleaning, make sure you have the following things at hand.
Small Bowl
If you don’t want to use a bowl, you can easily do it in your basin or sink. You just have to hold the water in the basin.
Shampoo or Hand Washing Liquid
What you’re looking for is a soap or a cleaning liquid that’s mild. Shampoos are usually mild cleaners and are gentle on the skin as well as on fabric. Hand soaps can also be used since they’re softer and kinder to fabrics.
We would recommend you steer clear of dishwashing soap since they have a tendency to be rough as they are designed for greasy and burnt pots and pans. They can ruin your mousepad.
Soft Brush
Although you can use your hands to actually clean the mousepad, it wouldn’t hurt to keep a soft brush at hand just in case you need a bit of help removing the year-old beverage spill and stain.
Towel or Hairdryer
You’ll need these to dry your mousepad after the cleaning. Even though you can just let it air dry under the sun, if the sun ray is too strong, it might lead to discoloration of your mousepad fabric.
Mousepad Cleaning Process
Now that you’ve gathered up everything you need, let’s start cleaning.
Step 1: Preparing the Water
Fill your bowl or basin with warm water. Don’t make the water hot. Your mousepad may be made of cloth or fabric, but there will still be some rubber padding underneath, and rubber melts. Warm water will help soften sticky beverage spills, oils or grease from chips and snacks and remove stubborn dirt or grime.
If you want, you can do this in your bathtub as well. Fill up your tub just enough to cover the mousepad.
Step 2: Putting in Cleaning Liquid
Pour in a small amount of cleaning liquid of your choice into the water. We recommend shampoos for their gentle nature, but you can also use hand washing liquid or laundry detergent. Avoid using dish washing soap as they are made for much harder surfaces and may end up damaging the fabric of your mousepad.
Don’t pour in too much soap, or else it’ll become difficult to wash off the soap from the mousepad once you’re done cleaning. Mix the soap well with the water.
Step 3: Soaking the Mousepad
Soak the mousepad in the warm soapy water you’ve made. You can let it sit for a while, but don’t let the water become cold. What this will do is it’ll dissolve some of the dirt and grime that’s accumulated in the mousepad.
Step 4: Scrubbing the Mousepad
At this stage, you can take a sponge, a soft brush or towel, and rub the surface of your mousepad gently. Don’t scrub too hard; otherwise, it’ll damage the sensitive surface of the mousepad. Since this is the most important step, take your time with it.
You can also ditch the brush or sponge and go in with your hands. This way, you’ll be able to feel whether any grease or oil is remaining on the surface. If you’ve got a mousepad with design, be extra careful as too much rubbing may mar the design.
And you don’t need to clean the underside of the mousepad. It might damage the gripping pattern, which in turn will affect how well your mousepad stays in one place. And no one wants a mousepad that’s out of control!
Step 5: Rinsing the Mousepad
Once you’re sure that you’ve removed all the dirt, grime, grease, sweat, and the last piece of crumb, you can rinse the mousepad in water. Pour out or flush away the dirty water, fill up your bowl or sink again with water and rinse the mousepad well. You can also do this under running water.
If your mousepad is flexible, go ahead and wring it gently to get all the water out. Make sure there is no dirt or traces of soap remaining in your mousepad.
Step 6: Drying the Mousepad
Take a towel and pat the mousepad dry. You can put the mousepad between two folds of the towel and pat it. But trust us, the best way to dry your mousepad would be to air dry it by letting it hang, preferably outside.
If you’re in a hurry, then you can also use a hairdryer to dry it out. But remember to use the lowest heat setting in the dryer and don’t bring the mousepad too close to the dryer.
Conclusion
That’s it! All it takes is a bowl of water, a little soap, some elbow grease, and fresh air to dry it, and the mousepad is squeaky clean (no pun intended). With your newly washed mousepad, nothing stands in your way of winning.