I have one of the original Microsoft Natural Keyboard’s. I got it when I bought my first ‘major’ computer back in 1998 from Gateway. I like it, and it worked good. But man, since I’ve had it for almost 10 years, it was looking really nasty.

So I decided that I would try and clean it. In the dishwasher. And amazingly, it worked.

After searching Google for “keyboard in dishwasher“, I went to work.

First, of course, I took a picture with the camera of the keyboard, so I would remember where the keys went. It came in handy later.

I popped all the keys off the keyboard, and set them aside. After taking off the keys, I realized how much dirt was underneath the keys. My old roommate had a cat, and a lot of the hair was under it. Didn’t even think about that. I had to take it outside with canned air and blow a lot of that dirt off first.

I put it in the dishwasher with a little bit of dish washing soap, and let it do it’s thing. Coming out of the dishwasher, it looked much better. I then set the keyboard aside for a few days to dry in the garage.

For the keys, I simply used some soap and a bowl of water to soak the keys for awhile, and then cleaned them off with a toothbrush. Let them dry, too.

A few days later, I snapped all the keys back on, and gave it a try…. and it didn’t work. I was a little mad, because, hey, I really like this keyboard. So I let it set aside for another day, and sure enough, it dried out more, and it works! So I was one happy coffee guy.

For the cost of a few pennies of dishwashing liquid, I have a like new keyboard.