The warmer weather and blooming blossoms have signified the arrival of spring, and while this time is traditionally associated with cleaning your home from top to bottom, you might want to consider a digital springclean this time around.
This can be the physical cleaning of your technological devices, or even a software spring clean as.
Here are a few tips for getting your devices in tip-top condition – before you tackle your house.
1. Disinfect your smartphone
You take it with you to the kitchen, the shops, and most likely the bathroom. You also hold it up to your face, touch it, and touch your mouth.
Yip, your smartphone is a part of your life, but sometimes it’s a bit too much a part of your life – literally.
Some reports have smartphones listed as more germ-infested than toilets – but not anymore!
Clean your phone by removing it from the case and gently wipe the phone with a microfibre cloth.
You can then disinfect it with an alcohol-based wipe to destroy the germs. Use a toothpick to clean out the charging port, and you’re done!
2. Clean your keyboard
Next up – your keyboard.
Remote working is great, but it does mean that you’ve likely spent a lot more time at your home computer… munching chips, scratching your face, cuddling your cat.
All of this leaves dust, hair, and crumbs on your keyboard which, left uncleaned, will impact the functionality of your device.
Simply unplug the keyboard and turn it upside down.
If you have canned air, this is ideal for spraying out the debris, otherwise use a soft brush or microfibre cloth to get rid of the dirt.
Then just use a disinfectant cloth to wipe down the keyboard.
3. Clean your earphones
This is another seemingly inconsequential device that’s part of your daily life, picking up unseen germs and spreading them everywhere.
You touch your earphones, and put them in some unsanitary places – including your waxy ears! It’s time they had a bit of a clean.
Use a damp microfibre cloth to wipe down the outer parts of the earphone.
You can then use Prestik or some other adhesive putty and press it into the grille parts to lift the wax. It’s then worth spraying some disinfectant onto the cloth and wiping down the earphones.
4. Take an application inventory
Now it’s time to dig a bit deeper with a springclean of your software.
Software applications are often expensive and they take up a lot of space on your devices, so make sure you really need the ones you have.
Create a list of the applications you use every day without looking at your computer, and then check those that you have stored.
Now you can start unsubscribing from certain applications, and delete those you don’t need.
This doesn’t have to be restricted to your computer – you can do the same on your TV and smartphone.
5. Check your backups
In this digitised age, we have to back up everything in case of a major crash, hack, or load-shedding induced meltdown.
Having a backup is good – knowing it’s actually working is better!
This spring, take some time to check your backup solution is working.
This is also a good time to re-evaluate what you’re backing up and determine if it’s worth the storage space.
For personal items such as photos, check you and your spouse aren’t saving the same items!
Clean up, delete, and upgrade where needed.
Happy spring cleaning!
