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Everyone knows that tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, but did you know that today is Clean Your computer Day? (It’s also Get a Different Name Day, so you can refer to me as Judy for the rest of the day if you don’t mind).
I’ll tell you, tech is not my thing. It has by far been the most difficult part of starting and maintaining a blog. Cars and computers: When they don’t work, my default is to sit down and cry. But just like Valentine’s Day is an annual reminder for guys to show some affection to the lady in their life, let’s take today as a reminder to tidy things up a bit.
Clean Your Computer
The Outside
Turn off and unplug your computer before doing any external cleaning. This is especially true if you plan to open up a tower PC to dust fans and such. Here are some pretty detailed instructions on how to clean a tower PC.
Be sure to dust cords and the back of your computer, too.
Most of us have laptops to contend with. They are a lot easier to clean externally. Just use a soft brush or dusting cloth to dust around keys. And don’t forget your mouse. Use a cloth to clean the outside, and if you are ambitious, you can use a Q-tip to clean the inside. (Be careful, apparently some models are really sensitive). Dust your screen too.
Why not take the opportunity to tidy up your whole desk area today, too.
Cleaning Up Digitally
Take a look at your computer’s desktop and delete unused or un-needed files, old or out of date programs. Create folders to organize stray files.
Do you keep a back up of important files and programs? I’ll be honest, I don’t handle this kind of thing in my house. But I’ll be sure to ask my husband to add this to his to-do list this week. Backing things up is the type of thing that you sorely regret not doing when things go south. Do it today and remove that worry.
How about online clean-up? I use Pinterest to save most things, but do utilize my browser’s bookmark bar for things that I access frequently. I’ll be going in to clean out that bookmark list…I know there are things there we no longer use. Ba-bye!
So here’s a quick checklist to review:
- Dust the outside of your computer and workspace.
- Clean screen and mouse (carefully using a Q-tip if you decide to clean the inside of the mouse).
- Delete old, unused or un-needed files on your desktop.
- Organize files.
- Back up important files and programs.
- Online cleanup.
Are you going to clean your computer today?
Just in case you’re interested in other, lesser known holidays this month, here’s what you have to look forward to:
- February 16th is Do a Grouch a Favor Day
- February 18th is National Battery Day
- February 20th is Hoodie-Hoo Day (no kidding, go out at noon, wave your hands over your head and shout, “Hoodie-Hoo”)
- February 22nd is Be Humble Day
- February 24th is National Tortilla Chip Day
- February 28th is Public Sleeping Day
A good reminder to clean or maintain a household function. I change my fire detector batteries every time we change our clocks to fall back/move forward.
I’ve heard of scheduling like that. It’s helpful to tie one thing to the other. Thanks for stopping by – –
Such a good article. I never would have thought to do half of this stuff.
Me either…without a reminder! 🙂
I need to clean my laptop, haha. I try to set a time to do this every month as I tend to be scatter-minded at times.