While you know I love a good DIY cleaning solution, sometimes certain tasks require a specific tool. When dusting, I usually grab one of my trusty microfiber cleaning cloths, but sometimes the fabric is too bulky to fit into the small cracks and crevices where dust tends to accumulate. In those cases, I reach for one of my go-to dust-busters: a can of compressed air!
Sometimes called “canned air,” compressed air isn’t actually air at all, but rather a gas that has been compressed into a liquid form inside a spray can. When you pull the trigger on the can, the expanding gas exits with enough force to blast away dirt and dust in its path.
One benefit to dusting or cleaning with compressed air is that it has no trouble fitting into small and hard-to-reach spaces. And unlike other cleaning methods, you don’t have to worry about getting anything wet or leaving behind any films or residues!
While you may have heard of using compressed air to clean computers and other machinery, many people are still unaware of just how useful it can be around the house. So today we’ll be exploring 9 household items and areas that you can clean quickly and easily with the help of compressed air!
9 Things That Are Easier To Clean With Compressed Air
1. Keyboards
Cleaning computer keyboards is one of the jobs that compressed air is best suited for, enabling you to remove dust and dirt from between the keys without the need to take anything apart. If you use a keyboard for work every day, this is one cleaning task you should be doing regularly (especially if you’re a desk snacker like I am!)
2. Device Ports/Jacks
As easy as it is to clean your phone’s screen, the little nooks and crannies like charging ports and headphone jacks are a totally different story. But with the help of my handy can of compressed air, I can blow dust, lint, sand, and other particles out of all the nooks and crannies in my phone and other devices!
3. Coffee Grinders
Are chunks of coffee beans jamming up your grinder? Blast them away with compressed air! No matter what type of grinder you use, compressed air is a great tool for cleaning it out to keep it running smoothly. After all, a clean grinder makes for better tasting coffee!
4. Delicate Keepsakes
If you decorate your home with trinkets, souvenirs, or nostalgic memorabilia, you may dread the painstaking and time-consuming dusting sessions required to keep them dust-free. Compressed air is gentle enough to use on all kinds of decor, and it tends to clean intricate objects more effectively than standard dusters.
5. Car Dashboard & Center Console
No more trying to jam a rag between the air vents in your car! Use compressed air to blast dust and dirt out of vents, displays, cupholders, and other areas of your car’s dashboard and center console.
Wipe away loosened dust with a microfiber cloth, or suck it up with a vacuum. You can check out more useful car cleaning hacks here.
6. Vacuum Cleaners
It should come as no surprise that your vacuum needs a good cleaning every now and then! While every few months I like to take mine completely apart and give it a thorough cleaning in the dishwasher, I use compressed air to keep it clean in between those deeper cleanings.
Compressed air makes short work of any loose dirt that may be trapped in the brush roll, canister, and filters. (I highly recommend doing this outside your house though, unless you’re willing to vacuum up another mess right after you’re done!) ;-)
7. Lampshades
If you’ve ever swiped your finger across a neglected lampshade, you know just how much dust those things can accumulate! Instead of rubbing the dirt in with a damp rag, give it a few spritzes of compressed air. Your lampshade will look as good as new!
8. Fans
It can be shocking to see how much dust and dirt accumulate on the blades of desk fans when they’re turned off. But instead of attempting to clean them, most of us just turn the fan back on and try to ignore the fact that a lot of that dust is getting pushed right back into the air!
But compressed air makes it easy to clean a dusty desk fan. Every couple of weeks, take your compressed air and your desk fan outside and spray air at the blades from all angles to remove dust.
9. Blinds
I used to dread dusting my blinds, because wiping down each individual slat was so time-consuming! But thanks to compressed air, this chore now takes a fraction of the time and effort it used to.
Compressed air works great on my horizontal blinds, and I’ve heard it’s great for mini blinds too. Find more tips for cleaning your window blinds here.
Bonus Tips For Using Compressed Air
- Use compressed air outside whenever possible to avoid creating dusty messes inside your home. (Make sure to stand upwind, too!)
- When spraying compressed air, do it in short bursts of about three to five seconds each. Spraying for too long or spraying continuously will cause the can to cool rapidly, making the can uncomfortable to hold and disrupting the force of the air coming out of it.
- Never shake a can of compressed air or hold it upside down.
- While the compressed air of yesteryear used to contain ozone-depleting CFCs, the gases used today have little to no impact on ozone (though they are considered greenhouse gases.)
- Looking for an environmentally friendly alternative, or more power and capacity than an individual can provides? With a multipurpose electric air pump blower, you can tackle all the dusting and cleaning tasks mentioned in this post over and over again!
Do you use compressed air for cleaning at home?
No comments:
Post a Comment