As summer weather appears to be getting closer and closer, I have the tendency to chug a lot of iced coffees throughout the day. The only major problem has to do with my keyboard. I love coffee, but my keyboard does not.

The more full cups of coffee that are floating around my desk, the more likely I am to knock an entire beverage onto my keyboard. And this unfortunately happened yesterday.

This type of office accident can be detrimental to your work day, and possibly your work week, depending on the number of keyboards your office has in storage. The spill always seems to happen when you are in the zone, trying to finish a report, project, or whatever semi-important job task you’ve been working on. The next thing you know, all work stops and you are scrambling to the bathroom for napkins.

Of course when you get back, there are a few clean-up measures required:

1. Throw away all the papers on your desk that now are a shade of brown.
2. You have to obviously wipe up all the coffee on your desk that is now dripping onto the floor.
3. Check your keyboard’s heartbeat.

Items #1 and #2 are the easy part. It is Item #3 that gets a little dicey. As you pick up the keyboard, and quickly realize there is coffee seeping out from every crevice, what can you do to save it? A quick Google search, and I found a few options.

The standard response: drain, remove keys, clean, dry for as long as possible.

The more creative response: use compressed air, turn upside down, drain, place in freezer.

The most creative response: place in dishwasher, dry for a week.

Well, at the workplace, you don’t have twenty-four hours, let alone a week to wait. Your only other option (if the supply closet is empty) is to snag the keyboard from a co-worker on vacation. Let’s just hope it is clean.

I’d rather not have to go on a hunting spree, any recommendations?