My wife posed this question to me about a week ago. She spilt some milk on her keyboard, and wondered what was the best way to handle it.

A little bit of Googling revealed the following steps:

  1. UNPLUG your keyboard. No ifs buts or whatevers.
  2. Try and get as much of the spilled beverage out of the keyboard.
  3. If it was water, let the keyboard sit and dry for at least a day, preferably a couple of days. You should be OK after that.
  4. If it was anything else (especially sticky liquids), try the dishwasher. Place it in the dishwasher (top rack if you feel brave and want to use the heated drying - I wouldn’t).
  5. Add soap. You don’t need any of the additives, to make glasses sparkle etc. and it may actually be harmful to your keyboard.
  6. Close the dishwasher and turn it on. Don’t use the heated dry cycle - it may melt your plastics.
  7. Remove the keyboard from the dishwasher once the cycle is completed.
  8. Shake out any left-over water.
  9. Let the keyboard dry for a week. You may want to remove the keys to allow the board to dry faster, but I think a week in a fairly dry environment should take care of it.
  10. Plug and pray.
I claim no responsibility for any keyboards harmed during this process, but if your keyboard is not working around step 3, you might as well try this.