Eight years ago – 2000 AD… I am the law – I bought a mousepad from Cafe Press, designed and sold by Scott Kurtz, creator of PvP. Tired of store-bought pads, I thought why not get one for something I enjoy, and Skull wearing his gaming fez seemed like a good choice. Plus, I wanted to see what they were like, quality-wise – perhaps I’d design a few.

8 years is a long time to run a mouse over something, particularly something that is mostly white. A mouse is a masher, grinding dust, dead skin, bits of food, and even a little glue, after the little pads on the bottom of the mouse peel off. And that’s just the optical mouse. The old roller mice were a whole extra level of get-crap-all-over-the-pad.

Just look at how filthy it was;

A quick check and I find that Kurtz stopped making them years ago – there is no replacement for my mousepad. If it was going to remain, I was going to have to take care of it. After staring and it and pondering for weeks (which is how I problem solve – staaaaaaaaaare…) I decided to act (…AND GO!)

I took the pad home last night, and sprayed it, heavily, with Spray N Wash. Using a brush (I used one of those hand brushes you use in the kitchen – an old toothbrush would have sufficed) I gave it a scrub, and noticed that already the grunge was lifting (something you couldn’t get it to do while dry.) I let it sit for an hour, and then threw it in the washing machine with a couple of other items that needed doing, and a pinch of colour-safe bleach.

Sprayed and scrubbed.

Post-wash – still a little damp.

Something to mention about the mousepad – the surface is fabric over a neoprene cushion – the design is fabric ink-jetted onto it, which means that a lot of the colour live below the surface of the fabric – I wasn’t too worried about cleaning off the design, though I was worried the fabric might pull away from the neoprene, but that didn’t happen.

I put it in the middle of a folded towel and did a little gentle stomping on it, as the neoprene was holding a lot of water, and then put it in the bathroom, hanging from the towel rack over the heater. By morning it was dry and within half a day of going home, it was back at work again.