How many of us will buy (or be bought) some living room tech this year? While the boxes promise a better future, with features, advantages and benefits you never dreamed of – there will be pain. Unavoidable pain. KitGuru dons a HazMat suit and heads for the far corner of the living room.
Dust gets everywhere.
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Space is a vacuum – and it still contains dust. OK. We accept it. We have to learn to live with it. But where does it choose to congregate?
According to KitGuru's totally unscientific belief (built on a lifetime of empirical evidence), 96% of the dust in your house, lives behind the TV.
Any attempt to upgrade your life, means a battle royal with entrenched enemies, that not only outnumber you – but who have also developed SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) to deal with your feeble efforts at dust-o-cide.
We've heard from readers who decided to spend the Xmas holidays installing everything from new 3D TVs to Wii Us and even some BluRay players. In each case, the situation is the same: The jungle of cables is protected by a thick layer of Dust Bunnies.
KitGuru's method for installation goes like this:-
- Ensure plenty of space around the target zone and pull large/heavy devices slowly (we'd hate to see you squashed under 55″ of goodness unless it's a lover)
. - Long nozzle on your vacuum cleaner and ‘get stuck in'. You'll only clear out 50-80% of the available dust, but it's a start
. - Swap your units – pausing for an extra suck on a regular basis
. - When you think you ‘have it', we'd suggest you swap ‘suck' for ‘blow'. If you have a tin of compressed air, then now's the time to use it – blow them hardcore bunnies free!
. - One last suck and, before you slide everything into place, you might want to think about using some medicated wipes to give the accessible surfaces an anti-biotic sheen
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By the time you've finished,the bravest of the Dust Bunny army will have managed to spread across the whole room. It's worth giving the entire place a good clean to avoid that ‘crunchy' feeling.
When it comes to how much effort you should make when it comes to keeping your ‘TV area' dust-free, there are at least 2 schools of thought. One says ‘defend all of your technology equally'. The other says that a massive dust magnet – living in the opposite corner to your PC – is a very good thing.
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KitGuru says: Warning. No matter how enticing, NEVER eat any of the sweets etc you find under the back of the TV. That's all we're gonna say on the matter.
Comments below or in the KitGuru forums.