Pretty much everything we make use of in our daily lives needs a good cleaning every now and then. While we may not notice that our coveted headphones need a good wipe down, trust and believe that they certainly do!

Think about it… you wear them for a good portion of the day and when you’re not using them, they’re tucked into your backpack amidst all the coins, food wrappers and other trinkets you need on your daily bus commute to work or school. And if you drive yourself to where you’ve got to be every morning, you probably use your headphones at the gym or on your morning jog. Can you see why your headphones are probably in desperate need of a good scrub?

Cleaning your headphones should be a weekly task that you adopt for your own personal hygiene reasons. In the same way that you clean your phone and store it away safely when its not in use, simply to extend its lifespan and increase its general functioning, your headphones are deserving of the same treatment.

Here are a few ways to clean your headphones:

  1. Wipe down the earpads and tips on a regular basis: once a week, grab a designated headphone-wiping-cloth, make sure it’s damp and has some sort of disinfectant on it. Make sure you dry your headphones to avoid any water damage.
  2. Clean the inside of the earbud too: get yourself a small brush to clean the inside of the headphones, this will help to remove any wax or debris that may spread infection or even damage your headphones.
  3. Get yourself a pouch to store your headphones: protecting your headphones form unnecessary scratches, dents or dirt can seriously keep your headphones around for much longer.

Other tips you should consider if you’re looking to protect your headphones include:

  • Be weary of the weather: using your headphones in extremely hot or cold environments can cause damage to the sound quality; storing your headphones in the car can result in a seriously unhappy situation.
  • Don’t leave your headphones on their charging dock: when your headphones are fully charged it’s a great idea to take them off their charging dock. Overcharging can cause damage to the battery.
  • Don’t bunch up your cables: wrapping your cables around each other or your phone for example may break the wires in the casing – doing so when they are charging can snap the wires and cause permanent damage.
  • Never pull the cables of your headphones: much like coiling up your headphones, pulling or tugging at the cables could crack the wire and destroy your music streaming experience.

Whether you’re a student, a marketing executive or even a busy parent, sometimes your headphones could be the saving grace of your day. Drowning out unnecessary noise and transporting you to a world where beats and rhythm is all you have to pay attention to. So protect your headphones, keep them clean and keep them safe!