Using a white mouse pad? My year with the GPU Wasteland deskpad from LTT (56k warning)

[D.Jonasson]

Hello everyone! 

This is my first post on here, even though I've been a lurker for a few years.

 

I usually don't have time watch the WAN show live, but on Christmas eve 2021 I had time off work and and after taking an accidental nap after dinner I couldn't fall asleep so I decided to catch the WAN show live, instead of listening to it at work later like I always do. It's on at 00:30 my time (when they're not late) so I'm rarely up at the same time it's live.

Anyway, in that show they mentioned a limited time only mouse pad, a white one, from a series they called GPU Wasteland. They also talked about how horribly it'd last since it's white, and said the sample they had was already looking pretty bad from coffee stains and such.

 

I, however, really liked the design and wanted one. I am a car mechanic and white fabrics usually don't mix well with mechanics so I decided to get two for the sole purpose of being able to compare the one I use, with a new one to see how dirty it is really and if I can get it looking like new when it eventually does get dirty. For the first year at least I wasn't going to clean it unless I absolutely had to just to see how dirty it gets in one year.

 

So, how dirty does a white deskpad get in one year (and two months)? When using it daily, it didn't really look like it was getting that dirty. But after a full year of use it had gotten pretty bad. Note that I do not drink coffee and any drinks I bring to the computer are in a can or a bottle, so coffee stains or spills are something I don't have to worry about.

 

It doesn't really look that bad at first...

 

But then compared with a new one it really shows how dirty it had gotten

 

So I took it the shower to clean it, and after soaking it with hot water it becomes much more apparent how dirty it is

 

To clean it I used detergent powder and a wet wash cloth to scrub it

 

And in less than 10 minutes, I could tell that it worked perfectly. Minimal effort and looks completely clean

 

And after a day of letting it dry, I put it back looking like new

 

And to prove I didn't just wet the new one and then put it on the desk, here's two pictures to compare the new and used one after cleaning

 

 

I am genuinely surprised at how well a white deskpad holds up and how easy it was getting it looking back like new. I had expected it to be stained beyond saving by the one year mark and was even going to buy the northern lights pad when I started using the 2nd one, but looks like I'll be getting many more years of use out of this one. I am however not going to wait another year to clean it the next time, that was strictly done for testing purposes.

[UnknownWalls]

That setup is beautiful

[SorryBella]

7 hours ago, D.Jonasson said:

But then compared with a new one it really shows how dirty it had gotten

Its all mainly dead skin cells and skin oil. Unless your skin is insanely oily or you go really sweaty, im not so surprised on this, and how easy it is to clean off (another thats positive in effect to that is the firmer neoprene base that makes it very quick to dry).