>On occasion I'd picked up keyboard, invert it (so it is key side down) then shake vigorously while tilting in various directions. Depending on various factors (notably the habits of the user), you'll get varying amount of debris -- on a few occasions a surprising amount of debris came out. On a few occasions I'd seen stuff like paper clips fall out.

I read this tip a few years ago and found it very good. Whenever you're about to throw out a post-in note, invert it and run it along a few of the spaces in your keyboard. It'll pick up all kinds of schmutz.

Tamar