Think about how many times you touch your phone in one day. How many times does the screen look grimy and gross? The smudge marks, the finger prints and even the residue from your favourite hand cream all transfer on to the screen and in short? It’s rather gross.
While there are a host of wipes on the market specially designed to clean smartphone and gadget screens, they’re difficult to hunt down. If you have as many gadgets as I do they’re also pricey. Many times the re-sealable packs tend to dry the wipes out and, when you need them most, they’re suddenly dry and unusable. There’s an easy solution though. I’ve got a quick life hack that lets you clean your smartphone with household products:
You’ll need a bottle of a mineral water (I’d stay away from tap water), plain white vinegar, a micro fibre cloth, a small spray bottle and toothpicks.
Use a microfibre cloth over cotton material or a normal cloth. A normal cloth will scratch the screen. I got this microfibre cloth in an Asus press bag but you usually get them with sunglasses and they can be purchased at sunglass shops at a reasonably cheap price. Toothpicks are great to clean dirt out from any indents on the smartphone or tablet screen.
You now need to mix the solution. Work on a 50/50 ratio and then decant the solution into a small spray bottle. Small spray bottles can be purchased from the likes of Dischem or you can repurpose an old bottle like I did. If you go the repurposing route make sure you clean the container thoroughly, especially if it had a solution in it with alcohol (which will damage the screen).
Once the solution is in the spray bottle spray it on to the cloth and NOT onto the screen directly. The reason you’re spraying is because you want to moist the cloth not have it dripping wet (you don’t want the solution running behind the screen and damaging it). Spray minimal amounts of the solution on to a small section of the cloth.
Apply the solution to the screen using soft circular motions. Don’t press too hard as you may damage the screen, so minimal pressure.
And there you have it. A clean smartphone screen!
