How to clean Apple iPhone or Macs with household items: GUIDE

If your phone’s earpiece sounds like it’s too quiet, there’s a good chance lint is simply in the way. You can rub a pencil eraser over your speaker’s grill to clear out debris.

Apple suggests you use a “brush to gently clear any debris from the speaker,” which is certainly more sanitary, but less fun. One person on the iFixit forums helpfully suggests you can put your mouth over it and suck a little for a tool-free fix. It’s gross, but it works.

In general, if your iPhone is a little bit too quiet, especially on speakerphone, you can amplify it by placing it into a bowl.

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Apple’s Earpods tend to fray in two places: near the earbud itself and by the 3.5 mm or lightning jack. You might be temped to throw your pair away, but they’re easy to repair with Plasti Dip. Tape off what you don’t want to get covered in rubbery plastic and dip your headphones in.

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You can buy Plasti Dip on Amazon. More information from Instructables here. 

The process works great for charging cables, too. Alternatively, you can use Sugru, a sticky-putty-like “moldable glue,” to patch up cables as well. It can also replace the little feet at the bottom of your laptop.

Sugru

Sugru is available from hardware stores and Amazon. More tips on this kind of repair over at Lifehacker. Lots of additional information from Sugru. 

Prevention is better than repair, though. If you’ve got a spring from an old pen, you can make your iPhone cord significantly less likely to fray.

If you need instructions for this hack they’re over at Instructables. 

If you need to stand-up your iPhone, you don’t need to spend $20 or more on a dock. Turns out, a basic binder clip or two makes a great stand.

You probably don’t need directions, but lots of them are available at Instructables. 

It’s also pretty easy to make an iPhone stand with a cut-up credit card or cardboard.

If you ever find yourself in need of a stylus, it’s pretty easy to make one out of anything that points and a candy-bar wrapper.

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All you need is an old pen, a sponge, and some chewed gum. It’s not pretty, but it works. Instructions for a deluxe version are available on WonderHowTo. 

Lots of people will tell you that if you get your iPhone wet you should put it in a bin of rice. Even better: Save the bags of silica that come with new shoes, and use them to dry your iPhone when you accidentally drop it in the sink.