Here’s an interesting question.
How many times a day do you touch your phone?
For me, it’s at least fifty, although if I were to be honest, it’s more like a hundred times a day.
If you think that’s a lot, check out how many times you touch your phone a day, you might find you do it more than me, perhaps two hundred a day.
The thing is, you will be really surprised at how many times people pick up their phone in a single day.
So, here’s my point, most people end up getting a case for their phone, mainly to protect it, but sometimes for style. But if you then think about the number of times you touch your phone, well, that’s the number of times that you touch your phone case as well.
The phone and its case go wherever you go, right? OK, so occasionally, it probably lives in your pocket, but most of the time you may end up putting it down on a dirty surface, table etc.
After a while your phone case will start to pick up dirt from where it is put down, the sweat from your hands, all sorts of places. What this means is, if you have, say a transparent silicone case, you will find that it starts to go yellow or if you have a rubber case, it becomes grubby and if you have a white case, well, it probably isn’t white anymore.
So, it’s time for your phone case to have a well deserved clean, time to get rid of the dirt, the stains and the bacteria.
Do this and you won’t be embarrassed with a dirty case the next time you post a #selfieinmirror on your Instagram feed.
1. How to Clean Your Phone Case
It’s important to understand at this stage that the cases that need the most cleaning are those made from plastic, rubber or silicone. Unfortunately, most of the cases sold in today’s market are made out at least one of those materials.
So, we are going to focus on the best way to clean your plastic or silicone phone case with the main aim of removing as many stains as possible.
I initially decided to look at a very popular YouTube video by “Clean My Space” that covers a simple cleaning method; You can have a look at it here: click to watch.
And to recap from the video, here are the steps to follow:
Firstly, we need to get everything ready to do the cleaning:
- - some dish soap
- - some warm water
- - a clean toothbrush (not your actual toothbrush though!!)
- - a microfiber cloth
- - some rubbing alcohol (also known as Isopropyl Alcohol)
- - a little baking soda
Ok, once you have all of the above, you are ready to clean your case.
- - Of course, it goes without saying that you need to actually take off the case from your phone before you start.
- - Add a few drops of dish soap into a bowl with around 200ml warm water and mix it up. Now you have a bowl of warm soapy water ready for the next stage.
- - For a silicone case, make sure you use the warm soapy water and the clean toothbrush but nothing else. Dip the soapy water with a toothbrush and gently brush the case to remove the dirt and stains from the surface and remember to be gentle when brushing it back and forth.
- Don’t try any of the other ways, as mentioned in the “Clean My Space” video, they can end up actually damaging the soft silicone surface.
- For any tougher stains, try a sprinkling a little baking soda on it, this can help shift stubborn stains without being too abrasive and without chemically reacting with the soft silicone surface.
- - Wash off the case surface and wipe it clean with microfiber cloth. Finally, you should let the case air dry for 60 minutes or so to ensure there is no residual moisture.
- - For plastic cases, try using some rubbing alcohol (anything above 70% will work). Spray the alcohol on the plastic or silicone parts on your case and wipe quickly with a lint-free cloth.
- Alternatively, you could use an alcohol-based wipe, it might be easier to use, so just pick whichever way is easiest for you.
If you have followed these steps, your cleaning and disinfecting work is finished and hopefully you have a cleaner case.
I know it might be hard to get round to actually cleaning your phone case for the first time let alone cleaning it on a regular basis, but keep in mind that you use your phone daily and you are constantly transferring the dirt, grime and bacteria from your hands to the case and from the case to your hands.
This is an important job to do and ideally, you should do it on a monthly basis to keep the case in good condition.
Ok, how do you like the idea of cleaning your case?
Yup, I thought as much. For me, it’s not the first thing I think of and to be honest, I can’t say that I am excited about doing all of the above to keep my case clean.
So, is there an alternative?
2. Could there be any easier way to clean a phone case?
Right, so we have established that you are not willing to commit the monthly hours to cleaning your case and to be honest, neither am I.
If the truth were told, I prefer relaxing and watching HBO, not that I am lazy!
Also, if you watched the “Clean My Space” video, you might have seen some other useful points, for example, dye can transfer from denim and food can stain your case as well as dirty hand stains. Unfortunately, on silicone, the staining can be permanent and cleaning is probably pointless. So, if you like your silicone cases, you might be best off choosing a black one to avoid seeing the stains.
So, could there be any easier way to clean a phone case?
Well, the truth is, there is no easy way to clean a silicone or plastic case, you just have to face it, it’s going to get dirty, it’s going to get stained and once it does, it’s going to be almost impossible to get it perfectly clean
However, what if the case was made from a different material, for example, an aramid fiber case.
Well, the good news is that things get a lot easier with an aramid fiber case.
I know some of you are very much into carbon fiber and metal phone cases but do keep in mind that both of these will ruin your cell phone signal. So, it’s best to stay away from those and try something better.
But what, I hear you say, is aramid fiber? Have a look at this for some more useful information.
Meanwhile, it’s worth highlighting the properties of this unique material – good resistance to abrasion, good resistance to organic solvents, nonconductive, no melting point, low flammability and good fabric integrity at elevated temperatures and so on.
When being made into aramid phone case, it will last infinitely longer than any case made from plastic or silicone. It won’t turn yellow or become discolored and it won’t wear off easily.
So, to answer that earlier question about if there is an easier way to clean a case, there is, if your phone case is an Aramid Fiber case.
Simply wipe it over with an alcohol cloth, or failing that, a damp microfiber cloth should suffice.
There, see, that will save you a pile of work.
Bottom Line:
OK, hopefully you understand that cleaning your phone case on a regular basis is important and if you are one of those people who loves to watch cleaning videos, then please be my guest and make sure that you set aside a few hours a month to watch the latest techniques to clean away the grime.
However, if you are one of those who recognizes the need to keep your case clean, but values their time and enjoys life more than cleaning, then you need to get yourself a PITAKA Aramid Fiber case.
A PITAKA Aramid Fiber case is the ultimate case for protecting your phone whilst looking good at the same time and fortunately for you, a quick wipe with a damp cloth is all it takes to keep it looking perfect!