Keeping your smart home clean

With the number of screens and gadgets in households reaching epic proportions, keeping them clean has become a growing challenge. A bit of old-fashioned polishing doesn’t necessarily work with fragile screens so what’s the best way to keep the dust off that plasma TV and clean the kids’ sticky fingerprints from the tablets?

Let’s start with the telly. Sometimes it can be a real challenge getting rid of those annoying smear marks from your expensive plasma screen. Aside from banning your kids from the living room, what else can you do?

Always wait till your TV is switched off and your screen has cooled down before you attempt to clean it. A cheap and easily available e-cloth glass and polishing cloth comes highly recommended on various blogs, and users say it is particularly adept at removing persistent smears. Any microfibre cloth will do the job for you and you can easily buy these on the high street or the internet. Ultra soft and non-abrasive, these won’t end up scratching your valuable screens. A paper towel, on the other hand, is something that should be avoided as this can result in irritating scratches. A fluffy duster, also readily available at major stores, is another must-have tool for keeping your TV screen clean.

To clean your tablet or smartphone screen, there’s one important rule you should remember: never use window cleaners, harsh chemicals or cleaning solvents and never spray anything directly onto the screen. The reason is that some screens come with a special protective coating that can’t stand up to the chemicals found in most ordinary household cleaners.

Good old water is your best bet, along with a lint-free scratch resistant cloth. Dampen the cloth slightly and then clean the screen using soft, even strokes. Another thing you could try is a baby wipe and glasses cloth which we’ve found seems to do a really good job.