This Simple Office Supply Can Help Fix Your Scratched Screen

Having a scratched screen is a very annoying inevitability. Whether you toss your keys in your purse with your phone or scrape furniture against your television, scratches are unpleasant to look at, and can be expensive to repair. There are certainly tools out there designed to help buff out scratches, but there may be something in your desk drawer that could get the job done just as well.

Pencil erasers provide a simple solution for getting scratches out of screens. This hack is best when used for smaller and shallower scratches, and it can save you the time and money it would take to get the screen repaired or replaced. Begin by cleaning the scratch from any debris with a slightly damp towel. Then, either grab a pencil with a sturdy eraser at the end or a stand alone eraser, and very gently rub it into the scratch over the course of a minute. The goal here is to fill in the scratch with the eraser residue. Be slow and gentle, but make sure to really work it in. Rub away any visible eraser residue with the cloth.

Pencil erasers aren't the only type of eraser that can help buff out scratches from screens. Magic erasers, known generically as melamine foam, can also help remove shallow scratches, or at the very least lessen their severity. All you have to do is rub the foam against the scratch to try and buff it out. Unlike with the hard rubber erasers, rubbing too hard with the softer melamine foam won't damage the screen further.

If you're not having any luck with rubber or foam erasers, there's one more trick you can try before taking your screen to a repair technician — car products. Cars get scratches and nicks all the time, and there are countless products on the market for buffing them out. Lens creams, scratch removers, and Turtle Wax products are all options for removing shallow scratches, just make sure not to go overboard and damage the electronics. If none of these tricks work, the scratch may need professional intervention.