I just tried to clean my iPhone lightning charger port with the graphite out of a mechanical pencil and now it won't charge at all I have been having problems getting my iphone to charge once it's already plugged in lately. Like a bad headphone cable sometimes just wiggling it around gets the little lightning bolt to pop up over the battery.

So, figuring there were some tiny debris in there I looked for a toothpick, could not find one, and proceeded to click out the "lead" (graphite) of a mechanical pencil and use that.

The phone does not charge at all now. Have tried two working chargers in different plugs, flipped sides, rubbed on it, wiggled it, etc and it absolutely will not charge now.

Turns out graphite is a decent conductor. Is there any way I can clean it out of there using common household items?
Graphite is a really good conductor of electricity - so the chances are what you just managed to do is connect together all the contacts in the socket.

I think you probably need professional cleaning now.

If the phone had a removable battery, then I'd say remove it, grab some spray contact-cleaner from Radio Shack/Maplins etc &amp; douse it... but not while the contacts are still live.