Top Household Hacks to Simplify Your Life: Easy and Effective Tips
Use Glue to Extend Your Furniture’s Lifespan
While it does make for an affordable, quick-to-assemble purchase, particleboard furniture has significantly less longevity than those which are made from plywood or MDF, as they are more prone to chipping and cracking. But the good news is, this is a proactive trick that you can do to keep your particleboard pieces alive longer. Spread a drop of glue over every blemish you see on your furniture, then stretch the plastic wrap over it.
Feel free to touch up where needed with marker or the like to get that rustic, reclaimed look. This dew restoration is easy and super rewarding.
“Trim Frayed Edges on Woven Carpets”
Spotting a pull or a fray in a carpet is the most annoying thing ever. Fortunately, you do not need to summon a carpet expert to solve this common problem — a lot of money. Instead, grab a scissor and cut this usage in the recurring area and put some material into the foundation of the carpet. After that, line that area with wax paper and place a heavy object over it.
Step 2: Leave the object on carpet for 2 hours or so (it will set quicker). Now, your rug snag will be gone forever!
“Waterproof Outdoor Items with Superglue”
Fixing up the inside of the house is one thing for some of us, but the outside is quite another. Although, there are definitely so many simple hacks to save you hundreds on landscape garner or handyman fees. Take waterproofing for example, If you spot a hole in your hose, swimming pool inflatables, or any other things that need to be waterproof, just apply the good old superglue.
Super glue is found in almost every toolbox or garage, but if you do not have any, it is inexpensive and easy to find at most convenience stores. All you have to do is apply some glue wherever you want to proof, and let it dry.
“Unstick Drawers Easily with Soap”
The odds are that anyone with an old or antique chest of drawers will know just how stuck the drawers can feel. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and it is just a byproduct of aging instead of anything really serious. The solution to this annoyance however, is quite easy. All you have to do is take a bar of soap and slide it back-and-forth across the drawer glides a couple of times.
The soap serves as a lubricant and your drawers will slide open and shut like they were new. Just make sure to use fragrance-free soap, or a scent you enjoy smelling!
Repair Tiles with a Simple Iron Trick
Clothes iron basically does one thing well, and you might think that it is only to make your shirts look nice. Well, think again. It turns out that irons are an extremely handy tool for many home repairs — even for warped floor tiles. If one of your tiled flooring is peeling, just place a sheet of aluminium foil above it and place the hot iron over the foil until the flooring warm up enough for you to pull out the warped part a little bit.
At this point you are ready to clean the extra adhesive away and apply some new adhesive then place something heavy on top of your glued tile until the adhesive cures. Job done.
DIY Sprinkler: Make One with a Soda Bottle
However, the summer months can be brutal on your lawn with a constant barrage from the sun and with very little rain – the grass can suffer greatly. Instead of purchasing a lavish sprinkler, you can create your own just using an empty soda bottle. This is more than just a cheap and easy hack, this is a fun do it yourself project your kids will enjoy helping you do.
Poke a few holes in the bottle (evenly spaced, if you can manage it). Next, tape the head of the soda bottle to your hose, turn it on, and enjoy.
Sharpen Scissors Using Aluminum Foil
Scissors are the ultimate workhorse tool, you work them hard opening parcels, cutting pizza and doing every job in between. Given how frequently scissors blades interact with various surfaces when they are cut, it is little wonder they go blunt over time, and they need to be kept sharp. You may not have realized it, but you actually have a perfect whetstone in your kitchen drawer — a piece of aluminum foil. One of the simplest — not to mention most beneficial — items on this list is this household hack.
All that you have to do is take a small piece of aluminum foil and make a few cuts in it with the scissors. You’ll only need five to ten slices.
Use a Vegetable Peeler as a Screwdriver
One of the more obscure hacks on this list, a vegetable peeler can do more than peel veggies and most people don’t know. If you ever found yourself in a situation where you can’t locate — or access to — a screwdriver then worry not. Simply find a peeler in the kitchen and put the tip in the screw head and use it just like you would a screwdriver.
We don’t know if the instrument designers of the vegetable peeler brand envisioned the sewing screws (I’d imagine, probably not!). it’s just so surprising how frequently this household hack could prove useful.
Opt for Zip Ties Instead of Drain Cleaners
Okay, even though drain cleaners are possibly the most effective product in terms of unclogging and cleansing the drainage pipes, but not the most economical one. So instead of having to drop all that cash every time, just use a couple zip ties to do the trick. Just connect to the zip ties — a deep drain will take two or three — and trim any sticking-out bars with a blade or metal guillotine.
Next, pop your homemade tool down the plughole and give it a bit of a poke about to dislodge the blockage. This little trick will save you quite a bit over the years.
Remove Scuff Marks with a Tennis Ball and Broomstick
Seriously, who wants scuff marks on the floor? Combined, they can accumulate and result in your home appearing lacklustre. For floors that scuff easily, all you need for a quick fix is a tennis ball and a broom handle. Make an X (ox) cut into the ball with a Stanley knife or similar wide enough for a broomstick handle to fit in.
Then just run your new device back and forth across the scuff marks, and they will disappear. You can do this without the broomstick, of course, but it will be a bit more work.
Drill a Hole in Your Garbage Can to Prevent Suction
There is nothing worse than taking out a heavy filled bag from your garbage can but then the garbage bag breaks and the nasty gunk spills out all over the floor. This occurs because actual suction is produced among the bag and the garbage can liner itself, therefore, doing one thing to keep away from this suction will maintain these messy moments at bay. With this handy household hack, all you need is a drill.
Just drill a few holes into the side of your garbage can (make sure you empty out a garbage bag first). And make sure that you put the holes in the side, NOT the bottom — unless you want a lot of unwanted spillage!
Use A Potato To Unscrew A Broken Lightbulb
Breakage and replacement of a lightbulb while still being in the socket is at least if you intend to write a story. Now, not only do you have broken glass to clean up, but you have the hard part of getting the rest of that bulb out of the socket. The best part is that you can do it very easily and safely and all with one ingredient: the potato!
Ensure that the power is off, just slice the potato in two, shove the mushy side into the busted light bulb, and spin it counter-clockwise until the splintered glass is stuck right into the potato.
Fill Nail Holes with Crayons
Nail holes are an infuriating blight that can obliterate an otherwise fantastic wall. They are obviously noticeable, but unlike bigger holes it doesn’t mean you have to get the Polyfilla out or bring in a handyman. All you need to clean up your nail holes is a crayon, and if you have kids, you probably have it at home. The secret is to match a color that mimics the wall.
Then, just press down on the nail hole and rub the crayon’s tip over it. This is a lot of fun, and it will make your walls shine again.
Clean Your Garbage Disposal with Ice Cubes
You see, you’ve likely already read that placing a lemon peel in your garbage disposal will help keep the odor out. It is less well-known hack but an easy and effective way is to run some ice cubes through the garbage disposal to clean the disposal itself. This will help clean your blades and will allow movement of any rogue morsels that have got stuck on the components. Plus, ice cubes are a residue-free scrub.
After you have ground up a couple of ice cubes and are satisfied that the parts are clean enough, run hot water into the disposal for a minute or so before the add the lemon peel.
Enhance Caulk Edges with Tape
Caulk is a sealant with a certain level of flexibility, creating an airtight seal around cracks, gaps, or joints that are relatively small. A useful and popular DIY method, but getting it to look straight can be tricky. To assist with this acquisition, simply grab a roll of painters tape through the equipment store. Lay the tape just above and just below where you will be putting caulk, caulk, smooth it out with something (putty knife, popsicle stick, etc.) and then remove the tape before the caulk dries.
Similarly, painter’s tape and caulk are a perfect pairing when painting an edge of a wall, therefore you’ll want to splurge on these items to have in your toolbox.
Versatile Uses for a Bread Clip
Next time you go through a loaf of bread, don’t toss the clip for its bag. These little clips have many convenient uses, in addition to helping keep bread fresh longer. Great find — not just for keeping a loaf closed, but for keeping your headphones tangled, useful identifier tags for attaching to objects, if you are really desperate, a guitar pick! Focus on the bread clip.
Bread clips are a prime example of lateral thinking when it comes to household hacks; before throwing something in the bin, it’s always a good idea to consider its worth.
Repair Wood Dents with a Hot Iron
It can be pretty disheartening to see a dent on your wooden furniture or hardwood floor, but there is a great DIY trick which spares you from calling the handyman or a carpenter. And again, we see the good old clothes iron proving its worth as a must-have household item. In order to do this, run a small amount of water in the area to be indented, and covered with a towel with moisture. Next, pass the tip of the iron over the spot making circular movements.
The steam and heat from the iron will “pop” the dent out, leaving your wooden surface looking as good as the day you bought it.
Remove Stripped Screws with a Rubber Band
The stripped screw is something you’ll find at some point in your home repair journey. A stripped screw is a screw with a worn out head/bore when the screw bit on your screwdriver or drill sits inside it, unable to grab anything but air. Though extremely annoying, this neat trick using a rubber band and screwdriver could pull up stripped screws!
Simply pull the rubber band taut & position it across the stripped screw head and then unscrew it as normal using your screw driver. Once rubbing it — the rubber will make removing the infuriating screw, easy.
Eliminate Squeaky Floors with Baby Powder
Squeaky floorboards are a frequent frustration for homeowners. On the plus side, they do not indicate structural damage or anything overly dire they are merely the wood of the floorboards rubbing together. The solution to this friction is simple: a tub of classic talcum powder. Lightly dust a pinch of the powder between the floor boards in question and use a makeup brush to tamp it into the crack.
After sprinkling the cracks of your floorboards with talcum powder, tramp around the area to help ensure the powder is spread out. And with that, your formerly noisy floor is now a little more quiet!
Remove Scribbles from Walls with WD-40
Every parent reading this will get me; kids easily get carried away and take their paintings, where they should not be — on to white bedroom walls. Because it may fill you with rage But it is definitely the type of thing that could be easily fixed without a professional painter and decorator. If the paint job is glossy, the miracle worker known as WD-40 does this with a simple spray to wipe away crayon and marker marks.
Just spray on the area and wipe it with a warm cloth in a circular motion. If you have a matte or flat paint on your walls, try a magic eraser instead.
Clean Grout with Toilet Cleaner
Grout is harboring bacteria and soap scum, and let’s face it, appeal is what sells a bathroom. Grout is one of those things that will inevitably become a problem to tackle, as the fact that it is part of our everyday lives means that it is necessary. Fortunately, there is an inexpensive and simple home remedy to make your tiles shine as before. Take out that toilet bleach bottle you keep next to your toilet bowl and slowly and carefully apply it to the grout.
Leave the bleach to dry for about fifteen minutes and then scrub it off with a mini cleaning brush or a toothbrush. Then, mop it all over with warm water and get ready for a show!
Use Kool-Aid To Spot A Leak
We all think leaky toilet are annoying yet sometime hard to diagnose. Which is why I decided to share this genius hack that only costs 20 cents before you decide to call a plumber. Add a dark colour packet of Kool-Aid to the water of your toilet tank, and wait about 30 minutes. When you come back to your toilet bowl as the same color as the Kool-Aid then you have a leak.
It works wonders and after all, this clever trick can mean the difference between paying through the nose for an unneeded plumber call out or not, so it definitely does no harm to try.
Fill Nail Holes with a Bar of Soap
Just like the crayon, when used on the wall, the bar soap is also handy to eliminate ugly holes from nails and bring the walls back to their original state. If you have no children, then your probably have a bar of soap more likely than a crayon, so this one is for you. Like the crayon trick, this home repair tip is a breeze.
A simple bar of white soap is rubbed anticlockwise, in a circular motion, over the hole left by the nail. The hole should fill up instantly, and any soap residue is simply wiped off with a warm wet cloth.
Eliminate Garbage Can Odors with Bread and Vinegar
We understand garbage cans arent going to exactly smell like roses but the very noseable ones can stink up the entire room. A household hack to try instead of even using scented trash bags that doesn’t always help with that garbage stink. Soak a piece of bread in vinegar, then place it on the bottom of your trash can, and leave it overnight.
The next morning take out the slice of bread before you put a new garbage bag and you will realize the amazing change in the smell — or better yet, the absence of the smell!
Clean Your Oven Door with a Dishwasher Tablet
Arguably the most dreaded of all household chores, cleaning an oven. Ovens are not just greasy but can also be tricky to get into – they are usually at waist height and tend to be dark and dingy. This wonderful household hack will allow you to manage this nasty task better. It sounds almost too good to be true, but a single dishwasher tablet works wonders on baked-on oven door grease.
Simply dress in a pair of gloves, wet the tablet slightly with warm water, then gently scrub the oven door and wait for the magic to happen as the mighty little block does its job.
Unclog Drains with Common Household Ingredients
All of us can relate to this awkward feeling when your shower fills up and bath suddenly, or when your sink fills up unexpectedly without the press of the plug. But here’s the good news: you won’t have to fork out on costly drain clearing products because, as is often the case, you can create a perfectly acceptable home-made version using household ingredients. First off, run water down the drain in a kettle.
After that, add 1/2 cup baking soda and 1/2 cup white vinegar, and allow to sit for approximately ten minutes. Now pour another pitcher of boiling water down the drain and voila, an unblocked sink.
Use Dish Soap As Laundry Detergent
Among the most useful home hacks are those focused on the multifunctionality of the products you already have in your home. For example, the dishwashing liquid brand Dawn. Okay, if your laundry detergent is down to the last moan and you have been unable to put a wash on, one teaspoon of Dawn will do a decent job. However, make sure you do not just pour the Dawn directly into the washing machine.
Rather, pour the liquid onto a dry rag than toss it in with the rest of your clothes. This is not a permanent fix but can be a life saver in a pinch!
Clean Your Bathtub Using Dish Soap and a Broom
Dawn strikes again and proves once again that it’s basically one of the best home cleaning products because it can not only be used to wash your dishes and (sometimes) your clothes, but the washing up liquid does an amazing job at cleaning your bathtub, too. So, if you consider that the same properties which dawn uses to cut grease off of your pots, pans and dishes is virtually the same property needed to cut dirt and grime from your bath tub, you realize how valuable this knowledge is.
Squirt quite a bit of Dawn around your tub and scrub it up with the wet end of a broom. That broom is not necessary but do your back a favour.
Banish Grout Using Shaving Cream And Bleach
Even the most popular floor can appear dull due to grout build-up in between the tiles, so the only question is how to remove this hardened layer. You won’t need to run out and buy fancy schmancy stuff from the store for this home cleaning hack — you’re likely to have this ready-made mixture in your bathroom. Just mix shaving cream and bleach together in equal proportions and apply this mixture along your grout lines where you want to clean the area.
Shaving cream thickens the bleach so the mixture sits on the grout longer. Leave this alone overnight and when you wash it off the next morning your flooring must look wonderful once again.
Wrap Aluminum Foil To Use Your Phone While Wearing Gloves
During the colder months, we are often left in a tough position: warm hands, or your phone? Unless you buy gloves with some special touchscreen-finger-friendliness built in, this is usually an either/or decision you have to live with. Hacks: Certainly not the epic best hack from a few months ago, but still a cool hack: A little piece of aluminum foil can easily solve this uncomfortable winter dilemma:
Just wrap several strips of foil around however many fingers you plan to use to pick up your phone and you are good to go. Get gorilla in there, and if you’re really getting it, shoelace the foil to your gloves using tape for bonus action.
A Simple Hack to Clean Your Blender
Blenders are amazing — they ease our life and make us healthier. But let’s be real here, cleaning them out is a chore. So many individual parts and so many difficult nooks and crannies where residue has accumulated over the years. Thankfully, this one neat freak hack is both quick and simple. Instead of manually scrubbing every portion of your blender, simply put some sudsy water in the main jug compartment and blend it for approximately 10 seconds.
The soap will get into all of the different sections of the blender and provide it with a thorough, likely needed, cleaning. Then you just rinse it a few times and away you go.
Keep your windshield from freezing over by putting cardboard under it.
If you’re in some kind of icy hell, probably you’ve heard of this trick then anyway. However, if you haven’t, this still could be a life-changer. There is nothing more frustrating than walking out the morning to your car and have the windshield frozen over. Everyone adores it, but you will have too much time to warm the automobile by scraping off the ice which is utterly tiresome and exhausting. This clever trick does away with that.
Simply keep a large piece of cardboard on hand for a night when the temperature is predicted to dip below freezing and then throw it over your windshield before you go to sleep. Voila.
Save Money On Your Water Bill WIth A Simple Trick
Honestly, nobody really enjoys paying bills. The lower those regular payments for the tools of our trade will cost us, the better, so this genius tip is one to be tried out. Has your water bill gotten a little steep lately? More than likely blame your toilet cistern. This does excess water you’re paying for, if it gets too much water every time you flush the toilet.
Drop something heavy & heavy like a brick into the tank to disperse the water. This will prevent the cistern from overfilling, in turn saving you money.
Use containers for takeout to make plates.
The kind of household hack that makes you go “no, no way”. Hey, but did you know that those cardboard take-out containers are designed to be plates? All these years that you (and likely 99 percent of America) have been dumping a to-go order onto a plate because it is easier to eat that way than if it is in a box. However, you’ve been doing it wrong all these years!
Take care in this here, but just open up your takeout pot and it turns into a plate. The added bonus is that you have no washing up to do!
Use A Lint Roller To Get Sand Out Your Bag
This one’s not really a home hack per se, but it’s one of the most useful hacks you could learn for a beach day. If you like to keep your clothes clean, or have animals in your home, then the odds are that you will already be acquainted with a lint roller. In other words, this handy little Tom-Foolery is basically a roll of double-sided tape on a cardboard tube that rotates on its own axle.
About the only time a roller gets used is when people are rolling their clothing to get a lint or some other small fiber off, but it wouldn’t be hard to just use this to dispense any sand that has made its way into your bag.
Craft Your Very Own To-Go Cup
This hack is more for when you leave the house than anything else, but it’s a sweet trick all of us should utilize. Kreative Commons / Lars Oland When you’ve prepared a delightful drink at home and it’s time to go the fuck out, simply make a DIY in-home travel mug and leave the house. Simply cover the top with some Press’n Seal and stab a straw through it!
While this DIY to -go cup isn’t going to survive a Nascar race, it should at least keep your drink in place while you shop at the mall or if you ride the subway.
A Simple Trick To Check Your Eggs
This one isn’t really home repair, more home cook, but it is something you should definitely know. Some of the foods that are notorious to judge whether they are still good or bad if eaten, are eggs. They could carry a best-before date tag too, but that may not be true. But before you take the chance on an unpleasant 24 hours, there is an incredibly easy method to work out whether an egg has gone bad or not.
Immerse the egg in question into a glass of water. If it sinks, it is still good to eat. If it floats, then launch it into the garbage.
Put your cables in order with toilet paper tubes.
Okay, maybe we are heading towards a wireless future, but still most home electronic goods need a wire. You likely have a collection of auxiliary cords and cables just hanging around, cluttering your space. You may not know this, but there is actually a free and simple way to put these tidy away, and that is something that you would usually put straight in the bin.
Take a shoe box and throw in a couple of toilet roll tubes. These rolls can be used as the best cable organizers for both, long and short, thick and thin cables. The best part? You can mark them with the pen of your choice.
Make sure you have pool noodles on hand.
While leather boots offer some of the best available protection, they will still require maintenance for proper upkeep. Because let us be honest, you want your boots to be appealing for as long as possible. Instead of wasting a shitload of money on fancy, fancy shoe horns, simply get this smart hack. Grab some pool noodles, cut them to the length of your boots, and stuff them in when you’re not wearing them.
The stiff noodle foam maintains the upright shape of the boots, keeping the top of the boot from collapsing, thus avoiding creases. With this you’ll surely turn heads at the next rodeo!
Use A Clothespin As A Toothbrush Holder
It’s disgusting to have it lying down on the flat part of the sink after using it to brush your teeth, rightfully so; bathroom counters are one of the hottest spots of bacteria. So what do you do if you happen to be some place that does not have one? But just ask your friend, or whoever you are crashing with, for a clothespin, clip it on the neck of your toothbrush and lay it prone, without the head touching the counter.
If you’re super-with-it, pack a pegbag in your laundry bag for when you go travelling. You never know when this hack will come back to haunt you!
