With many experts on the subject, you may think doing your own home improvement projects is out of your current skill set. Still, there are many things you can DIY even if you’re not a handy person at all.
Just browse through our list of simple and easy projects you can do on your own. You won’t even have to spend a ton of money to try out these nifty hacks. So, what are you waiting for? Get ready to solve your most pressing household problems and make your home a better place to live in.
Cooking Spray For Noisy Hinges
Sneaking for some snacks in the middle of the night? Don’t let a squeaky cabinet hinge give you away! There’s an easy fix for that, and you won’t even need to go out to buy anything else. In fact, the solution might be sitting there next to your treats in the pantry.
Take your preferred cooking spray and put a little bit of it on the hinges of any noisy cabinets. Ensure only to apply enough on the area to avoid having excess lubricant dripping down on your kitchen floors. Now, you can cheat a little on your diet without anybody else knowing.
Secure Loose Screws With Nail Polish
As it turns out, your home manicure kit isn’t just useful for keeping your nails looking great. You can also use its contents to do a bit of home repair. Have a clear nail polish on hand? Then, you have an instant solution to keep loose screws from falling out.
All you need to do is coat the pesky screws with the polish, and they’ll forever stay in place. That’s because the liquid gets in all the cracks and crevices to secure bolts. This technique works particularly well with tiny screws found in eyeglasses.
Fill Small Holes With Crayon
If you like to change up your home decor often, then you likely have a collection of tiny holes in your walls. Hey, that’s just a small price to pay for copying those gorgeous wall art arrangements you see on Pinterest, right?
The good news is that you won’t have to live with this problem. You can fill up those holes in no time and at no cost by looking through your kids’ art supplies for some crayons. Pick a color closest to your wall paint and “color” in the hole to fill it in with wax.
Painter’s Tape For Clean Edges While Caulking
Going about caulking the right way would not only help you prevent future water damage but also gives you a clean finish in the areas you put the sealing material on. One of the more frustrating aspects of the task is getting your lines exactly straight.
If you’re struggling with just that, don’t worry. A roll of painter’s tape can make your caulking experience easy peasy. Just as you would for painting, put the tape around the areas you don’t want the material to attach to. Once you’ve smoothed out your caulk, rip off your tape while the sealant is still wet.
Potatoes For Removing Broken Bulbs
Changing broken light bulbs is a task you might expect even before buying a home. And to make it even simpler, here’s a tip for you: cut a raw potato in half. Yes, potatoes aren’t just a versatile ingredient. Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew. You can even use taters to screw out broken light bulbs.
To go about following this useful tip, take half of the potato and press it against the bulb socket. Then, begin twisting counterclockwise, ensuring that the potato is gripping the bulb’s base while the socket stays still. Throw away both bulb and potato after.
Loosen Stripped Screws With A Rubber Band
So, you want to open up your laptop to do some fixes or even to upgrade its hardware. You think you got everything covered. But alas! You ended up using the wrong screwdriver head, leaving the screws stripped. What do you do now?
Look for a rubber band, that’s what. The elastic could help you grip the stripped screw and remove it. Just place it over the screw head you want to remove, and the rubber will fill in the gaps you eroded earlier, making it easier to loosen up the bolts.
White Soap For Nail Holes
Moving out of your place? Then you’re probably scrambling to fill in unsightly nail holes on your walls to make the place presentable again so that you can get your security deposit back. If you don’t have crayons laying around to the job, we’ve got another solution that won’t break the bank.
Go to your bathroom. See that bar of white soap? That’s your savior right there. Rub it on the holes until they’re filled with the soap shavings, and then wipe any excess away with a rag. Just be reminded that this isn’t meant to be a permanent fix.
Protect Cabinets With Bumpers
Cabinet doors are prone to getting scratches because of how often they’re opened and closed. Luckily, there’s a quick way to protect your cabinets from damage. And you won’t even have to spend a lot of cash or do a lot of work to get it right.
All you’ll need is a pack of cabinet door bumpers. For the unfamiliar, these are those little adhesives that you put on the corners of your cabinets. They come in various materials, from rubber to plastic, and can be bought on Amazon for just a few bucks.
Fix Squeaky Wood Floors With Powder
Having real wood floors in your place may seem like an awesome feature, but it’s not all fun and games. Although more durable than vinyl or laminate flooring, hardwood flooring is prone to squeaking as it dries and expands while a house settles.
This noisy problem has a pretty simple solution, though. All you’ll need is some powder or even baking soda. Work the white stuff into the seams of your floorboards to lubricate the wood and prevent the pieces from rubbing against each other. Et voila! No more squeaky sounds.
Make Carpet Dents Disappear With Ice
Ever rearrange your furniture and notice how it leaves dents on your carpets? If so, then you’re probably looking for ways to eliminate these unwanted dips on your rug. You’re in luck because there’s an easy technique you can try that won’t require much work.
Get some ice cubes from your fridge and then leave them on top of the dents you want to disappear. Wait for it to melt. You’ll see that the water gets absorbed by the fibers of your carpet as it goes back to its original shape.
Ironing Out Dents On Finished Wood
Aside from keeping your clothes neatly pressed, your iron could help you in keeping your home looking great, too. See those annoying dents on your wooden table or desk? You can make those disappear in instant with just your hot iron, a piece of cloth, and some water.
The first thing you need to do is fill the dent you want to erase with water and then place your folded cloth on top. Take the tip of your iron and hold it over the cloth applying just a small amount of pressure. The wood should swell up beneath and go back to the way it was.
Erase Crayon Drawings With WD-40
Kids can sometimes get too carried away when you give them crayons. Their drawings can’t be contained on paper leading them to venture out into creating their masterpieces on your walls. Seeing the drawings can be frustrating but don’t lose hope just yet.
You can use some WD-40 to get rid of the colorful mess on your painted walls. Just spray a bit of it on a cloth and wipe away the crayon off. Older markings may require some more elbow grease, though. Also, be careful with the stuff as WD-40 can be messy to use. So, you’re better off not wearing your favorite outfit when cleaning.
Use Bleach To Restore Grout Lines
Bleach has a ton of uses in the household. One of these is restoring grout without damaging the porous gap filler. To do so, mix some bleach with water in a spray bottle. Apply this solution to the areas you want to clean and let it sit for 20 minutes.
Once the stuff has soaked, take a toothbrush and start scrubbing off the grime from your grout lines. You can also use the same method for mold removal. Just don’t forget to finish off your cleaning by clearing the solution off with water after you’re done.
Sleeping With Soap To Avoid Leg Cramps
Here we have another nifty use for a bar of soap. This one’s a bit contentious, though. Apparently, sleeping with soap in your sheets could help you avoid losing sleep when you get leg cramps in the middle of the night. It could work if soap contains magnesium, which has muscle relaxant properties.
Of course, there’s no harm in trying this method, so go ahead and see if it would work as well for you as it did for other people. For good measure, you could also increase your intake of magnesium, vitamin E, and calcium by taking vitamins or eating foods with a lot of those nutrients.
Clean Toilets With Kool-Aid
Tried everything to get those irksome water rings in your toilet bowl? We have one strange yet effective method we want you to try out. Take a packet of Kool-Aid—preferably in lemon or other citrus flavors—and sprinkle its contents into your toilet bowl. It’s the citric acid that would get rid of stains.
From there, you can choose between scrubbing the toilet right away or leaving the mixture to soak overnight. Either way, you’ll notice those water rings disappear once you flush the Kool-Aid-water mix. This is a technique even recommended by home repair and improvement expert Bob Vila.
Homemade Stylus
Using your phone when you have naturally chubby fingers or while wearing gloves can be difficult. Unfortunately, not all touch screen gadgets come with a handy stylus pen to make it easier to type or even draw or write if you need to.
But if you’ve got some aluminum foil in your pantry, you can DIY your own stylus in just a matter of minutes. To make one, take a regular pen and remove its ink cartridge. Then, replace it with the cotton edge of a Q-tip. Wrap the entire thing in foil, wet the tip with a bit of water, and there you have it—an instant stylus pen.
Drain Declogger
You step into your shower and turn on the tap. Minutes into washing yourself, you notice one thing. The water isn’t draining at all! It looks like your drain is clogged up again. Luckily, you might not need to hire a plumbing service to fix it.
Head to your kitchen and see whether you have some baking soda and white vinegar lying around. Take half a cup of each and pour it down your shower drain. After plugging it shut, let the stuff sit for an hour. Finish the job by pouring a pot of boiling water on the drain.
No Stinky Garbage Bins With Bread And Vinegar
Here’s another contentious solution that you might want to try if you’ve exhausted other means. Are you bothered by the smell coming from your waste bin? Deodorize your garbage can by putting a piece of bread soaked in vinegar overnight in the bottom of your trash can.
Bread is known for being useful in cleaning up spills and even wiping off dirt. Meanwhile, vinegar’s wide usage in cleaning has long been known. The sour condiment is famed for its ability to get out unwanted smells and stains from appliances and clothes.
The Anti-Garbage Can Suction Trick
There’s probably nothing as frustrating as lifting a garbage bag out of the bin only to realize it’s completely stuck there. This is the dreaded trash can suction when the air pressure within the container makes the bag difficult to take out.
Luckily, you won’t need any piece of advanced technology to resolve this physics issue. Before filling with garbage, drill a small hole onbottom to relieve the pressure and allow air to enter between the can and the bag. When done right, you won’t have to struggle anymore the next time you take out the trash.
The Broom And Dish Soap Tub Cleaner Combo
It may seem weird, but you can actually use a broom, as long as it has plastic bristles, to clean your bathtub. Paired with dish soap, you can get rid of the grime and hair buildup that’s been sitting there without needing to bend over to scrub the dirt out.
This method works like a charm because while dish soap is formulated to get rid of oil and grease from in utensils, it works just as well for the grime found in your tub. You can also use it when you’re cleaning other areas in your bathroom, such as your shower.
A Funnel Out Of Tin Foil
As it turns out, tin foil has plenty of other uses aside from wrapping leftovers from your favorite restaurant. One creative way you can repurpose the pantry staple is by turning it into a makeshift funnel, which can be pretty handy when you’re transferring liquids to narrow-necked containers.
All you’ll need to do is take out some tin foil sheets and form them into a funnel shape. Layer the foil as necessary to avoid spills. Also, take note of the size of the opening of your desired container and design the end to match it. You can also tape the thing together for added structure.
Scrub Off Rust With Aluminum Foil
Looking around your home, you’ll notice that a lot of your stuff is finished with chrome. From appliances to faucets to maybe even your own car, manufacturers seem to love plating their products with the shiny metal. But eventually, this once-perfect finish could develop rust after repeated cleaning.
Counter this corrosion from progressing further by removing rust with some aluminum foil and water. Turn the thin sheets into scrubbing pads by scrunching them up. Dip the foil in water and rub it on the affected areas. Replace the pads when it stops being effective. Once you’re done, wash the area with water and wipe it dry.
No Latch Doors & Rubber Bands
Making multiple trips to get all of your groceries inside the house is something many people avoid at all costs. But if you just can’t help but go back and forth, we have a hack to make coming in and out of the doorway easier.
Wrap a rubber band on your doorknob in an “X” formation so that it keeps the latch pressed down. This way, you won’t have to turn the handle as you’re carrying bags in your hands. What’s more, having the latch that way could come in handy when you’re trying not to wake up a sleeping baby with a noisy door.
Locate Studs With A Measuring Tape
So, you want to hang decorations up your wall. It seems like a simple enough task for a newbie home DIY-er, right? Well, not really. You’d still have to take into account the placement of the studs in your wall before you can hammer or drill away.
Resolving this issue won’t cost you extra money buying special devices as long as you have a measuring tape in your toolbox. The extra-long ruler has specific red markings every 16 inches to make it easier to locate studs if your wall frame was built with 8-foot-long plywood sheets. Follow these marks, and you’ll locate studs in no time.
Nail Polish For Patching Screen Holes
If you live in a place where there are many insects, having screens in your doors and windows saves you from being bothered by these pesky creatures. Your safe haven can come under threat, though, if small holes start developing in your defense layer.
That’s when clear nail polish comes in handy once again! You can actually cover up tiny holes in your screen by layering the lacquer on the broken areas and drying the patch with a hairdryer. Following this hack would seal the holes and prevent them from getting any larger.
A Vinegar Soak For Your Grimy Showerhead
Here’s an easy bathroom cleanup tip for lazy-heads. Notice grime or mineral buildup on your showerhead? Soak it in a mixture of equal parts water and white vinegar in a plastic bag. Secure the bag with a twist tie to make sure that everything is submerged in the liquid.
Now, you just have to sit back and wait for about 15 to 20 minutes—just the perfect amount of time for a face mask—and wait as the solution does all the work. Once your timer sounds, remove the bag and run the shower on hot to get rid of any residue.
Use Pool Noodles As Bumpers
Looking at the many uses you can get from pool noodles for small home improvement projects, we think they’re much more fun and convenient to use out of the water than in. You can make different kinds of bumpers for your garage alone to protect your luxury car from scratches.
Cut a pool noodle in half and attach the flat surface on your garage walls just where you open your vehicle’s door. Now, you don’t have to worry about banging your door every time you get in and out of your automobile.
Clean Up Pet Hair With A Squeegee
Having a pet around the house is a good way to relieve stress. But that doesn’t mean that looking after another living being doesn’t come with its own set of problems. Most pet owners would relate to the difficulty of cleaning shed pet hair from your furniture.
Sometimes, even vacuuming your carpet and sofa won’t fully get rid of it. Don’t throw your hands up just yet. We bet using a squeegee instead might just do the trick. The tool’s rubber component is the perfect aid in loosening what's been embedded in clumps on your rug.
Change Up Your Ceiling Fan Direction
Want to save on your energy bill? Then, you might want to change your ceiling fan’s direction, depending on the season, of course. During the summer, switch the way it spins to a counterclockwise direction to keep rooms cooler on hot days.
On the other hand, adjust the fan to turn clockwise during the winter to evenly distribute warmth throughout the room it’s installed in. With your energy bill reduced, you can use the extra cash you conserved to pad up your savings account or even fund larger home improvement projects.
Bubble Wrap For Extra Insulation
Speaking of keeping warm in the wintertime, did you know that you can use bubble wrap to insulate your windows? Yes, the packaging material is not just something fun to pop but can also be your savior while you’re waiting for the heating repair guy to come around.
The process simply involves putting bubble wrap on your windows after spraying the glass surface with water, which helps it stick. No need for special equipment or skills. The only downside is that the material isn’t aesthetically pleasing and makes it almost impossible to see through your windows.
Anti-Drain Clog Devices
The best way to save on paying for a plumber service is to avoid needing it in the first place. Start by making sure that your drains—whether they’re in the kitchen or the bathroom—aren’t prone to clogging. You can buy specific products that catch debris before it can build up and obstruct your drains.
Bustle magazine enumerates two kinds of drain catchers you can choose from. The first is drain screens or grates, which collect scraps before they go down the pipe. The other is in-drain catchers, which catch anything that might have slipped through the actual drain.
Coffee Grounds As A Dish Scrub
You’ve probably heard of the benefits of using coffee grounds as a face care treatment. What you might not know, though, is that you can also use these leftovers to do the dishes and clean up around the kitchen.
The grounds are beneficial for scrubbing caked-on food on dirty pans and pots. Just sprinkle some of it on the cooking ware that needs cleaning and sponge away the dirt as usual. Wetting the coffee grounds would also make them an effective scrub to clean charred food particles from grills and griddles.
DIY Wood Polish Using Essential Oils
Ran out of wood polish? Don’t run out to the store just yet! You might have everything needed to create your own solution right in your home. To mix up a DIY polish, you’ll need some olive oil, white vinegar, and essential oils.
In a spray bottle, combine all of these only using about ten drops of your chosen essential oil scent. Shake the solution until everything’s blended, and you can go on wiping down your furniture with it until it looks brand new. The oil makes the wood shine while the vinegar helps in disinfecting the material.
Toothpaste As An All-Around Cleaning Agent
If you have a couple of tubes of white toothpaste stocked up, there are plenty of ways you can put them to work before the expiration date. Aside from keeping your pearly whites squeaky clean, toothpaste can polish bathroom fixtures like your shower and sink’s chrome finish.
Likewise, the dental hygiene product can give silverware a good shine, too. Just make sure to skip using the gel kind as those tend to have color in their ingredients, which could stain the items you’re trying to clean. And have we mentioned that toothpaste could kill food odors from your hands as well?
Remove Sticky Labels With Cooking Oil
So, you just got back from the shopping mall excited to unpack all the goods you bought. Everything’s going well until you get to the part where you need to remove sticky tags from your purchases. Tough luck! They just don’t seem to budge even after minutes of trying.
That’s when you need to go to the kitchen and get a little extra help. Take any cooking oil you have on hand and dab some of it on the stickers with a paper towel. The oil will eventually break down the glue, making it easier for you to rub off the sticky labels.
Use Vinegar For A Squeaky Clean Microwave
If you’re not much of a cook, then we bet your microwave gets a lot of use daily. That means you might need to clean it more often as food crumbs build up inside. You won’t have to put in a lot of extra work to keep your beloved appliance clean, though.
Start by measuring a couple of tablespoons of vinegar onto a microwave-safe bowl with water and then placing it inside the microwave. Heat the solution using the highest power possible on your device. The steam from the bowl should soften the food debris, which you can then wipe off afterward.
Use Tongs To Clean Blinds Faster
Dusting off blinds can turn into a repetitive and boring chore quickly. The good news is that you can cut down the time you spend on this task by making wipers out of a pair of regular cooking tongs and some pieces of fabric.
Just wrap strips of rags onto the tongs and secure them with ties. You can also do the same with the chopsticks you got the last time you had takeout from a Chinese restaurant. The final product would allow you to wipe both sides of the blinds’ blades.
Mouthwash As A Toilet Cleaner
Your teeth aren’t the only pearly whites mouthwash can keep squeaky clean. Your toilet bowl would benefit from being soaked with the dental hygiene product, too. Pour about a quarter of a cup of your mouthwash onto the bowl and leave it there for half an hour. Scrub afterward, and you’ll have a clean toilet.
This method is a great alternative to using bleach. After all, the stuff is highly toxic when ingested and can cause damage even when not. Using bleach to clean your household exposes your children to dangerous fumes that can lead to various medical conditions.
Alka-Seltzer For Cleaning Glassware
Your doctor might have recommended you take Alka-Seltzers after you’ve complained of heartburn or an upset stomach. What they didn’t tell you, though, is that you can use the medication for household purposes as well, specifically to wash glass kitchenware.
To clean glass dishes that have acquired residue from past uses, fill your sink with a mixture of water and up to six Alka-Seltzer tablets. Add some vinegar for a more powerful solution. Then, soak the glassware that needs deep cleaning and leave them to rest in the sink for an hour. This would make the burnt bits flake off without much scrubbing.
Blend Your Dish Soap
If following a healthy diet involves drinking many smoothies for you, then we bet your blender needs frequent washing. This can get tiring pretty quickly as pureed greens and fruits can get stuck in hard-to-reach places that are even tougher to clean.
That doesn’t mean you need to give up smoothies, though. Blending a mixture of hot water and dish soap in the pitcher for ten seconds could make cleaning up much faster. In fact, this hack would only take you about 30 seconds in total to get it done.