With a lot of us working at home or home-schooling over the past year or two, it really made us look at our houses in great detail and examine every single flaw. Now is the time to get around to the DIY solutions to household projects you’ve been putting off. Did you know, many common problems have DIY fixes! Here are 23 of the best DIY fixes for common household problems.
Removing Wood Scratches
There is nothing more annoying than seeing new scratches on your beautiful wooden flooring or furniture. Luckily, the fix might be in your pantry.
To remove scratches, simply rub a walnut over the scratched area, and then rub the scratched area with your fingers. This will help the wood absorb the oil from the walnut. Finally, buff the area using a soft cloth so it doesn’t look out of place.
Cleaning Wooden Cutting Boards
Have you been cleaning your wooden cutting board wrong this whole time? There are so many small nooks and crannies on wooden cutting boards, bacteria and food are bound to wind up deeper than you might expect.
To avoid buying a new cutting board every time, there is a simple hack. To get rid of stains or lingering odours, place coarse salt over the board and rub it in using half a lemon. The coarse salt will get into all the crevices and the lemon acts as a disinfectant.
Pool Noodle Stopper
Once the summer sun goes away, you may wonder what to do with all the leftover pool noodles and toys. Turns out, they’re handier than you think! If you’re prone to losing laundry down the side of your washing machine, this might be a good hack.
By placing a pool noodle in the gap between the washing machine and wall, you’ll hopefully never have to force yourself in that gap to pick up the shirt that dropped down there!
Tin Can Planter
If you’re among one of the many thousands of people who enjoy gardening as a hobby, this may help.
To grow a healthy houseplant that would be a beautiful decorative feature in your home, simply stack empty coldrink cans at the bottom of your planter before adding soil. The air in the cans will help to keep the soil wet and nicely aerated so you don’t have to worry about it!
Bicarbonate Soda Cleaner
A lot of people don’t know that bicarbonate soda is such a versatile ingredient. Not only can it be used in cooking and baking, but it has great cleaning qualities too. Many people have started to incorporate bicarbonate soda into their daily cleaning routine.
It’s also handy when it comes to cleaning larger pieces of furniture around the house, too. If you’re looking to spruce up your couch and get it looking and smelling as fresh as the day you purchased it, simply sprinkle bicarbonate soda over the cushions and vacuum it up!
Stop Creaky Stairs
There are many uses for talcum powder, but one of the weirdest uses is in DIY projects. By simply sprinkling a layer of talcum powder over those pesky floorboards, you’ll no longer have to fork out for a repair person.
It’s not just stairs this works on. If you’ve got any kind of creaky floorboard around the house, you’ll be able to soon walk around your home and not disturb anyone. Just make sure to rub it in or it won’t work!
Lemon Hard Water Cleaner
Sometimes harsh chemical products just don’t seem to get rid of the hard water build-up on most taps and showerheads. Luckily, instead of forking out on a plumber or even a new tap, the answer could be in your fruit bowl.
Cut a fresh lemon in half, and push it over the tap. Place a plastic bag around the lemon and tap and secure with a rubber band. After a couple of hours, the citric acid should have broken down the build-up!
Olive Oil on Hinges
If you have some problematic hinges on any doors, or cupboard doors, you don’t need to purchase any fancy oil that will cost you almost the same price as a repairman coming to fix it. Instead, simply use olive oil!
Perhaps best used in with a pipette/dropper, take a small amount of olive oil and drip it onto the hinges. The oil will sufficiently lubricate the hinge and ensure that it not only opens smoothly, but there are also no more creaks!
Glue Grip on Carpets
Sometimes we’ll buy a carpet or rug that is just perfect for our homes, only to discover that one wrong step on it could cause you to slip and fall across the room. This DIY hack means that you’ll never be tripped up again.
Turn the carpet or rug upside down. Then, by using a hot glue gun, make either squiggles or straight lines. Once the glue hardens, these will act as grips, meaning that you won’t have to go out and purchase a non-slip rug!
DIY Washing Machine Cleaner
People often don’t know until it’s too late that you have to regularly clean the inside of your washing machine, too! Otherwise, all the dirt that your washer collects will find itself stuck in either the rubber seals around the door or within the pipes.
Luckily, most people will have these ingredients in their cupboards. In an empty machine, add two cups of bicarbonate soda and run a long, hot water cycle. After this cycle is done, add 2 cups of white vinegar and 10 drops of an essential oil. This will act as a disinfectant and get rid of lingering odours.
Scuffed Floors
If you really want your home to have that showhouse appeal, here’s a DIY project you can do to make your floors sparkle. By putting a tennis ball at the end of a mop or broom handle, you can buff out scuffs in no time.
The material of the tennis ball will pick up any rubber transfer that is on the ground. Also putting it on a stick will allow better control over the pressure and direction of where the scuff is being buffed out.
Getting Rid of Water Stains
Having a large water stain on the ceiling of any room can make the room look unappealing. Instead of just painting over it, it is important to make sure that no further stains will appear once the fresh new coat of paint is on.
By making a homemade mixture of one cup bleach and three cups of warm water and applying it to the area, you’ll never have to worry about another water stain again! This will also help to remove any lingering mildew, grease, dirt, or dust — which will often prevent paint or primer from sticking to the ceiling.
Unsticking Drawers With Wax
After a few years and many uses, drawers start to let us down. They’ll either start warping or will become impossible to take in or out of the cupboard.
However, by rubbing the runners of the drawers with a little wax (or even soap), you’ll lubricate the runners. This means no more sticky drawers, and your furniture has a new lease on life!
Oil Spills and Cat Litter
If you’re fixing up your garage and are finding it difficult to clean up any spilled oil, you’re not alone. If the oil is mopped, it usually tends to soak itself into the mop itself and spread further across the floor. It doesn’t mix well with water either.
However, one material has been significantly more effective than any others — cat litter! While it may be tricky to clear up every grain of litter once you’re finished, the cat litter will absorb the oil. That just leaves shovelling all the litter into the trash once you’re done.
Using Elastic Bands and Screws
It’s more than likely that you’ve encountered a particularly stubborn screw during your DIY projects — the screw that just won’t loosen despite using every tool and lubricant under the sun to try and get it to move.
However, this can be fixed by placing an elastic band on the surface of the screw. The rubber will help the screwdriver have more force and grip, and will eventually loosen the screw from its place. This also works with screws that are particularly worn down.
Keep Your Rubbish Smelling Fresh
One of the worst things about taking out the rubbish is the smell. It will often put us off taking out the garbage at all. However, using just two household ingredients you will be able to leave your rubbish bin smelling as fresh as the day you changed the bag.
Soak a slice of bread in a bath of vinegar. Once the vinegar has been absorbed by the slice of bread, place it at the bottom of the empty rubbish bin on a paper towel. This can then be left overnight for the best results and removed in the morning to remove the odour.
Toothpaste as Scratch Remover
It turns out that toothpaste is actually multifunctional! Not only is it great for keeping our teeth healthy and clean, but it can also be used to buff out small scratches. Whether it’s a phone screen, a glass surface, or even your car — this will work!
Toothpaste has a minor grit to it, meaning that it is able to buff out surface-level scratches. If you’re looking to buff out a paint scratch on your car, put toothpaste onto a dry, clean rag before rubbing it in with circular motions.
Vaseline to Fix Hinges
If you’ve got a particularly squeaky door that has resisted all other types of lubricant, why not try petroleum jelly? By applying just a small dollop of petroleum jelly to the hinge, it will eliminate the creak of the door that’s making your house sound like it’s haunted.
Unlike other oils or lubricants, petroleum jelly works its way into the hinges directly and won’t run off. Therefore, it’s texture and viscosity mean that it will adhere better to the door hinge.
Hard-to-Open Sliding Door
It can be quite annoying when you’re trying to head out to the patio to enjoy a nice summer day, and you have to struggle to open your sliding door. If you have this issue, you’re probably dealing with debris that has gotten stuck in the wheels.
The best way to fix this is to remove the door by loosening the screws at the bottom. Then all you have to do is clean the wheels and the track. After that, spray some silicone lubricant and put the door back on.
Stained Bath
There’s nothing that makes a bathroom look more aged than a stained bath. This can be due to rusting or lime build-up. The last thing most people want is to have a dirty-looking bath. Fixing it, though, just takes a simple solution and a little muscle.
Add together equal parts of cream of tartar, baking soda, and lemon juice. Mix those until they become a paste and apply to the surface of the bathtub. Let that sit for 30 minutes, and then wipe off, and your tub should be good as new.
Save Your Fingers
As you’re going through your home and doing DIY projects, one of the most commonly used tools will be your hammer. The hammer, though, can be pretty dangerous if you’re not careful, especially in regard to your fingers.
But one good DIY hack that handymen use to protect those fingers is taking a clothespin and using it to hold the nails in place while hammering.
Broken Lightbulb
What do you do if a lightbulb breaks while it’s still in the socket? You can’t just reach in because the glass can cut you and injure you quite seriously. It can be removed without injury by picking up a potato from your kitchen pantry.
Start by baking the potato. Once it has been baked, you will want to cut it in half and press the flesh side into the broken glass. Gently twist it counter-clockwise, and you should be able to remove the light bulb.
Taking Out Carpet Dents
Staying in the house for a long time often has people wishing they could rearrange their furniture to give their rooms a makeover. However, many will be put off doing this due to the dents left behind on the carpet. However, there’s an easy DIY fix.
Ice cubes will take out any dents made by furniture in the carpet. Place ice cubes where you wish to remove the dent and leave to sit for a few hours or overnight. The water from the melted ice cubes will be absorbed by the carpet’s fibres and return it to its original form.
Once done, if you then need a full home hygiene clean, call the professionals to ensure your home is refreshed and sparkling clean.
Got a question? WhatsApp us!