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Home Ideas
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Sometimes it feels like you're spending all the money and time maintaining your house. However, the truth is that there are easy ways to accomplish the task with everyday items. Check out these 21 simple hacks, and No.7 will definitely surprise you!
If you have a screw that won't hold, coat it with a thin layer of clear nail polish. In this way, the nail polish will stick the screw to the crack and gap, keeping it firmly in place.
Bending your body to wipe the tub can be a real torture for the back and knees. Yet, with a broom, it's a different story. Squirt the dish soap over the bathtub, and rub it with a clean broom until all the dirt comes off. Finally, rinse off the foam with water. Look! Your bathtub now looks brand new!
It's hard to believe, but you can take dents out of carpets with just ice. Put some ice cubes in the dent, and let them melt naturally. The slowly melting ice cubes allow the carpet fibers to expand and regain their original shape. Finally, use the edge of a spoon to lift up those downtrodden carpet fibers.
Clear nail polish can be used as glue to repair small holes and cracks in window screens. Apply a small amount of nail polish to the tears, and it will seal off the damaged area in a minute or two.
When you take down the decorations hanging on the wall, those nail holes are an eyesore. Instead of painstakingly repainting the holes, you can use a crayon to make them disappear. Get a matching crayon and rub it over the holes as if you are coloring. The crayon will eventually fill these holes, leaving the wall smooth and flawless again.
An aging door creaks easily and disturbs everyone in the family. To solve this problem, you can try cooking spray. Simply spray a little on the door hinge and there will be no more noise when you use the door again.
If you don't feel safe letting an unacquainted plumber fix your clogged drain, you can solve the problem yourself with an everyday ingredient, salt. Pour salt together with a little baking powder into the drain and leave them overnight. Wash the mixture down the next day with hot water. With this trick, you can wash down anything that is blocked in the drain.
An effective way to leave a door slightly open is to use a rubber band. Loop a rubber band around the doorknob, making an "X" with the intersection just enough to hold the latch down. This is especially useful when you're coming home with a pile of groceries: you can just enter the room by a gentle push without struggling to empty a hand to unlock the door.
Cleaning a carpet entangled with clumps of pets' hair can be frustrating. Instead of spending a fortune on dry cleaning the carpet, you can do it yourself at home. Simply move the squeegee back and forth on the carpet, and the embedded hair can be easily loosened and removed.
Garbage, especially kitchen waste, can stink up your kitchen very quickly. To get rid of the unpleasant smell, you can put a piece of bread soaked in vinegar at the bottom of your trash can. In this way, the garbage won't get stinky easily.
Want to pour juice into a small bottle but can't find a funnel? A piece of aluminum foil can save you from the dilemma. Just roll the flexible foil into a cone shape as a substitute, and you don't even need to wash it after use.
When you're bothered by a drafty window during wintertime, why not try bubble wrap for insulation? Simply wet your windows with a bit of water and apply bubble wrap while they are still wet. That way, even if it's cold outside, you'll be warm and cozy at home.
You can use a potato to safely remove the threaded base of a shattered lightbulb from its socket. First, switch the light off and put on protective gloves. Then cut the raw potato in half, wipe off any extra moisture, and press the broken bulb into the soft side of the potato as far as possible. Turn the potato counterclockwise until the base is unscrewed.
It's not easy to get a straight, clean caulk edge when you don't have the skill. However, painter's tape can help with that. Simply apply the tape above and below the area, apply and smooth the caulk, and remove the tape when the caulk is still wet. Otherwise, the caulk may be torn and the straight line will be destroyed.
If you are still struggling to clean grout with time-consuming conventional cleaners, try a toilet bowl cleaner instead. Pour a small amount of the cleaner over the grout, and leave it for about 15 minutes. Then clean the grout with a toothbrush, rinse the cleaner, and mop the tile with warm water. Voila, the floor shines up like new!
When a showerhead is partly blocked by scale, the joy of showering will be greatly reduced. To clean off the blockage, you can wrap a plastic bag filled with vinegar around the showerhead and leave it overnight. Remove the bag and turn on the water to rinse the vinegar out the next day, and you can enjoy a nice, hot bath.
Scratching a car door on the wall in the garage can be annoying, but there is a way to avoid the damage. You can use a half-cut pool surface as a buffer and glue it to the garage wall at the right height. By doing this, you can make sure the door won't hit the wall.
Clean rust with tin foil may seem crazy, but the material is actually known for bringing the sheen back to chrome. Clean the chrome surface with a microfiber towel and soapy water first, then place it in clean water and rub the rust with a piece of tin foil. When it's all done, you won't believe that the shiny chrome is the one you've been using for years.
Not only are the dead bugs on your car disgusting, but the acid in them can damage the paint. To clean off the bugs, you can wash your car with hydrogen peroxide. The chemical contains proteins that corrode the gut of bacteria without harming the car paint.
The bubbly reaction of baking soda and vinegar helps loosen the drain clog. All you need to do is pour boiling water down the drain, add 1/2 cup baking soda and 1/2 cup white vinegar, let the mixture sit for 10 minutes, and flush it down with boiling water. Then you'll get a clear drain.
In addition to removing bugs from the car's surface, hydrogen peroxide can also clean the car's interior. Mix a large proportion of hydrogen peroxide, and a dash of white vinegar, dishwashing liquid, and warm water in a spray bottle, spray over the stains, and gently wipe them off. Then you will have a clean car inside and out.
