1. Use a finishing nail to tack pony tail holders to the inside of your bathroom cabinet doors. Use the loops to hang curling irons, your hair dryer, cords, even spray bottles of cleaners.
2. When packing bottles of bathroom products, like shampoos, face cream, sunscreen, and liquid soap, first remove the lids and cover the container with plastic wrap. Replace the lids and you should have no leaks during air travel.
3. Are the legs of your wood furniture getting scratched up? Rub a shelled walnut on the scratches and watch them erase like magic.
4. Wrap Christmas lights around flat pieces of cardboard that you cut out to fit into a storage container.
5. Wrap a piece of tape around the metal spout of your salt to make a tab that is easy to grab and pull open. No more ripped fingernails! You can use a staple remover to open keyrings.
6. Use shoe organizers in the laundry room for keeping track of socks with no mates or for organizing bottles upon bottles of cleaners.
7. Use a can opener to open that infernal clamshell packaging.
8. Use rubber bands or empty toilet paper, paper towel, or wrapping paper tubes cut down one side to clamp your gift wrap to the roll.
9. Store wrapping paper and gift wrap supplies in a garment bag. Use a hanger with a locking pants bar so that you can open it up to slide on rolls of ribbon, tape, and scissors.
10. Use a spring loaded shower curtain rod in the back of the shower for holding toys, scrubbers, shampoo bottles and wash cloths. It’s like having a shelf as long as the tub!
11. Put vinegar or other showerhead cleaner in a baggie and use a rubber band to affix it to the shower head, letting it soak overnight. In the morning, it’s clean!
12. Worried about your toddler falling out of his “big boy bed”? Get a pool noodle and put it on the mattress near the edge underneath the fitted sheet.
13. Use a multi-tiered plant stand to stack pots and pans in your cabinets.
14. Clean dusty baseboards and window sills with an anti-static dryer sheet. It smells great, cleans great, and makes the surfaces repel dust for weeks.
15. When packing necklaces, run them through a straw and then fasten. They won’t get tangled. Put earrings through a button to keep pairs together.
16. Use those bread bag plastic fastener tabs to label cords behind your entertainment center.
17. Glue plastic cups to cardboard to make safe storage containers for your delicate Christmas ornaments.
18. Paint inexpensive wooden crates various colors and bolt them to the walls to create interesting shelving.
19. A wine rack makes a decorative and interesting towel rack.
20. To get more juice out of a lemon or lime, microwave it for 20 seconds.
21. Put an elastic cord or two around your dryer door. Use them to hold shoes in place while you run the dryer.
22. Install a coat hook strip near the floor for hanging shoes.
23. When moving, use your sheets, towels and clothes to pad your breakable items and dishes. So much easier than wrapping each plate individually with newspaper.
24. Put your phone in a bowl to double the volume.
25. Use a contact lens case to keep separate dosages of medicine in your purse or pocket.
26. Use a hair dryer to remove water rings from wood furniture.
27. Cover your paint pan in aluminum foil so that you can toss it instead of cleaning the pan after painting. Wrap a large rubber band from top to bottom around your open paint can so that you can rake excess paint off of your brush on the rubber band, instead of getting it all around the seam where the lid will go.
28. Run bead lines of caulk on the bottoms of your rugs to keep them in place.
29. Wrap a rubber band from the inside door knob to the outside doorknob to hold the latch down. No more loud door closures in the nursery.
30. Use hot glue on old tubular hangers to keep clothes from slipping off. Or better yet, invest in velvet non-slip, space saving, cascading hangers from Only SlimLine Hangers and double your closet space!
About the Author: Rick Miller is on the staff of Only SlimLine Hangers, a leading online resource for velvet hangers which are space saving slimline hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyslimlinehangers.com.
