14 Clever Home Hacks for the DIY’er

If you like to DIY, then you know there are certain household chores and problems that never seem to go away. Every once in awhile though, we come across these little nuggets of genius that make us wish we had thought of it first! These home hacks for the DIY’er take ordinary household items and use them in a new way to make life easier and more efficient, especially when your home is smaller. And let’s face it. There is just this little bit of self satisfaction when you overcome just one of those nagging little daily annoyances, right? Like you have DIY superpowers or something. Don’t ask me to explain it, you know its true. 🙂 So try these DIY home hacks!

 

 

14 Clever Home Hacks for the DIY'er

 

We’ve got several from ‘Real Simple‘ magazine (which we love!) including this drawer organizing idea. Use small cardboard boxes as drawer dividers. You can even cut them down to size since they don’t need to have all their sides to work. (The sides of the drawer or other boxes form those sides.) Photo of this DIY home hack by Levi Brown.

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Use a wine rack as storage… (this one is from Ikea) Mount it on the wall or keep it on a shelf, this is a great home organization hack for the garage, craft room… even rolled towels in the bath! Photo by Johnny Valiant.

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Need “painting a room” DIY home hacks? Use a baby food jar to store a small amount of paint for quick touch ups, so you don’t have to break open (and mix) that big can every time you get a ding on the wall. Photo by James Wojick.

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Another painting DIY home hack from ‘Family Handyman‘. Use Glad “Press and Seal” wrap in stead of taping off. It comes out of the box just like Cling Wrap, but is slightly sticky on one side. Great to use in the kitchen too, but this is clever!

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Our next home hack DIY is from ‘Good Housekeeping‘. Use a Post-It note to clean between the keys of your keyboard. You don’t even have to waste one, just get in the habit of every time you go to throw one out, clean that keyboard!

Home Hacks for the DIY'er

 

From ‘Darkroom and Dearly‘, here’s one of those “Duh” moments. Try folding your laundry and placing it in drawers horizontally. Not only can you fit tons more into a drawer, you can actually see what is there at a glance and it stays neat!

 

 

 

I don’t know how many new charge cords we have had to buy because they get mangled from bending. This brilliant DIY home hack ought to save you the $15-$20 buying a new charging cable! Use the spring from a ball point pen to protect the cord up near the connector. Voila! From ‘Snapguide‘.

 

From ‘Organized 31‘, store your boots with a plastic bottle inside to keep them from getting that droopy crease in them! (Another DIY home organization hack idea for boots? Use a foam pool noodle cut into sections!)

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From ‘Redbook‘, bend metal hangers to store flip flops and sandals in the closet without taking up a lot of room. DIY home hacks that are cheap, too!

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Use an inexpensive wine rack to store all those hair products in the bathroom that are too tall for drawers, and just fall over and make clutter under the sink. From ‘Redbook‘.

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From ‘Popsugar‘, use those old bread tie tabs to label cords in your power strip behind the computer or TV. Never again will you wonder “will I screw up Tivo’ing “Grey’s Anatomy” if I unplug this”?

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From ‘Happy Creative Place‘, use cheap shower curtain rings from the dollar store to organize belts, scarves or even purses. Perfect dollar store DIY home hack!

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From ‘Driven by Decor‘, try this home hack. Use a “Swiffer” mop to clean dust from walls, either after painting and sanding, or just because they need it! If you move into a new construction home, or have any remodeling done,  trust me, they need it!

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Finally we have another great “Swiffer” trick for you from ‘First for Women‘. Use orphaned socks as dusters on either the mop or the hand held version of these dusters. When they get icky, just wash them. No more dust cloths to buy!

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We hope you got tons of great DIY Home Hacks from this post! We know you will want to jump on over to our posts on Clever Built In Storage You Never Thought Of, and Hide the Ugly, Outdoor Eyesores! More DIY Home hacks on our sister site TBD!

Image Credits: Good Housekeeping, Real Simple, Family Handyman, Darkroom and Dearly, Snapguide, Organized 31, Redbook, Redbook, Popsugar, Happy Creative Place, Driven by Decor, First

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Kathy Bates

Kathy Bates & Steve Bates (co-owners) – Woodard Bates Media LLC consisting of three blogs: TheBudgetDecorator.com, OhMeOhMyBlog.com and TheGardenGlove.com.

Kathy Bates’ previous writing credits include:

Former home decorating expert for Lifetime TV, Galtime and Country Woman Magazine.

Her book spent time at #1 on Amazon’s Home & Garden Topseller List in 2002.

Published or featured in numerous national publications, including:

Country Sampler’s Decorating Ideas magazine, Woman’s Day magazine, HGTV, The Wall Street Journal, CBS Marketwatch, Decorating Solutions magazine, Decorating Ideas magazine, The Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune, Kansas City News, The Oklahoman, Akron Beacon Journal, Pensacola News Journal and The Telegraph.

3 Comments

  1. June 15, 2017 / 5:15 am

    Great hacks. Love the Swiffer sock one. Thanks for sharing my bottle boot shaper hack.

    • Kathy Woodard
      Author
      June 26, 2017 / 12:02 pm

      Thx for such a great idea Susan!

  2. Glenys Hardy
    January 16, 2017 / 9:08 pm

    I began using the Horizontal method for putting away things in our draws and it is lovely to go to the draw and see exactly what you want and in what colour.
    I’m not sure where I got that from but I did think it came from a book my Daughter lent me by a lady named Marie Kondo, who has sold 3 million copies and has a business in Tokyo.
    The photo above certainly shows how good it looks. Thanks for sharing and well done.
    Glenys in Australia.

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