DIY Magic: Transforming Home Essentials Into Money-Savers

Ashley - June 13, 2023

Photo: Photo Credit: familyhandyman.com

Many people struggle to accomplish projects around the home when on a tight budget. Simple hacks and DIY tricks offer the possibility of checking something off your to-do list without paying for a professional or spending a ton of money on supplies. But there is an ocean of these hacks and tricks on the internet, and sometimes it’s challenging to find ones that actually work. That’s why we’ve sifted through the internet to bring you these simple, practical DIY hacks for the home. Every hack in this list uses items you already have lying around the house, so they’ll save you money and time. Get ready to finish the to-do list that’s been haunting you because these hacks will change your life!

Unclog Your Drains In Minutes With Coffee

One of the biggest headaches homeowners encounter is plumbing issues. When your sink or bathtub stops up and refuses to drain, you’re left with a murky pool of standing water in your home that’s likely to attract bugs and smell awful! Most people will head to the store for some industrial strength drain cleaner, but there’s a much simpler method that’s just as effective and won’t cost you a dime! Take a few tablespoons of coffee grounds and mix your dish detergent into the grounds. Pour that into the drain and then chase it with a pot of boiling water. This combination works like magic to break up any chunks or clogs and get your drain moving again.

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Simple DIY Storage For Cords

We live in a world dependent on technology. This comes with a ton of benefits, but it can also create an insane amount of clutter in the home when you don’t have proper storage for extra power cords, HDMI cables, and chargers. There are a ton of storage organizers you can buy online for your extra cords, but you already have everything you need at home! Just grab a cardboard box and some toilet paper rolls. Stick the rolls in your box, bundle up your cords, and place each bundle in a toilet paper roll. You can even label the rolls or the box if you want to feel an extra burst of organizational bliss.

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Ditch Furniture Polish For Essential Oils

Tired of spending money on fancy wood polish? When you want to make your wooden furniture gleam and smell fabulous, reach for a bottle of lemon essential oil. You can use the essential oil to polish any dark wood, and the smell it leaves behind is absolutely heavenly. Tea tree oil is also an excellent option for this job and has the added benefit of being a bug deterrent! Just make sure you test the essential oil on a small, unnoticed part of your furniture first to make sure it won’t stain or remove the finish on the wood.

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Use Dryer Lint As A DIY Firestarter

Do you enjoy taking the family camping on the weekends? Or do you have a fire pit in your backyard that you relax around after a hard day’s work? Hanging out next to a fire is a great way to relax and enjoy the outdoors, but you’ll spend a lot of money on fancy firestarters over the years. Instead, put something you already have in the home to good use! Every time you empty the lint from your dryer, put it in a toilet paper roll. Then, wrap that roll in plastic wrap or another waterproof material to keep it dry. The lint will work as an excellent firestarter, and it won’t cost you a cent! This is a great way to reuse something that would otherwise end up in the garbage.

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Toothpaste Cleans More Than Your Teeth

Whether you have kids, pets, or furniture that’s suffering the effects of everyday wear and tear, you’re bound to find little scratches on your tables and chairs from time to time. Before you panic and look up the cost to refinish their surfaces, try this trick instead. Grab a non-gel toothpaste and use a pea-sized amount on the scratch. Gently rub the toothpaste into the area with a soft cloth until the scratch has been completely buffed out. Make sure to wipe down the area with some water to remove any of the toothpaste residue. You’ll have your furniture looking brand new again and smelling minty fresh!

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Got Paint Messes? Not When You Use A Rubber Band!

Repainting a room can be an exciting project, but it also comes with a high risk of messes. It’s easy to get pain all down the side of the can accidentally, and you definitely don’t want to end up with paint splotches all over your floor. Thankfully, you can solve your painting anxiety with this simple trip. Head to the junk drawer in your kitchen and grab a large rubber band. Wrap the rubber band around the paint can, like shown in this picture. You use the rubber band to wipe off your paintbrush rather than the side of the paint can. This eliminates the risk of paint messes and ensures you get to use up every drop of paint in the can.

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Freeze And Remove Candle Wax With Ice Cubes

Candle wax definitely doesn’t belong on furniture, but accidents happen! If you’ve ever run into this issue, then you know just how difficult it can be to clean candle wax off of the couch. Don’t try to scrape the wax off right away because you’re likely to damage your furniture and create a bigger problem. Here’s what you’ll need for this trick: a handful of ice cubes and a plastic bag. Throw your ice cubes in the plastic bag and place the bag on the candle wax. Once the wax is fully cooled and hardened, you should be able to easily peel it off without ruining your furniture’s fabric.

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Stabilize Your Cutting Board In Two Seconds

Even if you don’t consider yourself an avid chef, you probably spend most nights in the kitchen. Whether you’re cutting up ingredients for a delicious meal or using your cutting board to dice tomatoes for a salad, wooden cutting boards get a ton of use! But these cutting boards can get pretty wet and slippery when you’re slicing up juicy veggies or fruit, so here’s a trick that will help you keep your cutting board in place. Just take two rubber bands and stretch them across either end of your cutting board. This will provide extra friction to keep the board from sliding around, which will reduce the risk of an accidental knick or a time-consuming mess. It only takes a couple of seconds, and it will save you plenty of time when you’re not cleaning veggie juices off your counters.

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Melt Away Your Kids’ Drawings

Parents have been struggling with their children’s drawing on the walls since crayons were invented! No matter how much paper you provide these little artists with, they’re always going to want to expand their creations and give your home a little pop of Crayola decor. Don’t spend hours scrubbing away at these marks with cleaning solutions- it doesn’t always fully remove the crayon and is likely to remove the paint from your walls. Instead, grab the hairdryer out of your bathroom and use it to heat the crayon wax. You should only need to point the hairdryer at the crayon marks for a few minutes to get the wax warm enough to remove. Then, simply remove it with a clean sponge or cloth.

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Instant DIY Whiteboard For The Whole Family

Most washers and dryers have a clean enamel finish, which creates a perfect opportunity for busy families. Grab a few dry-erase markers and use them to write notes on the surface of your washer and dryer! You can write anything like reminders about school uniforms, schedule changes, or you could even get fancy and draw a whole calendar for everyone to add their important events. This is a great way to keep up with everyone in the home, especially when you’re running on different schedules.

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Restore Jars To Their Former Glory With Cooking Oil

Anyone who has tried removing a label from a jar knows just how stubborn the left-behind residue can be. Seriously, you could spend ages scraping at the residue with a razor blade and never make any progress. Thankfully, when you want to reuse a jar and restore it to its former glory, we have the perfect trick to get rid of all that sticky residue! Grab some cooking oil and a cotton ball. Rub the cooking oil onto the residue and leave it to sit for a few minutes. When you go back, the residue should wipe away easily.

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Upcycle Your Old Socks Into Dusters

This trick probably won’t come as a surprise to many of you, but it’s a great hack that deserves a place on this list. There are plenty of products out there designed to get in between your blinds and pick up all the dust that collects there, but these products can get expensive, especially if you buy the ones that use replaceable pads. Why spend all that money when you can use an old pair of socks? Fuzzy socks work best, but any pair will do the trick. Put a sock on your hand and wipe down the blinds. With this trick, you’ll get this chore done in half the time for a fraction of the cost.

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Clean Your Microwave With Vinegar And Lemons

Microwaves are notoriously tricky to clean. When you leave food residue sitting in your microwave for too long, it’s likely to develop an unpleasant odor as well. At this point, you’re probably ready to throw the whole microwave away and start with a new one. But there’s a super easy way to get your microwave sparkling clean and smelling amazing again. First, put a bowl full of vinegar in the microwave for a few minutes. This will make it super easy to wipe away any food residue while also removing any lingering odors. Then, if you’re not fond of the scent of vinegar, put another bowl in the microwave for a few minutes, but this time use lemon water in the bowl. Your microwave will smell and look great again in minutes.

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Stop Wooden Drawers From Squeaking With A Candle

Old wooden furniture looks gorgeous and creates a cute rustic appeal in the home, but older wooden furniture tends to come with its own unique set of challenges. Often, the drawers will start to stick and don’t slide as smoothly as they used to. When this happens, most people will resign themselves to an afternoon of sanding down the drawers, but there’s a trick you should try first. Take any wax candle from around the home and rub it along the sides of the drawer. This should help the drawer slide smoothly again and will only take a few minutes. If your drawers are still sticking after this, it’s time to pull out the sandpaper!

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Mouthwash Can Clean Your Toilet, Too!

Cleaning toilets isn’t on anyone’s list of favorite household chores, but it’s a necessity. Dangerous bacteria and powerful odors will build up the longer you go without cleaning. If your toilet is way overdue for a cleaning, you will want to try this hack! Don’t bother running to the store and grabbing another expensive and unnecessary cleaning product. Just grab the mouthwash sitting on your kitchen counter and pour a cup of it into the toilet bowl. Let the mouthwash sit for half an hour, and then go to work with your scrub brush. All the grime should come up super easily, and the mouthwash will eliminate any unpleasant odors.

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Scrub Your Wooden Furniture With Walnuts

When your wooden tables and chairs get scratched, your first thought probably isn’t to reach for a jar of walnuts, but that’s exactly what you should be doing! Walnuts are actually full of the same types of oils that most furniture polishes use, so ditch the expensive furniture polish and grab a walnut instead. Take a walnut and scrub it around the scratch until it disappears. Don’t worry – the walnut won’t add more scratches. Give your furniture a good scrub with the walnut, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly the scratches disappear. Just make sure you’re scrubbing hard enough to release all the oils in the walnut. If you wanted to, you could also blend up a bunch of walnuts to release the oils. Put the blended mush onto your table and rub it in with a clean cloth!

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No More Toothbrushes Filled With Germs

Yes, there are plenty of toothbrush holders you can buy, but these holders often take up a good amount of counter space and collect a lot of dust. If you’re looking to avoid adding an extra thing to wipe down every day, then you should consider this simple trip. Just take a clothespin and use it to grip your toothbrush. It will keep the bristles of your brush from coming in contact with your counter, which should seriously help reduce germs. Also, remember to replace your toothbrush every six months! Your mouth with thank you for it.

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Scrub Your Shoes With Toothpaste

Cleaning shoes isn’t the most fun chore, but it’s necessary. After being exposed to dirt and grim all day long, every day of the week, your shoes can get pretty nasty. There are plenty of shoe-cleaning products out there you can buy, but we have an easier and cheaper solution for you! Grab a spare toothbrush out of your bathroom and some toothpaste. Squeeze some toothpaste on the toothbrush and start scrubbing your shoe. The toothpaste will remove any dirt and discoloration while giving your shoes a minty fresh scent. Just be careful to avoid colored toothpaste because it can stain light-colored shoes. Darker-colored shoes should be okay, but it’s better to be safe than sorry!

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Photo Credit: macgyverisms.wonderhowto.com

Stop Stepping On Bath Toys In The Shower

This trick is a necessity for parents and people who enjoy plenty of variety in their bathing products. Does your bathroom feel like it’s getting overrun by items that sit and languish in your shower or tub? Here’s what you can do to solve that problem! Grab a new curtain rod and attach it inside your shower. Then, take some S-hooks and use them to hang baskets or mesh bags from the rod. You can easily store bath toys, loofahs, body wash, etc., with this trick. This keeps everything off the floor and keeps them from taking up valuable storage space in the rest of your bathroom!

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Use A Mug To Keep Your Knives Sharp

Many people end up throwing away perfectly good knives or scissors once they become dull. Your best option is to buy a sharpening stone, but if you don’t have one of these lying around, then you should try this trick! Grab a ceramic mug out of your cabinet and flip it upside down. You can then use the bottom rim to sharpen your scissors and knives! Be careful with this trick because not all ceramic mugs have this bottom ring absent of finish, so you want to be sure you have the right type of mug. But, as long as you have the right mug, this trick will keep your knives sharp for ages!

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Save On Soap With A Rubber Band

Do you have children in the home with heavy hands? Tired of going through a bottle of hand soap within a few days? This trick will save your soap and your wallet! When you have someone in the home that overuses hand soap, it can be tricky to find a way to convince them to be more conservative. Rather than have the same tedious conversation day after day, use this hack to solve the issue. All you need is a simple rubber band. Wrap it around the pump dispenser of your soap bottle. The rubber band will prevent anyone from pumping out too much soap too quickly. Pro tip: Super glue the rubber band to the pump dispenser to prevent mischievous children from taking it off!

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DIY Sink Declogger Using Only A Zip-Tie

There are some jobs that require a plumber’s expertise, but you shouldn’t feel the need to call out a professional over a simple clogged sink. After all, plumbers are expensive, and it’s not a pleasant feeling to pay someone hundreds of dollars for a task that only takes ten minutes. Start unclogging your sinks yourself with this easy trick! All you need is a zip tie and a pair of scissors. Cut slits in the zip tie to create little notches. Then, stick the zip tie down the sink and use it to fish out whatever hair and other debris are stopping up your drain. You can keep the zip tie in a drawer and reuse it again and again!

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Clean Pans With Alka-Seltzer Tablets

No matter how experienced a cook you are, you’ll still run into situations where food debris burns onto your pan. This is one of the worst messes to clean and often requires hours of soaking in soap and hot water and then tons of scrubbing. Instead of dealing with all of that, head into your bathroom and grab an Alka-Seltzer table. Fill the pan with water and drop in a single tablet. Leave it to sit for about half an hour. When you return, the mess should wipe up easily with a clean sponge! This trick will save you loads of time and stress.

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A Trash Can Perfectly Suited For Your Car

This technically isn’t a hack for your home, but many people consider their car to be like a second home. With all the time spent commuting and driving kids around, it’s easy to feel like you spend just as much time in your car as you do at home! Keeping your car neat and tidy can present a challenge, but that’s why we’re mentioning this trick. You can easily create a car-sized trash can with a few simple materials from your home. Grab a kitchen container (like the one you’d use to store cereal or rice) and throw a plastic baggie or small garbage bag into it. You can put this in your car and use it to throw away garbage while you’re traveling. The best part is these containers have lids, so you never have to worry about stopping suddenly and sending garbage flying everywhere.

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Brighten Your Life With LED Lights In The Kitchen

Some of us don’t follow an average circadian rhythm. If you’re a night owl and enjoy spending your evenings cooking or cleaning up your kitchen, then this trick is for you! When you have a kitchen without proper lighting, it’s easy to make cooking mistakes or miss a spot while you’re cleaning. You can solve any potential headaches by grabbing some stick-on LED lights to illuminate your kitchen. Stick them on the underside of your cabinets to light up your sink and cabinets. This is perfect for night owls and homes with awkward lighting in the kitchen.

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DIY Cheap And Easy Ice Pack

Everyone needs an ice pack once in a while. When you have kids running around the home, you’re likely to run through a ton of ice packs to soothe boo-boos. You could do the usual trick where you wrap ice cubes in a hand towel, but this creates a messy situation. The ice will melt and make the towel soggy and uncomfortable. Try this excellent alternative that doesn’t cost you and can be reused again and again. Take a clean sponge and place it in water until it’s soaked. Place the sponge in a ziplock bag and stick it in the fridge. The sponge will be nice and frozen when you take it out, but it won’t be too stiff. You can use different colored sponges for each of your kids to make it special or even add some glitter to the sponge!

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Let Your Blender Clean Itself

Everyone needs a blender in their kitchen. You can make smoothies, mixed drinks, and crushed ice for your drinks. But anyone who owns a blender knows how difficult these things are to clean. There are so many pieces to take apart and clean, and trying to get into all the nooks and crannies can be a struggle. Instead of taking it apart and trying to wash it by hand, try this instead. Fill your blender with warm water and dish soap. Then, place the blender back on its base and hit blend or mix. This will clean out every inch of the inside of your blender with minimal effort on your part. Then all you need to do is rinse the blender out and leave it to dry.

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Simple DIY Phone Speaker You Need To Try

Having guests over presents the perfect opportunity to play music and connect with your friends. However, if your Bluetooth speaker stops working unexpectedly and you need a backup to blast your jams, we have the perfect trick for you. Reach into your cabinet and pull out a shallow bowl or a glass cup. Turn up the volume and put your phone in the cup or bowl. The sound will be amplified, and your guests will love learning this trick from you. Just make sure the glass is on a stable surface far away from the edges because the sound vibrations could knock the cup off the surface otherwise!

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Disorganized Bathroom? Get A Silverware Tray!

Bathroom drawers and cabinets often get cluttered and completely disorganized. Drawer organizers can help, but no one wants to go out and spend a bunch of money on organizers when you probably have something laying around the house you can use. You can use a spare silverware tray or grab one from your local dollar store. Use the silverware tray to organize your toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, and anything else that gets thrown into your bathroom drawers. They also make excellent organizers for makeup!

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Use Elastic Suspenders To Keep Fitted Sheets In Place

How many times have you struggled to get your fitted sheets to stay in place? These sheets are notorious for springing away from the corners when you least expect it. Rather than struggle every morning to pull the corners back into place, grab a pair of elastic suspenders to do the hard work for you. Just clip one end under your mattress and use it to anchor your sheets in place. It’s super effective and easy to remove when it’s time to wash your sheets! This method will lessen the time you spend making your bed every morning, so you have more time to enjoy your morning cup of coffee instead.

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Reduce Waste By Reusing Plastic Containers

We should all strive to be more mindful of the waste we create in our daily lives. Sometimes, it’s nice to grab a quick meal ready to go, but then you’re left with these plastic containers. Some people use them for storing things in the kitchen, like teabags, but we have another idea for you. Fill your container with potting soil and plant seeds in them! When the seedlings have grown big enough, you can transfer them to your garden or a planting pot and then put new seeds in the container. It’s the perfect way to reuse these containers and start growing your own herbs or veggies!

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Instantly Improve Your Hangers

Hanging clothes is a great way to keep them wrinkle-free and easily accessible, but low-quality hangers tend to let your clothes slip off of them. If you’re tired of picking your perfectly clean clothes up off the floor, then this is the perfect trick for you! All you really need is some glue, but it’s even better if you have a glue gun. Just put a few drops of glue on the top part of your hanger. Wait for the drops to completely dry before you put your clothes on the hanger! This easy trick will prevent your clothes from falling off. Just make sure to put something underneath the hanger when you’re adding the glue. Otherwise, you could end up with another mess on your floor!

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Two-Step DIY Garden Sprinkler

This is another great trick that will help you transform something that would normally be thrown into the trash into a useful item. The next time you think about throwing away a water bottle, stop and remember this trick! First, take an empty water bottle and poke holes in the sides. Second, tape it to your hose and set it up in your garden. When you turn on the water, the bottle acts like a sprinkler. This is the perfect way to water your plants and lawn during the hot summer months, and it won’t cost you a dime!

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Unique Shoe Storage Idea

What do you do with your shoes once they’re out of season? If you’re not going to be wearing certain pairs of shoes for a few months, then there’s no reason for them to be taking up room in your living space. There are plenty of shoe organizers you could buy, but we suggest giving this trick a try instead. Take an old wine box and use the slots to keep your shoes organized! Then you can safely store this box in a closet or your garage and take it out again when you need it. Plus, if you don’t have an old wine box lying around, it’s super easy to get one for free. Just visit any liquor store and ask if they have some boxes they’re looking to get rid of. They almost always have some and are happy to give them away for free.

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Turn Your Rugs Into DIY Non-Slips

Tired of having your rugs run out from underneath you? Or do you need to turn your rugs into non-slips to prevent your toddlers from falling over? We have a great idea for you! Rather than spend your hard-earned money on rubber grips to place underneath your rug, grab some glue from your crafts drawer. Flip your rug upside down and apply drops of glue along the edges. Wait for the glue to dry completely before putting the rug back in its place. The glue provides extra traction and friction, which will prevent your rug from slipping and sliding around.

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Create A Secret Wallet With Lip Balm

Going out to visit the city is exciting and fun, but it also comes with risks. Anyone who lives in a big city knows not to carry cash around on themselves, obviously, but you still don’t want to be completely without funds. You can create a discrete wallet to hide your money and bring it with you whenever you visit a new city. All you need is an empty lip balm tube! Just rinse out the tube really well and let it dry completely before you put any money in there. Then you can carry it around with you whenever you leave the home. No one would suspect you have money hidden inside your chapstick tube.

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Keep Pets Off The Couch With Two Household Items

Couches are expensive! There’s a good reason pet owners want to keep their cats and dogs off the couch, but most family pets are stubborn and are determined to sit where their humans are sitting. Try this trick to keep them off the couch whenever you aren’t home. Just line the parts of your couch they’re likely to jump up on with a layer of bubble wrap and aluminum foil. The uncomfortable sensation of the foil combined with the startling noise of the bubble wrap will give your pet the ick, and they’ll start to avoid the couch.

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Squeegee Away Stubborn Pet Hair

We’re going to wrap up this list with one more trick for our fellow pet owners. If you can’t keep your pets off the furniture, you’ll have to deal with a ton of pet hair on your couches. Sometimes even a heavy-duty vacuum won’t remove all the fur, but you can easily get up a ton of it with this trick! Take a simple squeegee and run it over the furniture to pull up all the pet hair. Then, you can easily throw the hair away! Run your vacuum over the furniture to make sure you got every last bit.

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