Clever handy hints under $5

Everyone enjoys a good bargain, especially when it can save you time and trouble for several home improvement projects. So check out these clever and cheap handy hints that cost less than $5 to reproduce.

Caps on certain adhesives/glues, like rubber cement and super glue, have a habit of getting stuck or glued on no matter how hard you try and keep them clean. Learn this simple hack to solve this annoying issue.

Make almost any work surface in your shop much easier to clean by adding some peel-and-stick vinyl tiles. The smooth, liquid-resistant tiles are available at most home centres, and they’re easy to apply because the adhesive is ready to go!

If you use a standard banquet table for your workbench, you’ll love this hint! We created stilts for our table using 30mm PVC pipe, raising the surface of our workbench to a more comfortable height!

Here are 8 storage solutions using PVC piping.

Here’s an easy automotive hack: buy carpet squares from Home Depot (they’re always under $2) and use them as car mats in your back seats. Another option is to use carpet scraps to make these DIY car mats.

Check out these cleaning secrets only car detailers know.

Make your own DIY ice pack! All you need to do is take a standard kitchen sponge, soak it in water, put it inside a ziploc bag, and freeze it. Freeze the sponge overnight and the next morning, you will have an ice pack. The handy thing is that when the ice starts to melt, the sponge soaks up the water so it doesn’t leak everywhere.

Furniture gets beat up over time, but you don’t have to live with the unsightly scratches. In fact, you can remove years of damage with a simple snack food: walnuts, rubbed over the scratch.

Learn these 10 tips for wood floor scratch repair.

Attach a round base magnet to the top of your ladder for an extra hand that can hold nuts, bolts, screws, etc, for you while you work. Round base magnets have a premade hole in the centre, so all you need to do is drill a hole in the top of your ladder and secure the magnet with a bolt and nut.

Learn about ladder safety.

Did you know that coins can be used to shim a toilet? Just slip coins under a toilet to level it; then add caulk along the floor to hide the coin shims.

Learn about smart sealing: here are 3 steps to mastering your caulking gun.

If I need to cut a piece of PVC that’s impossible to reach with a saw, I cut a small notch into the pipe with a utility knife and cut the pipe by pulling a string back and forth in the notch. It’s not as fast or accurate as a saw – this pipe took about 5 minutes to cut through – but it’s a good trick in a tight spot.