10 Creative Home Hacks That Will Improve Your Life

These home hacks solve everyday problems with stuff you already have.

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Build a Ball Tower
Family Handyman

Build a Ball Tower

Some kids are into balls—any kind of balls. So they accumulate. It's hard to find a storage system to keep them all handy, including the ones on the bottom of the pile. Here's an ingenious system using bungee cords. They're firm enough to keep the pile organized, but stretchy enough that you can squeeze the bottom ball out. Need more storage in the garage? Build this super shelving system with pegboard.
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New Uses for Old Glove Fingers
Family Handyman

New Uses for Old Glove Fingers

Don't throw out your old work gloves. Cut the fingers off and you'll find lots of uses for them. Use them to protect the tips of chisels when you need to carry them. They're also good for softening the grip of pliers and many other applications.
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Make a Squeegee From a Rake

Make a Squeegee From a Rake

Need a squeegee in a hurry? Take a piece of pipe insulation and use a couple cable ties to fasten it to the back of a garden rake. Works like a charm, and you don't even have to take it off to use the rake.
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Old Sneakers as Ladder Bumpers
Family Handyman

Old Sneakers as Ladder Bumpers

You could buy special rubber bumpers for the tops of your ladders to protect your siding or walls, but why? A pair of old sneakers (who doesn't have some!) and a little duct tape will do the job just fine. You can also use a sneaker to clean your sandpaper—really!
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Double Up on Stubborn Nails
Family Handyman

Double Up on Stubborn Nails

Nails can be a pain to remove, especially trim nails with small heads and any nail when the head breaks off. The trick is to use two tools together: locking pliers to grab the nail shank, and a pry bar to do the pulling.

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Garage Floor Dam
Family Handyman

Garage Floor Dam

Garage floors are puddle prone: springtime floods, melting ice from tires, you name it. You can keep that water away from your tools and toys with a dam made of expanding foam. It sticks, it's waterproof, and you can walk or drive over it without damaging it. And come summer, it'll scrape right off. These 12 unique uses for spray foam will blow your mind.
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Hot-Glue Bumpers
Family Handyman

Hot-Glue Bumpers

Got a flowerpot or something else with a rough bottom that you want to set on a finished surface? Sure, you can buy special silicone bumpers, but you can also use hot glue. Just put dabs of glue on the underside of the object, let them cool for a minute, then while the glue is still soft, press down. Presto! Self-stick plastic bumpers. You need to know these tips for caring for your houseplants through the winter.
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Flip-Down Recipe Holder
Family Handyman

Flip-Down Recipe Holder

If you want a convenient recipe or note holder in your kitchen, just screw a clothespin to the inside of the bottom of an upper cabinet. Flip it down to hold the paper, then up to store it. It helps to trim a little bit off one leg of the clothespin (plastic or wood) so it's easy to drive a screw through the other.

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Gentle-Grip Pliers
Family Handyman

Gentle-Grip Pliers

Here's an oldie with a twist. Use pieces of garden hose or other tubing to soften the jaws of slip-joint or other pliers so you can grip plated surfaces without damage. The twist? Size them so you can slide them up the handles to keep them handy. Here are 20 more cool tool hacks to try.
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