Shelves in the Bathroom

We rent our house so there is not a ton we can do to change the look of things, nothing can be permanent, so I have to get pretty creative.  I loved seeing this shelf idea because in both of our bathrooms we had the ugliest, standard cupboard above our toilet and I hated them.  Every time I looked at them I wanted something different, so when I saw this pin I was inspired to do something similar.  For our first bathroom I found the chevron contact paper for 4 dollars at our local NPS store and already had the frames, they were green, so I spray painted them white.  The contact paper comes right of without a mess and the frames are just hung with thumbtacks.  For our master bath, I used vinyl and cut out red stripes, then I found the shelves I used at Ikea for 1.99, so I bought three of those and put them up.  I like it so much better, it makes such a big difference and does not drive me crazy anymore.

RESULTS
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Easiest way to hang a picture.

Why, why have I never come up with this idea.  Whoever did is absolutely brilliant and I owe everything to.  I did this the last time we moved and it worked every time, it was so much easier than the level, pencil and measuring tape.

RESULTS
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*****-ease
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Original pin can be found here: http://www.iheartnaptime.net/easiest-way-to-hang-a-picture/

Getting Rust Spots off of your knives

I tried this one out and I soaked my knives in lemon juice for almost 8 hours, while it did make my rust spots smaller, it did not get rid of them.  I guess the best solution for rust spots is just not to get them in the first place.  I did not feel like it worked well enough for me to use it again so I will give it a pins down.

RESULTS
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ease-**
effectiveness-**
cost-**
time-**
practical-**

Solution for not having the right size batteries

I have to admit I did not think this one was going to work and if it did that it would not be safe but I have to say this worked AMAZING and will help me so much in the future when the kids need a toy to have batteries that is the size I do not have.  I tried it with DVD remote and as you can see the DVD player was off and then I did this too the batteries and the DVD player turned on with the remote! Easy, Cheap and really works.  I have had the remote this way for about two weeks and it is still working just fine. Thank you to the person who figured this out!!!

RESULTS
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ease-*****
effectiveness-*****
cost-*****
time-*****
practical-*****

Original post can be found here: http://nedhardy.com/2012/05/25/15-tips-and-tricks-to-make-you-life-a-whole-lot-easier/

Directions: Just place tin foil in the spaces that the batteries do not fill

Vinegar and Pennies as Wood Stain

I thought this was such a cool idea and a great green way to get color into your wood without all of the chemicals.   We put the "handful" of pennies into vinegar and let it sit for one week.  As you can see from the pictures below this did not work at all.  I am not sure what a "handful" of pennies meant but maybe my "handful" was not big enough.  I have a suspicion that the stains with berries and coffee would work a lot better and will try those out next, but as for the vinegar and pennies,  it did not work at all.

RESULTS
PINS DOWN
**-ease
*-effectiveness
**-cost
*-time
*-practical

Rubberband With Paint

Let me just say first that this is only for paintbrushes not rollers or anything like that.  But for paintbrushes this idea is one of the best out there.  It worked so perfect and the best part is that the paint just falls off the rubber band into the can that way you are not wasting any paint.  My only precaution is that when you take the rubber band off be prepared for some paint flying as the rubber band slings back into place or just wait for the paint on the rubber band to dry.  My other thought was that you could probably just close the lid onto the rubber band so that it is there the next time you use it.  Great idea, easy, cheap, fast and works awesome!!

RESULTS
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*****-ease
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Original pin can be found here:
http://pinterest.com/pin/233765036878793619/

Reviving Old Paintbrushes

I know, we have all done it!  Taken all the time to paint something and then you are too tired to clean the brushes properly so when you pull them out again they are hard as rocks.  Well this solution did not do anything for my poor paintbrushes.  I guess the best solution is to just clean them right the first time.

RESULTS
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**-ease
*-effectiveness
**-cost
**-time
*-practical

Painters Tape to Caulk Lines

 This came at the perfect time. I had noticed that there were beginning to be cracks in our caulk in our bathtub.  I only did a portion with tape and a portion without tape so you could see the difference.  If you look close at the second picture below you can see that once I wiped the caulk it got all over the tub surround and I had to wipe it again but when I wiped it where the tape was it just went right on the tape and then all I had to do was pull the tape off and I had a perfect line.  It was cheap, easy and took me about 5 minutes.  I also used one more tip from the main post and that was to cut my caulk tube at an angle instead of straight on the line like the bottle suggests and that made it so much easier to get the job done.  I will never do this again without putting tape down first, what a great idea.

RESULTS
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*****- time
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Original post can be found here
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20303977_20669132,00.html