Off-label Hacks
Betsy Taylor
“Don’t do that!” cried my husband when he saw me pound a nail with a screwdriver handle. His point is that every tool has a purpose and there is a “correct” purpose for every tool. I rolled my eyes and trudged to the basement workbench for a hammer.
While I agree that using the right tool for a job is safer for the worker and saves your tools from abuse, I also know that sometimes tools can be used off-label. I like that term for something (usually medication) that is useful for a purpose other than what is intended.
A person doesn’t have to be a genius to innovate. You might simply have a problem in need of a handy solution. My sisters and I often fill “specialty” needs in off-label ways.
The last problem I solved involved my love of thousand-piece jigsaw puzzles that take up a lot of space. If you want to dump out all thousand pieces to sort, there simply isn’t enough room on a 36×36 inch card table. Don’t want to use a lot of real estate on your dinner table? I’m with you. Gotta save room for food.
For years, I stuck to 500-piece puzzles that fit on my 28×31 inch slab of laminated plywood. Lately, however, plywood has become too heavy for me to lug from one surface to another, so I looked for something sturdy, but lighter. While I was at it, I searched for a board with more area. Manufactured puzzle boards are too heavy for me and too skimpy even though they boast hidden drawers for sorting pieces by color.
After rejecting several options, I visited a home-improvement store where I found a 4×8 foot by 1-inch sheet of Styrofoam insulation. It’s strong, sturdy, lightweight, and adjustable to the perfect size with a bread knife. I split the piece with my sister who hung hers on a wall where she pins quilt blocks into a desired pattern.
As for sorting my puzzle pieces, I use a sectioned plastic vegetable tray to divide the colors.
I bet you’re also clever about the use of tools in your home. A narrow knitting needle or crochet hook that fits the hole in a locked door can pop that lock and rescue a child who has accidentally trapped himself.
A telescoping magnet fits into small spaces to pull out dropped safety pins, needles, or straight pins. Small clamps from the hardware store can secure swatches of fabric to a cutting surface, so that the cuts made are straight and true.
Soup cans act as weights on wrapping paper to insure smooth, not jagged, cuts. A yardstick can become the handle of a poster. Just remember that a beefy staple gun is needed to secure the poster to the stick.
The bristles of 2-inch-wide paint brush passed gently down fabric lampshades remove more dust in a safer manner than the brush tool of your vacuum cleaner. Fuzzy craft sticks (formerly called pipe cleaners) also become cleaning tools as they remove lint from the bobbin area of your sewing machine or slide into tight spaces between glass doors in your shower.
One of the biggest (literally) off-label jobs one of our tools performed was done by our garden tiller, Big Red. My husband needed to dig a trench to pour a concrete footer for an expansion of our original garage. Picks and shovels are inadequate when you have a work buddy like Big Red. Red broke up enough soil that we could shovel it out and save many hours of work. So much for a tiller intended to churn up hillocks for vegetables.
My advice: Don’t try to pound a nail with a screwdriver handle, but take advantage of tools that can be used to innovate in other, safer ways.
