Annoying things can happen at the most inopportune times.
Well, it may not have been so annoying if it hadn’t been an inopportune time, but, I’ll just stick with “annoying”.
Sunday, I was making breakfast for the family. I opened a lower cabinet door which houses cooking pots and saucepans. The top hinge came loose and the whole door hung at a crazy angle by only the bottom screws and hinge. We have a very old house with equally old cabinetry. Remodeling our kitchen is on the list for next year.
This particular cabinet door is opened at least a few times a day, so I guess it was time for the hinge hardware’s demise.
My husband is excellent at fixing things, and he is retired now, so has time to fix the little things around the house that break down. But, when he was working, I just hated to have a list of things for him to fix after a long day at work. And being the “tomboy” that I am, I like to try to fix things myself. This accomplished two things. First, it eased his work load, and second, I got things back in working order sooner.
Now, let me clarify here that there are many things that I just don’t know how to fix. However, I will at least try to figure out how to fix it. I figure, there isn’t anything that I can screw up so badly that somebody somewhere can’t fix it. So, I’ll give it a try.
Okay, back to the cabinet. These screws didn’t just wiggle loose and simply need to be tightened. The screw holes had worn out, so the screws just spun when I tried to tighten them.
Sometimes, using a screw with a slightly larger diameter will work to solve the problem. However, some hinges have holes the size of the original screw so a larger screw is not a viable option.
That was the case with my cabinet hardware, so I turned my attention to the holes in the cabinet itself.
After fixing the hinges and screws on that particular door, I realized that there may be someone out there who might need to know a quick fix for when the screws on their cabinet door hinge become loose.
If your cabinet screws just spin in place, here is a simple solution that will get your screws tight and your cabinet door back in working order.
Take an ordinary toothpick. A round one works best, but if you only have flat ones, just stack two together. Depending on how loose the screw hole is, you may need to stack two sets of two flat toothpicks to make it work.
Insert the toothpick into the screw hole in your cabinet.
Push the toothpick to the side so that it bends and cracks at the front edge of the cabinet.
Bend the tip in the opposite direction to break it off. Insert the broken end of the tip into the hole so that the pointy end is now pointing toward you.
Push the toothpick in just until it is almost flush with the face of the cabinet. (I left mine out slightly just so you could see it better.) Realign the hinge over the hole.
Insert the point of the screw to the side of the toothpick and tighten it down.
The toothpick fix works well with any type of small wooden project.
A picture frame, a bi-fold door knob, a shelf bracket, a dresser drawer knob, etc., are few things that come to my mind.
Today is a good day to fix those little loose projects around the house so that they don’t become big fix-it projects later.
The sooner I get little fix-it jobs out of the way, the more time I have for quilting. Win, Win!
Have a great day and happy creating!
Diane
P.S.
There is still time to enter the giveaway mentioned in my post, UFO’s and Orphaned Blocks. Just click on the link and leave a comment at the bottom of that post. The name of everyone who leaves a comment on that post will be entered to win. I’ll put all of the names in a basket, draw one, and announce the winner on February 21, 2020.
That is just what I do too.
It’s simple, but it works!