Low-Tech Solutions to Modern Problems

[dannylion]

My dad could fix pretty much anything.  His solutions were not always attractive or elegant (unless they involved a vehicle of some sort, then they were works of art), but they worked.  I cannot adequately describe the water diversion and drainage system he came up with for the storage area under my deck.  It's weird and awkward-looking, made of corrugated metal with a gutter made from pieces of wood and a downspout from repurposed PVC pipe, but it has kept the storage area dry for 30 years.  Since it is concealed inside the storage area, it doesn't really matter what it looks like as no one sees it.  He loved repurposing otherwise useless materials and making something from essentially nothing.  Probably a result of growing up during the Depression.  

I inherited his penchant for fixing things, at least in the sense that when something needs to be modified or fixed, my first thought is what do I have handy that I can use to make this thing work or work the way I want it to.  Then I generally come to my senses and start looking for a professional or at least specifically designed parts to fix it right.  I have, however, devised a few personal solutions to annoying problems that others find weird (or sometimes hilarious), mostly just for small nuisances; I'm too lazy to tackle big problems.  

My current favorite low-tech solution has ensured that I have not lost the remote control for my TV and cable system in the approximately 5 years since I devised it.  All I did was attach a 6-foot length of purple double-faced satin ribbon to the bottom of the remote (fastened it by putting one end into the battery compartment and sliding the cover on over it).  Whenever the remote disappears under a shawl, sofa pillow, mail, books, or magazines, or a dish towel or Amazon package/envelope or other random item, at least part of the purple ribbon is always visible from some angle, so I no longer spend inordinate amounts of time looking for the remote.  It's a small thing, but it makes me smile.  I was inspired to comment here by once again losing it and finding it quickly just a few minutes ago.  

What low-tech solutions to modern problems are you proud of creating?

[Tennesseer]

Nothing major and just a few minor issues I decided to go without instead.

Over the stove light in the fan(?):   the plastic cup which covered the light bulb broke.  I went to an appliance store to either pick up a new one or order a replacement.   The appliance store looked up the replacement for that model and the cost of the placement for the small, cheap plastic cover was over $80.  Nope.  The lightbulb is just fine without a cover.

Same thing when the water sprayer/rinser at the top of the dishwasher broke off.  Went to the appliance store with the model number and item number.  Appliance store didn't have it and looked up what the manufacturer charged for the replacement and the cost was about 25% of the cost of the dishwasher.  Nope.  I just don't put anything in the top rack which needs washing.  Items that would normally go in the upper rack are hand washed and air dried.  I can live with that.

[billisonboard]

At my old job we had a snow sensor implanted in the front steps of our main building with a wire buried in the concrete, that ran somehow through the building, and into the control panel in a maintenance room in the back of the building that fired off a boiler that heated fluid that ran under the floors back out to the steps to melt the newly fallen snow. Great system until it stopped working. Maintenance guy figured out no signal was getting from the sensor to the control panel. He disconnected the wire from front step at the control panel and connected a short wire with a new sensor on the end of it. We would freeze metal pans of water and place them on the floor in the maintenance room on top of the new sensor. It worked.  (We learned that when the snow was really falling, it would be, ready for this,   , a Three Pan Night.)

[msventoux]

Where I’m from the consensus is that there’s not much that can’t be fixed or bypassed with duct tape, bungee cords, zip ties and a blue tarp. Not saying that’s always a good thing. 

[Tiny]

I was visiting my niece and was marveling at the assortment of diaper boxes that she was throwing away. She had 4 that were the same size and I thought would make perfect "storage boxes". They are heavy duty cardboard (who knew diapers were so fragile) and have cut out handles. I took them home, used dollar store "sticky" shelf paper to cover them and bam! 4 attractive storage boxes for under $5.00. When I get tired of them they can go to the trash/recycle. But until then they are helping me organize files, corral art supplies, be a designated holding spot for stuff I need to "give to friends/family", and to hold canning jars/rings that are empty and clean and need to go to the basement.


I use painter's tape (I like the blue kind) or Washi tape and a Sharpie pen to mark homemade jars of jelly, anything that I save in a jar on a shelf, fridge or freeze that's time sensitive: eggnog, refrigerator pickles, homemade broth, milk in the freezer... . I also use it when I transfer pasta into a sealed container - I put the time to cook it on the tape (and if I know how many 2 ounce servings that number)- I can see it's pasta (and what shape it is) I don't always "know" how long to cook it (and no I have never been able to master the skill of "knowing when the pastas done" without some help from a timer. ) I do the same when I transfer rice to a container (how much water and how long to cook it). I sometimes use the tape to put the "best by date" if I have trouble finding the "best by date" BEFORE I put the item in my pantry. If I can't easily find it when I just brought it home from the store - I'm probably never going to be able to find it in a month or two. Sometimes I'll just label something with WHEN I bought it. I love masking tape.

I use masking tape to make a tag on any cables/wires I have/use - there's never any doubt if that cable charges my phone, my wireless speaker, my wireless headset, my power bank, or something else. When I find a cable in a drawer that doesn't have a tape tag with what it is - odds are it's an orphan cord I can get rid of. If I find a cable with a tag for something I no longer own - out it goes. I love masking tape.

I'm pretty sure the labels and tags are cringeworthy to those who need "perfection" - I'm a sloppy writer and sometimes there there's too much tape or too little.  And my cable tags are sometimes lopsided (cause I couldn't fold the tape over and match it up perfectly so I trim or fold over the sticky side to make the "tag" usable.)   My labels/tags have saved me a lot of time and frustration. So, I'm good with whatever they look like. 

[resolution]

Before I was married I used to do a lot of duct tape redneck repairs, but now he fixes most things with actual tools and attractive supplies. I still have my office chair, where the arms have been duct taped together, and my mother-in-law made a protective denim cover on the back for the cats to climb up.

I have also repaired my cat trees with sissal mats. Our younger cat has torn up every carpet scratching post, including our floor to ceiling pole that has little platforms for the cats to jump up. Instead of constantly replacing the cat trees, I have bought cheap sissal mats and wrapped them around the poles. The first one was held on with zip ties, but now my husband has taken over so they are permanently attached with screws into the wooden poles.

I also use empty toilet paper holders as a cord management system for electronics that are stored in a drawer. The cords fit well inside the rolls and reduces the mess in the drawer.

[TheOtherMe]

My first house (as opposed to townhouse) had this great area in the living room.  Up by the ceiling, was a shelf that ran the length of the room.  There were windows there that were south facing.  When my BIL visited, he built a cat post that leaned against it and the cats were in heaven up there in the sun.  

When I sold the house, the buyers made keeping that part of the offer.

I now only buy sissal cat trees because they tear the carpeted ones up.

I am not a handy person, so it's usually others who come up with the solutions and then I buy whatever is needed and we do the work.

In that same house, the previous owner had put these ugly shake shingles that were falling apart on the kitchen cabinets.  I didn't have the money for new cabinets so a friend and I removed the shingles, sanded the cabinets, and painted the cabinets white.  It looked so much better than they did before and was quite affordable.

[billisonboard]

I wanted to put an Echo Dot in my garage. The only available outlet was in the ceiling where my automatic garage door opener is using half. I grabbed one of my little storage bags from my backpacking days, put the dot in it, and it is hanging from the frame that holds up the opener.

[Tiny]

I have also re purposed the old fashion wire clothes hangers (from the dry cleaner) by bending the bottom part of it around into a hook - so I could use the hanger at the top over a water pipe or over a nail in a floor joist in my old time basement and then hang something else from the "hook" I made with the body of the hanger. I use these outside to hang birdfeeders from the framework that use to allow my patio to be enclosed with screens and a canopy. I use a couple in my old time garage to hang odds and ends of stuff from the rafters or to hang stuff under a high up shelf to make the hanging stuff more accessible. I've hung some garden art things (when I store them for the winter), a bag with garden gloves and spare trash bags, and a roll of paper towels (so you can peel off a towel when you need one.).

[TheOtherMe]

The wire hangars can do all kinds of useful things.

[myrrh]

My parents got a rice cooker before I was born, I'm pretty sure it was in 1969 when they got married. It still works, but my dad has replaced the lid handle a couple of times now with a wooden homemade version when the screw got loose. I'm not ready for my parents to go but I would be happy to inherit that rice cooker (not least because it doesn't burn the rice on the bottom like most cheap rice cookers do nowadays.) My dad has also replaced the glove box lid on his car with a wooden homemade version.

[toomuchreality]

Aug 15, 2023 10:11:45 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

I wanted to put an Echo Dot in my garage. The only available outlet was in the ceiling where my automatic garage door opener is using half. I grabbed one of my little storage bags from my backpacking days, put the dot in it, and it is hanging from the frame that holds up the opener.

The only outlet in my garage is also in that location. I plugged in a VERY long extension cord, wrapped it around the wood a few times to keep it secure, as I strung it over to the wall. Then I secured it to a large hook and let it drop down to the area where I would have a plug, if I could. I wound up the excess and put a velcro strap around it and hung that over another large hook at the height that's convenient for me, leaving the end loose, so I can easily plug things into it. Most of the time my shop vac stays plugged in, so I can vacuum my car quickly, without effort. But it's easy to plug other things into the the cord. And the cord has probably 20-30 ft available, so it can change locations if I need it to.
Now I don't have to drag out the extension cord and climb on my ladder every time I need a power outlet in my garage.

[dannylion]

Aug 22, 2023 17:07:13 GMT -5 myrrh said:

My parents got a rice cooker before I was born, I'm pretty sure it was in 1969 when they got married. It still works, but my dad has replaced the lid handle a couple of times now with a wooden homemade version when the screw got loose. I'm not ready for my parents to go but I would be happy to inherit that rice cooker (not least because it doesn't burn the rice on the bottom like most cheap rice cookers do nowadays.) My dad has also replaced the glove box lid on his car with a wooden homemade version.

Your dad sounds like my dad.  

[thyme4change]

Aug 15, 2023 10:11:45 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

I wanted to put an Echo Dot in my garage. The only available outlet was in the ceiling where my automatic garage door opener is using half. I grabbed one of my little storage bags from my backpacking days, put the dot in it, and it is hanging from the frame that holds up the opener.

I just called my Dad and asked him to install a new outlet 😂😂


We have 11 folding chairs that are extremely unruly and we’re always a mess in our garage. I built a frame out of a single 2x4 that they now sit in and they lean against the wall. I had the guy at Lowe’s make all the cuts and I used 8 long screws. The whole thing cost me less than $10, and the chairs take up way less space.

Now I am trying to figure out how to organize my growing box of tools that I use to cut and polish bottles into drinking glasses. I do have a sizable plastic storage box, but everything is just thrown in there, and there are a million pieces of sandpaper, a sander, a dremel, a drill, a bunch of bits and attachments, eye protection, mask and ear protection. Then I have a second box that holds the cutter and that equipment and then a third box that has bottles/glasses in various states - uncut, cut but not sanded, partially sanded/polished, done and waiting to be given to the future owner. There has got to be a better way.

[toomuchreality]

Aug 23, 2023 10:35:26 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Aug 15, 2023 10:11:45 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

I wanted to put an Echo Dot in my garage. The only available outlet was in the ceiling where my automatic garage door opener is using half. I grabbed one of my little storage bags from my backpacking days, put the dot in it, and it is hanging from the frame that holds up the opener.

I just called my Dad and asked him to install a new outlet 😂😂


We have 11 folding chairs that are extremely unruly and we’re always a mess in our garage. I built a frame out of a single 2x4 that they now sit in and they lean against the wall. I had the guy at Lowe’s make all the cuts and I used 8 long screws. The whole thing cost me less than $10, and the chairs take up way less space.

Now I am trying to figure out how to organize my growing box of tools that I use to cut and polish bottles into drinking glasses. I do have a sizable plastic storage box, but everything is just thrown in there, and there are a million pieces of sandpaper, a sander, a dremel, a drill, a bunch of bits and attachments, eye protection, mask and ear protection. Then I have a second box that holds the cutter and that equipment and then a third box that has bottles/glasses in various states - uncut, cut but not sanded, partially sanded/polished, done and waiting to be given to the future owner. There has got to be a better way.

I forget what it was really made for - Art supplies, I think. I got a bag (rectangular shape) that is divided into 4 different size sections in the main part and has little pockets around the outside, I keep my indoor tools in (standing on end) so I can keep them organized and don't have to dig through a tool box every time I need something.
It doesn't close, or have a top, so I can see and grab what I need pretty easily. It's covered in fabric (pockets are fabric). But it has form and structure, so something sturdy inside. And it has handles, so can be carried easily.
Maybe something like that would help?
I also have 2 medium-large plastic "tool" boxes, that have a removable shelf/caddy that sits on top (inside) and the main part has one bigger and one smaller sections, for organizing the contents.
Maybe something like that?

I got one at Office Depot and one at Petsmart (sold to hold dog food and supplies). I also got one at Costco, from their office supply area. It was made for portable hanging files and office supplies. They do have hinged lids.