Life Hack and DIY Lifestyle

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Things I Like – Sprinkler Cap’s

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If you ever change up your yard, perhaps replace grass with rocks or something similar, you might end up with some sprinkler’s which are no longer needed (and are currently watering rocks or something else which does not need to be watered). Instead of re-routing your sprinkler system, simply cap the sprinklers which are no longer needed.

Below is the Sprinkler cap which was fairly cheap on Amazon and has worked well for me, it can be found on Amazon here:

NDS Universal Pop Up Conversion Kit Cap Off Pop-up Plug (5)

Electric Saw Types – And why a Mitre saw is the best

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There are a lot of different types of electric saws out there.  Types include table saw, circulars saw, mitre saw, jigsaws, bandsaws and others.  I will focus on the three main types of saws used by a typical DIYer, which are the table saw, the circular saw and the mitre saw and will explain why the mitre saw is the saw of choice.

Table Saw:

A table saw is best for when you need to “rip” a board, meaning you are cutting a board long ways with the grain of the wood.  The downsides with table saws are that they are bulky and are more expense than either a mitre saw or a circular saw.  However, they can be very exact when trying to make a long cut.

Here is an example of a typical table saw.

Circular Saw:

A circular saw is different in that you push or drag the saw along the wood.  Due to this it can be difficult to make perfectly aligned cuts.  However, of the three saw types it is the usually the cheapest.

Here is an example of a typical circular saw.

Mitre Saw:

A Mitre saw is the easiest to handle of the three types of saw, as it simply involves pulling down on the saw handle, as opposing to pushing the saw through the wood or pushing the wood through the saw.  Also, the mitre saw can make the most exact cuts of the three saws.  I have been able to use the saw to cut 1/8 of an inch off a piece of wood.  Due to ease of use and how versatile it is the Mitre saw is my saw of choice.  I use it 10 times for every one time I use my circular saw (and currently I don’t own a table saw).

This is an example of a Mitre saw

Here is a link to the Mitre saw pictured above on Amazon. This is also the Mitre saw which I currently own and would recommend, it has lasted 3+ years. During that time I have had to replace the blade twice.

Hitachi C10FCH2 15-Amp 10-inch Single Bevel Compound Miter Saw with Laser Marker

Sander Types – and why a Random Orbit Sander is the best

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There are three main types of sanders: Belt sanders, Orbit sanders and Random Orbit Sanders.

Belt Sanders:

This might be what you are most familiar with when you imagine an electric sanders. The positives for this sander are that it is good for sanding large areas due to its size. However, the negatives are that it is not well suited for sanding small areas and can be unwieldy to use. Also, changing and loading the sandpaper can be cumbersome.

Here is an example of a typical belt sander.

Orbit Sander:

An Orbit Sander moves or vibrates in a circular motion. Due to this motion it often leaves a circular pattern in the area in which in has sanded. Also, replacing the sanding paper can be cumbersome, as it often involves cutting sand paper to size and using a clamp mechanism to keep it in place. However, of the three types of electric sanders this one is usually the cheapest. For example, the Orbit Sander shown below is only $25 on Amazon, see the following link: SKIL 7292-02 2.0 Amp 1/4 Sheet Palm Sander with Pressure Control

Here is an example of a typical Orbit Sander.

Random Orbit Sander:

A Random Orbit Sander moves or vibrates in a circular motion while also moving back and forth. This can take a little getting use to when using it but also means that it is less like to leave ring marks in the would being sanded. Also, replacing the sanding paper is very easy, and it usually consists of disks which velcro on to the sanding surface. For these reasons the Random Orbit Sander is my favorite sander. The Random Orbit sander I personally use and would recommend is the Bosch ROS10, a picture of this sander is below and it can be found on Amazon here: Bosch ROS10 120 Volt Random Orbit Sander

Here is a picture of the Bosch ROS 10 random orbit sander.

Here is an example of the sanding discs which velcro on to the Random Orbit Sander.

Life hack for when buying liquids in bulk

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If you shop at Costco or a similar bulk purchase store, you probably end up with large bottles which are unwieldy, especially for products such as laundry detergent or bleach.

A simple way of handling these large bottles is to transfer the liquid to smaller bottles and use that to pour the laundry detergent, bleach or other liquid.

For example, I often buy a 200+ ounce bottle of laundry detergent. Then I transfer the detergent to an empty 60 ounce bottle, which is much easier to maneuver. I also often buy a 120 ounce bottle of bleach.  Then I transfer the bleach to an empty sport bottle, which again is easy to maneuver when filling the bleach dispenser.

This idea would work for any large bottle container, the main idea is to move the fluid to something which is easier to handle.

I took bleach and laundry detergent from two large bottles and but them into empty Gatorade bottles to make them easier to handle.

Life hack- A better, more cost effective alternative to the Swiffer Wetjet mop

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This isn’t so much a life hack as a better option than using the Swiffer Wetjet. The Swiffer Wetjet is the classic razor / razor blade type product: the initial purchase of the mop isn’t that expensive but the refills of cleaning liquid and cleaning pads add up over time and end up costing much more than the mop.

For those of you not familiar, the Swiffer Wetjet is a mop which uses battery power to spray out liquid and features disposable mop head pads and single use cleaning liquid bottles. A image of it is shown below.

Here is the Swiffer Wetjet mop

The pads are annoying in that they are single use and need to be thrown away. In addition to the cost they are not environmentally friendly. The cleaning liquid refill is also single use and the company goes out of it way to make it very difficult to refill. I once cut a hole and added a valve to refill it but it wasn’t really worth the effort. You can try to remove the bottle cap, but it is very difficult to take off and even harder to put it back on.

So what mop can do all the Swiffer Wetjet can do but without the single use refills which are the real cost? Welcome to the O-cedar mop. This is what it looks like, you can find it on Amazon here:

O-Cedar ProMist MAX Microfiber Spray Mop

Like the Swiffer it has a trigger which launches the cleaning liquid (but it is manual and doesn’t use batteries). However it has reusable cleaning pads which you can wash in the washing machine. They don’t last forever but should last for at least 50 uses. Also the cleaning liquid capsule has a screw up cap so you can use whatever cleaning liquid you choose. I bought a gallon of cleaning liquid concentrate which will convert to 64 gallons of cleaning liquid for $15. The exact concentrate cleaning liquid I bought can be found here on Amazon, I bought it four years ago and it is still more than half full.

Simple Green Industrial SMP11001 Clean Building All-Purpose Cleaner Concentrate, 1gal Bottle

Compare the resuable pads and refillable cleaning solution of the O-Cedar mop to the single use pads and non-refillable cleaning solution of the Swiffer Wetjet and you can see how the savings can really add up to potentially as much as $100 a year.

A summary video comparing the two mops is below: