Shoutout to the guy who taught me that cracked baseboards are a easy fix

I spent 3 hours last weekend trying to match paint for a hairline crack in my hallway baseboard, then my neighbor came over and said just use wood filler and sand it. Has anyone else discovered a home repair shortcut that made you feel dumb for not knowing it sooner?

2 comments

2 Comments

sullivan.finley8d agoTop Commenter

That whole thing reminds me how most of us are trained to think problems need some complicated solution when really the fix is usually the simplest thing in front of us. Like with cars everyone wants to swap out a whole part but half the time it's just a loose wire or a bad connection. Wood filler and toothpaste for nail holes is basically the same principle - skip the fancy stuff and just fill the gap. We've all been conditioned to overthink everything I swear lol.

violamurray8d ago

What kind of PAINT MATCHING did you think you were doing for a tiny crack anyway? I literally spent a whole afternoon trying to match paint for a nail hole in my wall ONCE. Turns out you can just dab a little toothpaste in there and call it a day. Now I have a whole collection of weird little tricks like using a cotton swab to clean out the gunk from between stove burners. Seriously, the amount of time I wasted before learning about wood filler is EMBARRASSING.