For chipped paint touch-ups, wrap a scrap of foam weatherstripping around a clothespin and clip. “Cosmetic sponges also make great dabbers,” says Carlsen.
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For rough measurements, you can pick your own pocket. A dollar bill is a hair over 6 inches long, and a quarter is just shy of an inch in diameter.
Hold glued areas together with binder clips. Or for, say, a split table leg, tie string around the leg, leaving slack. Slip a pencil between the wood and string and twirl to tighten. Then tape the pencil in place.
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An emery board can smooth touch-up paint jobs better than the real thing, Carlsen says, and it can “reach tricky areas, like the corner of a window.”
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If your open-end box wrench is too big for the bolt you are tightening, try filling the gap with a coin.