Not just for cocktail wieners...

Speaking of wood, we've had an issue with the bi-fold doors in the mud room for a while now. The screws simply won't hold the hinges in place anymore, and because these are hollow core doors rather than the solid doors elsewhere in The Cool House using longer screws isn't an option - after all you can't screw into air.

It had obviously been a problem before we bought the house, the hinges had been moved once already. We tried filling the screw holes with plastic wood and gorilla gluing/liquid nailing the hinges directly to the door but the constant back and forth motion eventually loosened the screws, foiling our best efforts and leaving someone holding a falling door and yelling for help!

Last week I'd had enough and marched down to our local True Value to find the answer to my wood woes. I was expecting to be pointed in the direction of super glues and wood fillers but I was offered a really cheap solution: cocktail sticks. The trick is to break off screw length pieces of the stick, two or three or more, depending on the size of the hole and stuff them into it and fasten the screw into these tiny chips of wood.

I was really dubious, after all how many miracle solutions work? But I tried it straightaway and it's held up since. So there you have it, a problem that's caused at least two families endless headaches fixed with one cocktail stick, which we already had, and the right advice from a pro. Cost $0. It was a pretty good day.