Sharpie markers come in all sorts of colors and they are great for touching up small nicks on picture frames, window sills, door frames, knick knacks and so on. They are also available in silver, gold and copper so can be used on metal too.

Also...shaving cream works great on carpet stains.

Nail polish remover to remove ink stains out of carpet.

Green scrubbing pads(5/$1 @ Dollar Tree/Scotch Brite) takes cooked on food off glass stove tops. Looks like new when cleaned this way!

Hand sanitizer removes permanent marker off wood doors.

Loose door hinge(s)? Remove screws one at a time, insert middle section of toothpick and tighten screw to snug.

Door doesn't latch? tighten hinge screws to snug. If that doesn't fix it, remove and adjust the catch on the strike plate. If that doesn't work, install an adjustable strike plate.

On glass cook top we use glass cleaner (Sprayway) and Scotch Brite sponge.

Once window glass is clean and spotless, spritz with auto detailer and buff to a shine. Every cleaning after that is quick and easy. Retreat with detailer.

I also treat clean faucet and handles with auto detailer to prevent water spots between cleanings.

Loose door hinge(s)? Remove screws one at a time, insert middle section of toothpick and tighten screw to snug.

I've used this great trick on loose drawer knobs, when the screw hole has become too large. You can also use wooden matchsticks.

To prevent door knobs and pulls from ever coming loose, apply construction adhesive to machine screws. Once tight, they'll require some force to remove them.

Michael, some of us don't know what a machine screw is, and are just happy to be able to put a matchstick in and have it work. :-)

In 1973, I got my first ever new car. The '74's had just come out. It was a cream colored olds cutlas supreme with tan interior. One of my friends needed to go to Houston, but didn't like to drive in traffic, so I took her. Her 5 yrold daughter was in the back seat. After dropping her off and returning home, I was horrified to see her daughter had marked all over the seat, backs of seats, and even the headliner, which fortunately was vinyl. Ball point pen....blue ink

I had heard on the radio that a sliced potato would remove ball point ink. I was going to take it to the dealership to try and get it cleaned. But I sliced a potato and rubbed all of the marks....and there were a lot! The next day they had faded somewhat. Even more the following day and within a couple more days, completely gone. I only used the potato once and never anything else.

In retrospect, I should have paid more attention to what the kid in the back seat was doing. But I was young and didn't have kids. Never crossed my mind that anything like that would happen. If I had done something like that when I was a kid, I would still be eating my meals standing up.

Bookwoman, the screws on doorknobs and pulls are almost always machine screws. And I assume that for the few knobs that use wood screws, the same trick would work.

Machine screws are flat on the end, not pointed as wood screws are. They go through the wood and you put a nut of some kind on the end of a machine screw. In the case of a drawer pull, the pull serves at the nut.

Rub broken walnut meat into table top scratches and they will darken the exposed wood and cover the scratches right away.

Ok, now can someone give me a good spot remover for upholstery? I tried Resolve on a couple of stains on my couch cushion and it just made the stains larger. I'm thinking of spraying it on the entire couch seat so it will be uniform!

You can clean microfiber fabric on chairs and sofas with alcohol in a spray bottle. Spray on, let it sink in and use a sponge to get the dirt and, then a dry cloth. You can remove any ball ballpoint ink with hair spray that comes in an aerosol can.

graywings, thanks for the explanation. We are a terminally unhandy household. So when I can do something really simple, like secure a knob, I'm delighted with myself!

Hair spray works on removing ink stains from vinyl appolstry

Mr Clean Magic Eraser removes sharpie. They are my favorite for removing soap scum too.

You can try hydrogen peroxide on carpet stains. It removes quite a few of them.

I like Folex for cleaning carpet and upholstery stains. It is available in a large spray bottle in hardware stores and grocery stores. Small chips on enamel sinks and tubs can be repaired with White Out.

Another vote for Folex. I have yet to meet a stain that i couldn't get out with Folex - even old set in stains.

OMG...YES to Folex! Also could not do without Bar Keepers Friend.