Life hack: Make painting less messy

You might be refreshing your walls by repainting the house, doing a bit of a DIY touch-up job, giving an old piece of furniture a new lease on life, or doing your annual deck resealing. Whatever the project, painting can quickly become a messy task. Of course, we try to minimise the mess as much as possible with protective clothing, masking tape, and drop sheets, but often we ignore the mess that’s made in the can of paint itself. 

Every time you dip the paintbrush in and wipe it on the side of the can, you cause drips to run down the sides and paint to pool in the rim. It one of those problems that doesn’t really actually become a problem until the next time you bring the paint can out, only to find it’s sealed shut with dried paint. Once you manage to prise the lid off, the crusty paint falls in, causing dried lumps throughout your fresh paint. This leads to an uneven, amateur looking finished product when you attempt to paint with it. 

Luckily, there is a solution to this problem which prevents the paint drips and pooling and it couldn’t possibly be any simpler.

All you need is a rubber band. That’s it. Simply place the rubber band around your can of paint, so it is stretched across the open top. Now when you dip your paintbrush, you can wipe the excess of on the rubber band instead of the side of the can. The excess paint will drip straight back into the can rather than pooling in the rim and running down the side, meaning you will be able to seal the can properly, and there will be no dried paint to deal with next time. 

Do you have any other handy tips to make painting easier? Let us know in the comments!