Dealing with house paint in an organized manner
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The specks of white on my arms can only mean one thing: I’ve been painting. Summer revitalization around our house has become a little out of hand this year, as my wife and I have decided to re-paint three rooms in our home. When we’re done it’ll look great, but we’ll have some paint left over that we’ll need to handle.
For years, I’d simply toss unused paint containers into the basement until I either needed them again or our town offered a hazardous waste pick-up day. That was fine until I needed to do a touch-up, remember which paint was used where or order something I ran out of long ago. Today, instead of quickly banishing partially used paint cans haphazardly to the basement, I take a few additional steps.
With a permanent marker, I’ll write on the lid:
- Where I bought the paint
- The date of purchase
- The room(s) where it was used
I’ll also put a dab of paint on the lid. This works quite well unless I get rid of the can. So, I started a notebook of this information as well. Each page has a swatch of the paint plus the information listed above the swatch. Now I can tell you that we used “Pale Celery” in our bedroom when we lasted pained it 13 years ago.
Other bits and bobs
While we’re on the subject of paint, the following are a few other things I do to make the painting process less messy:
- Use a hammer and nail to poke a few holes around the rim on the paint can. That way, the excess you wipe off of your brush will drip back into the can.
- Wrap your roller with plastic when you take a break. I’ve seen plastic containers designed to prevent a wet roller from drying out during a lunch break. That will work, sure, but so will (much cheaper) cling wrap or a zip-to-close bag.
- Finally, ditch that paint tray. Those things love to tip over and — I don’t know how they do this — end up right underneath your feet. The alternative? My beloved five-gallon bucket. Get yourself a paint grid, hang it inside the bucket and enjoy a day of painting with fewer breaks to refill and fewer spills. It’s not easy to kick over a bucket this big.
Have any painting tips and tricks? Please share your tips in the comments.
Post written by David Caolo
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