Use This Unexpected Kitchen Tool To Prevent Drips When Touching Up A Paint Job

At some point, paint touch-ups are unavoidable. You ding the wall. You take down those pictures. Your dog gets a little overeager to exit the bathroom after following you in there — again. We've been there. What never seems to change, though, regardless of the reason, is the mess that comes with even the smallest paint touch-ups. And, let's be honest, it never feels worth it to put down tarps when you're just fixing a small touch-up area.

But no matter how careful you are, paint is just a messy part of living in a home of any kind. Unless you're living with floor-to-ceiling wallpaper (and if so... why?), you'll probably need to deal with those wall oopsies eventually. One way you can avoid making splatters or drips during a touchup is by carrying around a small container of paint. Or very carefully transfer some paint from your five-gallon bucket. 

Chances are, though, if you are touching up paint in a home, you're dealing with a big 'ol leftover paint bucket. In that case, you'll definitely want to have a transferring solution so your floors don't end up resembling a Jackson Pollock. Enter the turkey baster for a mess-free way to transfer paint.

Anytime you do a touch-up paint job, you need to make a few logistical choices. For instance, are you going to take brushes of paint out of the can carefully, or will you transfer the paint to a smaller container? If you are the latter kind of painter, you should consider adding a helpful turkey baster to your roster of home improvement tools. 

By utilizing a multi-use baster, you can transfer just a little bit of paint at a time into a smaller cup. This will reduce the number of times you need to return your brush to the large bucket and risk dripping excess paint everywhere. It's also just a great hack for DIY-ers who don't want to put down tarps for a tiny job. 

This turkey baster hack is particularly perfect for very small touch-up jobs. For reference, an average turkey baster can hold between one and one and a half ounces of liquid. Whereas a sample can of paint from a home improvement store holds about eight ounces. Trying to transfer a lot of paint at one time is obviously not the right job for a turkey baster. 

Although the turkey baster will help alleviate some of your home improvement woes, it does lead to a bit more cleanup. Your best bet is to get a turkey baster just for painting, though you'll still have to wash it every time to prevent build-up. Luckily, if you are organized, cleaning it isn't too onerous a task. 

When cleaning a painty baster, approach it the same way you would paintbrushes. First, pop the bulb off of the end of the baster to make cleaning easier. Then, wash as much as you can out of the baster with warm water and soap, or leave it in a little bath if you can't wash it properly right away. Just try to get to washing it before the water is completely cold to make removing the paint easier. Once you've hand-washed it as best you can, you can put it in the dishwasher for added measure: if you happen to have a dishwasher with bottle jets, this is the exact sort of situation where they come most in handy.