A new house is a wonderful thing. When we moved into this house, although not everything was perfect, it was mostly immaculate, and the doors and windows opened and closed smoothly and silently.
I remember being able to get in and out of the house without a noise. I remember being able to peek into my daughters’ rooms while they slept to kiss them goodnight. I remember how fast it was to close all windows when rain suddenly poured. But years of summer dust, monsoon rains, typhoons, storms and extreme humidity took their toll.
A decade or so later, some windows were stuck. Opening and closing doors could wake up the dead. And that was especially true with the door to my home office. Oh, my goodness. The awful sound it made. It was annoying but I lived with it.
One time, I decided to update the long-languishing home and garden section of the blog. It was long overdue. I browsed the web for inspiration and found lots of articles about the non-food uses of everyday food. And that was the inspiration I was looking for.
I decided that I’d try one of those tips starting with spraying the squeaky hinges of the door to my home office with cooking oil. I read about it on AOL.
Because the girls and I bake, we always keep a canister of cooking spray in the kitchen. It’s less messy to use than brushing oil on baking pans. It comes out cheaper too because a canister lasts several months. And the most important thing? Because cooking spray leaves only a mist on the surface of the baking pan, there’s no danger than cakes or cupcakes or muffins will get soaked in oil as they bake.
So, I took the cooking spray, directed the nozzle on a door hinge and pressed. Okay, I overdid it. I didn’t make the same mistake with the other two hinges. Just a little spray should to it.
After blasting oil on the hinges, I swung the door back and forth several times until the squeaking was gone.
I used tissue to wipe the hinges and all other areas where the oil splattered. If I hadn’t done that, over time, dust will accumulate on the oily surfaces and become grime. So, I wiped. And wiped. And wiped.
Okay, so cooking spray works on squeaky door hinges. No reason why it shouldn’t do the same magic on window hinges. But before I went spraying window hinges in the house, I took note of some claims out there that cooking spray is a no-no for squeaky doors. “Gunked up” and “gum up” were some of the dangers pointed to.
Are the naysayers right? Nope. Not if you keep a clean house, anyway. Since I first used cooking spray on squeaky doors and windows, I had done it repeatedly for years until our house went through a renovation, and problematic doors and windows were replaced.
So, if you’re tired of hearing your door and windows make annoying noises when you open and close them, use cooking spray on the hinges. Works like a charm.
Updated from a post originally published in September 20, 2017
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