Even with a vacuum cleaner in hand, pet hair can be pretty tough to remove. If there’s a bunch of pet hair on your furniture or clothing, for example, a sponge can help tremendously. No need to damp it, just rub it over the hair and it’ll be attracted to the sponge.

There’s no denying that the insides of certain vases and glasswork are pretty hard to reach with your hands, but magnets can be a real lifesaver. Cut a sponge in two (or just use two sponges), and create a little bit of room for a strong magnet. Close it up again with glue, and you’ve got yourself a magnetic cleaner to easily clean inside parts.

Bricks can be pretty tough to paint, but if you trim a large sponge to the exact same size of a brick, you’d be surprised how much time and effort you can save. First, paint the entire wall like you’d normally do in a base color, and press your desired color on top of the first layer with a sponge.

If you’ve got a couple of sponges laying around, they’re great to keep fragile and highly breakable items such as glasses safe. Place them in and around vulnerable objects, and they’ll absorb most of the shocks in case there’s an accident.

If you find yourself working in the garden often, you’ll probably know that it isn’t exactly comfortable to stay on your knees for a while. With these DIY knee pads made out of sponges and some string, you can make gardening on your knees a little bit more comfortable.

Getting rid of odors in the refrigerator is an incredibly easy task for a sponge and some baking soda. Simply wet a sponge a little bit, and sprinkle a moderate amount of baking soda on top. This combination will do a great job of eliminating smells!

After a rainy day, your umbrella might be the cause of a little bit of a drippy mess in your umbrella stand. Just place a sponge at the bottom of the stand and it’ll do a great job at absorbing any water that’s left on the umbrella.

When you chop a sponge into a couple of longer pieces, they’re a great substitute for pedicure products! Simply place the pieces between your toes and you can easily reach your nails without messing the others up.

Using nail polish might end up in a mess sometimes, but with a jar and a sponge that’ll be a thing of the past. Simply put a sponge into a small jar, and pour your nail polish remover in the jar. Next time you want to get rid of your nail polish, simply stick your finger in the jar and the sponge will do the rest.

Dealing with a toothache is never pretty, but a sponge can at least soothe the pain a little bit. Cut one up into smaller pieces, and dip them in vanilla extract or whiskey. This should help you relieve some pain near your aching tooth.

Cold packs are often large, clunky and just not very practical to use. Luckily, you can just use sponges instead. Soak sponges and let them rest in the freezer for a couple of hours after you put them in an airtight bag. You can use these to help keep your drinks cold, for example.

Sponges make great reusable dryer sheets, and this lifehack will definitely help you out with the laundry. First, soak a couple of sponges with fabric softener and keep them wet. Whenever you want to use one of these dryer sheets, squeeze out as much of the water as you can and throw it in the dryer.

If you’ve never tried to put your makeup sponge in the freezer, you’re missing out. Soak one of these sponges in a mix of water and rubbing alcohol, and put it in the freezer for a couple of hours (in an airtight bag). The magic ingredient here is the rubbing alcohol – it’ll make your makeup sponge pliable and will prevent it from freezing altogether. These cold make-up sponges can do wonders for your tired and puffy eyes in the morning.

Sometimes, the protective padding underneath furniture just doesn’t suffice or gets worn out. Just use small pieces of sponge and glue them directly to furniture legs to prevent scratching.

Window blinds can definitely be a bit of a pain to clean, but you can engineer a perfect blind cleaner yourself with just two sponges and a food clip. Cut two gaps into sponges and make sure that the food clip fits right inside. Simple as that!

Bars of soap aren’t always ideal and they’re quite sticky after using them, but that’s where a sponge comes in. Simply place one underneath, and bars of soap won’t take long to dry. It also allows you to use the soap bar without needing to rub all over it with your hands.

Did you know you could use a sponge as a seed sprouter? Before you get started, it’s important to dip the sponge in boiling water for about fifteen minutes to get rid of all the bacteria. After you squeeze the water out, you can sprinkle herb seeds on top and you’ve got yourself a nifty speed sprouter.

If your kids enjoy painting, it’s a pretty good and creative idea to use cutouts of sponges as ‘paint stamps’. Sponges are ideal for this, as they’re easily cut into different shapes and they’ll also absorb any excess paint and water resulting in a smaller mess.

If you want to change the wallpaper, you know that the biggest work is actually getting rid of the old paper. Soak a sponge in hot water coupled with fabric softener or a special wallpaper removing liquid, and wipe over any loose paper you’d like to get rid of. It’s still won’t be a pain-free experience, but it’ll at least be easier.

Dealing with a bump, a bruise or a cut? In that case, ice is a true lifesaver. Instead of throwing ice cubes into a towel, grab a wet sponge and place it into a ziplock bag with around the same dimensions. You’ve just got yourself an ice pack that won’t create a mess. Use different colors and the kids will love it too!

Grab a sponge, essential oils, vegetable oils and perhaps some witch hazel, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a natural do-it-yourself fly repellant. Moist the sponge with this natural mixture and place in a small pot to keep the flies away.

If you’re not a seasoned gardener or if you’re not known for your green fingers, estimating the right amount of water a plant needs can be tough. A great solution is to just use cut a sponge and place it directly below the earth you’re using in the plant pot. The sponge will soak up any water that the plant doesn’t need.

Your favorite knitwear tends to wear out, but a sponge surprisingly can do wonders. It’s important to pick a sponge with a rough side, and just rub it over your knitwear (such as jumpers and cardigans) in small circles to get rid of pulling and fluffs. It’s a quick and easy fix to revitalize your knitted clothes!

The leaves of your indoor plants gather dust just like everything else in the house, and they need cleaning too. All you need to gently clean your plants is a damp sponge, it’s quick, easy and absolutely harmless.

You might think that this one is rather straightforward, but the trick here is to slice the sponge almost to the end. You’ll create smaller pieces, which means that there’s more surface area to clean grills. Cleaning a grill has never been this fast!

Vegetables that are soaked simply aren’t that appealing to eat. You can always let a sponge do what it does best – absorb moisture – and place one in the vegetable drawer. It’ll protect your vegetables from water to keep them dry and crispy.

Oversized clothing never is ideal – you can’t exactly walk around with a size L shirt if you normally wear a size S, but you can certainly still use oversized shoes. Just push a piece of sponge into the toe area and they’ll fit better than ever before.

You don’t always need to use a cloth or a special brush for shoe polish, you can just use a sponge instead! Apply polish on a completely dry kitchen sponge, and it’ll do the rest to shine up your shoes. Of course, you can always buy a special shoe polisher sponge, but a normal one will do the trick just fine.

If you can’t handle the noise of plastic or wooden building blocks for your kids, you might want to consider building your own Jenga-like blocks made out of sponges. Grab a couple of sponges in a number of different colors and cut them up into smaller strips. If you’re feeling creative, you can even cut them into shapes!

Here’s an idea: just use a sponge as an envelope sealer instead of licking it with your tongue. All you need is a sponge and a little bit of water and it’ll do the trick just as good.

Nobody likes to deal with oil residue after a leak, and it’s better to prevent than cure. Grab a plastic bag and a large sponge, and place it directly under the dripping oil until the leak can be fixed.

Furniture legs are definitely in need of some anti-scratch protection and most of the furniture comes with protection pre-applied, but there are plenty of other regular items that can leave scuff marks, such as vases or picture frames, for example. Add a couple of very small spongey squares and you won’t have to worry about them making scratches ever again.

Sponges are unmissable in the beauty department too! You can easily create your own gradient nail art by trimming a sponge the size of your fingernail. Use the lightest color in the gradient you’d like to use on your finger (usually white), and spread the other colors on the sponge, overlapping each other. Swipe your finger up and down to create a gradient.

You can use a sponge to keep your pairs of earrings together and clean them at the same time! You can purchase special sponges and small boxes made for earrings online, but if you’re a little bit crafty, just use a regular sponge which offers room for multiple pairs of earrings.

Can’t find a pincushion nearby? Just use a sponge instead as they make excellent DIY replacements! Simply cover a kitchen sponge with a bit of fabric and you’re all done. You can even choose your own thickness by stacking sponges on top of each other.

Shovels, rakes, brooms and other items on a stick can be uncomfortable to hold for extended periods of time. Wrap a sponge around a handle to create a softer and more textured grip. Secure in place with a couple of rubber bands.

If you want to attract beautiful butterflies in the backyard, you might want to give these easy and homemade butterfly feeders a try. It’s a great activity to keep the kids busy as well. Thanks to these feeders your garden will be popular amongst butterflies in no time!

If you’re tired of dull walls in the house, you may want to consider sponge painting them to add a unique and artsy touch it. All you need is a sponge, a couple of paint colors and a bit of glaze. Read the full instructions over here.

A sponge is a pretty handy item to have in the garden! You can put a large sponge over a drain hole of a planter, which will prevent soil from escaping and it keeps the plants in the pot moist at the same time. Handy!

Sponges are just perfect to create all kinds of toys and play items for the children. With a little bit of time and craftwork, you can create these colorful sponge asterisks that do a great job at soaking up water. These water bombs ensure maximum fun and they don’t sting when someone throws one at you. Plus, they’re super cheap and easy to make too!