6 clever home hacks using wine corks

Everyone knows (or is) someone who drinks wine. Once the bottle is finished off, you have all the extra corks lying around. I've got 6 useful hacks to make use of those extra corks!

First, you must boil the corks. This makes them softer, preventing them from crumbling and easier to cut. I boiled mine for 15 min.

Next, drain and dry your corks. It's a little difficult to work with them when they are damp.

Hack #1 - can a slit into the cork bottom that goes 1/2 way up the cork. Then, gently stretch the two sides apart.

Simply roll down the tops of your open bags and slide on the cork. Boom - instant chip clip!

Hack #2 - Repeat the same process as hack 1 but make the slit wider. This is also easier if you cut two parallel lines and hollow out the middle.

Now you've got the perfect phone stand. This came in handy when I was cooking so I didn't have to have my phone lying on the counter and having to pick it up with messy hands. It also acts as the perfect "cook book stand". It was so simple to read my recipe with the phone was standing up.

Hack #3 - This one is so simple. All you do is add a little hot glue to your mini close-pin and press it to your uncut cork.

This makes the perfect card, picture or not stand! Instant decor that is made in seconds.

Hack #4 + 5 - Slice the cork like you are cutting a block of cheese. This makes you little disks of cork.

With the disks, I used them as cabinet stoppers. This way, when I close my doors they don't slam shut. I also put them under my couch legs to stop them from scratching my hardwood.

Hack #6 - Simply get out your drill bit and drill the entire way through the cork. My bit wasn't long enough so I had to go in both sides. If you do this, just make sure they connect.

Replace your cork in your wine bottle filled with water and place this upside-down in your house plant. Voila! Instant self watering plant. There are millions of things you can do with wine corks and I'd love to hear your hacks! Tell me in the comments below. I have to say, I love all these hacks almost as much as I love wine....almost.

3 of 15 questions

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Rachel
on Jan 30, 2017
some corks are aplastic like cork while others are real cork. Does this work on both?
2
Answer this
- April E
  on Jan 31, 2017
  The ones that look like regular corks but made of a plastic like material would not need to be boiled
Darrel Rose
on Feb 1, 2017
On the wine corks on the cabinet doors how do you affix them to the doors, I did not see you use any adhesive of any sort, could you please advise me on what you used for adhesive, thank you for any suggestion you give
8
Answer this
- Diane
  on Apr 23, 2018
  Glue Dot
Margaret
on Feb 2, 2017
Does the wine cork stay pliable after the initial time of boiling in water or do you have to repeat this step later? In other words after a length of time of not using the corks do the corks go back to being hard and not pliable?
3
Answer this
- Stephanie Collard-Miller
  on Feb 5, 2017
  they stay pliable for a while, but corks do dry out and become hard again.
  3

115 of 158 comments

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Ada van Meijeren
on Aug 30, 2018
Our century home had holes in the hardwood floor where electrical lines for baseboard heaters and pipes for a laundry station had been in the past.
I used corks to fill those holes... (Stainable, even with shoe polish.)
1
Jane
on Aug 31, 2018
I love using corks for varied unusual uses. Thanks for the ideas. Oh and if you’re like me and don’t drink, I discovered that I can “help myself” (I asked first) to corks dropped off for recycling at our recycle center. Cool, free material. 😎
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