This Is Why You Should Always Have WD-40 In Your Home

It's long been a truism in the DIY and prepper communities that there are really only two household essentials: duct tape and WD-40. If it doesn't (or shouldn't) move, you use the former, but if it does (or should), then WD-40's your go-to magic potion. Even if you're not preparing for the zombie apocalypse, however, there are a zillion and one reasons why you need a can of this wonder substance.

You could, for example, need to remove a snake wrapped around your vehicle's engine, as an Indonesian bus driver once did (via My Patriot Supply), or perhaps you'll need it to (literally) get out of a very tight space, as was the case with one would-be housebreaker attempting an entry via air conditioning duct. (The WD-40, in this case, was applied by the police who arrived to arrest him.)

While we certainly hope that you'll never need to employ WD-40 in either such dramatic instance, there are countless far more common household uses for the stuff. Once you learn all the things it can do, you'll never want to be without a can of WD-40 on hand at all times.

The go-to source for all the things you can do with WD-40 is, fittingly enough, the manufacturers themselves. The fine folks at WD-40 put their heads together and managed to come up with 2,000 different uses for their product. Fairly high up on the list is something that may come to mind before anything else when you think of ways to use WD-40: You can, of course, use it to oil your squeaky door hinges. But wait, that's not all WD-40 does for doors! It also helps to unstick doorknobs and clean rusty doorknobs and latches, makes deadbolts easier to slide, and helps to keep dirt and moisture out of locks and latches.

Windows, too, can benefit from WD-40. If you have aluminum window frames, WD-40 can help remove any oxidation, and it can also be used to clean window sills. If you have those older-style double-latch windows, you definitely need WD-40 to make sure you can actually open and shut them. One last use is something that even the most mechanically-challenged among us can appreciate: WD-40 suggests using the can to prop open doors and windows. Genius!

While WD-40 may not be something you'd think of as a go-to bathroom cleaner, you might be surprised to find out how useful it can be in the smallest room of the house. You can use it to clean any water spots off your mirror or even spray it on the mirror to keep it from fogging up when you shower. Speaking of showering, WD-40 can also shine up your shower doors, and you can spray it on the metal bits of said doors to keep them from rusting. You can also spray it on the shower head to keep rust from forming there, too, and the WD-40 people even say their product can be used to unclog shower heads.

Got troubles with your toilet? WD-40 may be able to help with this, too. You can use it to clean off and unstick all those bits and pieces inside your toilet tank since those are always prone to getting corroded due to their being in constant contact with water If you're installing, replacing, or otherwise unseating a toilet, you should squirt some WD-40 onto the valves underneath it since it helps keep corrosion from forming there. Should you just want to change the seat, WD-40 can help loosen the bolts and screw. You can also use it to clean the inside and outside of the bowl, and it can even be used to lubricate your toilet paper roller since you know how annoying it can be when those get squeaky.

While WD-40 may seem like the least romantic stuff on the planet (unless, perhaps, you're trying to seduce Tim the Toolman), it does have a place in the bedroom. For one thing, it can come in pretty handy to lubricate any squeaky bed springs and prevent all the embarrassment those can cause. For another, it can be used to clean a bed frame and to lubricate the sliding mechanisms should you have either a hide-a-bed or one of those beds that comes with storage drawers. If you have any type of metal bed that folds and unfolds or comes apart, such as a metal-frame futon or bunk bed, you can use WD-40 to help them do their folding, unfolding, or disassembling.

The very best thing WD-40 can do for you in the bedroom, however is — no, it's not what you're thinking! Nothing even remotely racy, but we guarantee once you read it, you'll be racing to grab your WD-40 can. According to the company, WD-40, when sprayed on the bed legs, will prevent spiders from crawling up them. Thanks for that truly terrifying visual, WD-40! But it's good to know your wonder spray can help us to sleep spider-free.

While WD-40 may not be much of a condiment, you should definitely keep some on hand in the kitchen. Use it to lubricate your kitchen drawers so they glide instead of sticking. Apply it to lubricate the hinges on your fridge, your stove knobs, the handheld spray nozzle on your kitchen sink, the wheels on your dishwasher rack ... you get the picture. If it moves, lube it. If it's stuck, lube that, too.

WD-40 can also be used as a kitchen cleaner. Try it on countertop stains — the WD-40 people say it's particularly effective against the stains made by strawberries and tea. No, we haven't the slightest idea why, but it's probably worth a try. It can be used to remove the stains inside coffee cups, which were presumably made by coffee, and it's also good on greasy wall stains. Use WD-40 to clean the bottoms of your pots and pans — it works particularly well on the rusty bottoms of cast-iron Dutch ovens or skillets.

Since WD-40 isn't edible, though, you shouldn't use it to clean out the inside of the pan. If any WD-40 does get on the pan's cooking surface, How to Clean Stuff says you can soak the pan in hot, soapy water, then scrub, rinse, and heat it to see if there's any residual WD-40 causing smoke or odors. If so, repeat the soak and scrub cycle until your pan is odor-free, at which point it should be good to go.

Did you know WD-40 can help with your clothes? It's particularly useful with shoes. According to the WD-40 website, it not only lubricates shoe buckles and zippers, but can also help to soften and clean leather and other types of shoes. Stepped in some gum? Gross, but WD-40 can fix that by helping you get that gunk off your shoe soles. It might even help to fix squeaky shoes. Hey, WD-40 works for squeaky door hinges, so why not give it a try on those shoes, too?

WD-40 can be a pretty effective stain remover with certain types of stains. It can help clean grease and tomato stains, both notoriously difficult to remove, from most types of clothing as well as ink and glue stains from denim fabric. WD-40 can also help to free a stuck purse latch, clean rusty metal jewelry, and, if sprayed on a metal link watch band, help keep the links from catching on (ouch!) and pulling out your arm hairs.

If you've been working from home over the past year or so, you may well have carved out a dedicated work space for yourself. Whether you've got a fully equipped home office or an "office" consisting of little more than a laptop, a coffee table, and a couch, there's one piece of office equipment you might not have thought of adding: Yep, you guessed it, WD-40. Wouldn't you know, the stuff comes in just as handy around the office as it does everywhere else in the house.

If you've got a real office chair, the kind on wheels, WD-40 will help it move smoothly and squeak-free. WD-40 can also help lubricate non-electronic office equipment like staplers, paper cutters, hole punches, and hand-crank pencil sharpeners. If you use a track-ball mouse, a squirt of WD-40 can help keep the ball rolling, and if your office runs a printer, WD-40 can help clean the ink off your hands when it's time to change the cartridge. If you really want to get cute, WD-40 suggests you could even use a can as a "nifty paperweight" or two cans as a matching pair of bookends.

WD-40 is not only handy about the house, but also in the yard. Clean and lubricate your garden tools, then spray down your shovels so neither dirt nor snow will stick to them. Squirt a little WD-40 into any locks (padlocks, combination locks, shed door locks, etc.) to keep them from sticking. Of course WD-40 can and should be sprayed on just about every part of your lawnmower and your barbecue grill to keep both of these expensive pieces of equipment in tip-top shape.

WD-40 has a few outdoor uses you probably never even thought of. Did you know you can spray it on the cracks in between paving squares to prevent weeds from growing there? Or what about spraying your flower pots with the stuff to keep them from sticking together when you stack them? You can also spray WD-40 around the bottoms of your trash cans so they don't get raided by rats or raccoons and spray it around garden beds and fences to keep away rodents, rabbits, and cats. Got a bird feeder? Spray WD-40 on the pole and those pesky squirrels should slide right off! (You might want to set up a camera to catch this, since sliding squirrel footage has got viral video written all over it.)