Slamming doors is a personal pet peeve of mine. The only thing worse is a door that slams that also has a poorly aligned latch that rattles around. The good news is you don’t have to be a master carpenter or construction engineer to silence slamming doors and the disharmony they bring. Just head to your local home store and pick up a package of felt pads (used to protect delicate surfaces from not-so-delicate objects). While the pads shown here are by the strike plate, I prefer to apply mine to the upper and lower corner of the door jamb where they are less visible. The pads won’t completely silence the wrath of an angry teenager, but you’ll find your doors closing in a much more civilized fashion.

Do you need to divide materials into even increments but don’t want to divide odd fractions in your head? By rotating your tape diagonally until an even number comes across the face of the stock, you’ll be able to evenly divide material without a calculator.