Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2026 i Family Handyman

Always-Clean Litter Box Common kitty wisdom states that you should own one litter box for every cat in your family, plus one extra. As a mom of four fur babies, I simply didn’t have the space for multiple boxes and couldn’t stand by to scoop their poop the moment it happened. I was hoping Whisker’s Litter-Robot 4 would be the answer to my prayers. This podlike self-cleaning litter box is the Rolls-Royce of automated cat toilets, if you will. Once kitty finishes their business, the rubber-lined drum quietly spins to sift away the clean litter, dumps the clumps into a sealed compartment and returns the clean litter to the main chamber. With built-in Wi-Fi, the Litter-Robot 4 has a companion app that notifies you when your cat has used the…

1. Turf Artificial turf brings the field indoors, providing the needed resistance and traction for sled pushes, agility drills and functional training. Turf is tough and can handle repeated highimpact use, but it can be harder to clean and more expensive to install than other options. 2. Rubber Rubber flooring is a home gym staple thanks to its excellent durability and shock absorption. It supports heavy equipment and can be installed over most surfaces, including concrete. It’s available in rolls, mats or interlocking tiles of various thicknesses. 3. Vinyl Wood-look vinyl planks help your gym blend seamlessly into your living space. They’re resistant to moisture and mildew, easy to clean and durable enough for most home gym equipment. That said, vinyl is not especially shock absorbent, so it’s less ideal…

1 DON’T WAIT It’s much easier to move light and fluffy freshly fallen snow. “Once it gets heavy or packs down, you’re fighting it,” says Steve Kesselman of Puget Construction & Landscape in Bellingham, Washington. During larger storms, this might mean taking a pass or two while the snow is still falling, rather than waiting until the end. 2 SPREAD ICE MELT EARLY Most ice-melt products are designed to be spread before the sidewalk gets slick, so use it just before the storm starts. “If you’re out of salt, one trick is to use fresh coffee grounds on icy steps or walks,” says Kesselman. “It gives you some grip and can speed melting more than using nothing at all.” 3 DIVIDE AND CONQUER Start by clearing a swath straight down…

Family gatherings, holiday get-togethers, dinner parties … no matter the occasion, customizing your dining table should be a fun challenge, not a chore. The trick is to be creative and personal without going over-the-top kitschy. And in my opinion, napkin rings are one of the easiest ways to set the stage for any table. This handmade version features copper etching with a patina finish. The warm, rustic rings use precut copper pipe, so once you gather your supplies, you can finish a set in less than an hour and a half. The best part? Once you know how copper etching works, you’ll find plenty of new ways to use the technique in other projects. These napkin rings are a perfect introduction and guaranteed to spark conversation at your next dinner…

With so many devices needing daily charging, from smartphones and smartwatches to headphones, laptops and tablets, it can feel like a full-time job just keeping the cords under control. To put an end to the tangle and clutter, I built this elegant mahogany box that not only organizes the chaos but also adds a little style to any desk or countertop. There are plenty of wood options to choose from for this project. If you want to keep costs down, pine from your local hardware store works well, and you can always apply a darker stain. Since I knew I would see this box every day, I decided to splurge on mahogany for its natural character. I designed the box to keep cords tidy on my desk, but you could…

Technical Difficulties I couldn’t loosen the hold TV had on our family, so I decided to at least get it “out of sight, out of mind” and move it down into the basement playroom. Needing a custom‑size cabinet for the TV, I built one from scratch. My friends and family were quite impressed—what with the cabinet’s routed edges and decorative moldings. One problem: I didn’t measure the depth of the TV set, and I made the cabinet too shallow. The darn TV just wouldn’t fit! Two years later, we still don’t have a TV in the basement playroom. —Cindy Keefe Good Money Down the Drain While my handy father was visiting, I asked him to install shelving in our attached garage. He measured everything and went and picked up the…

1 CUT THE WOOD AND ANGLE IRON Preseal the wood with a coat of polyurethane and let it dry. Use a miter saw to cut the long (A and C) and short (B) sides of the shelves, legs (D), cross supports (E) and kettlebell supports (F). Use an angle grinder with a cutoff disk to cut the angle iron (G) to length for the dumbbell support on top of the unit. 2 BUILD THE OUTER FRAME Join the mitered ends on the long (A) and short (B) sides to create frames for the bottom and middle shelves. Use wood glue and 18-gauge brad nails to pin and hold the miters tight, then, to strengthen the joint, toescrew a 1⅝-in. screw from the underside into each corner. NOTE: Predrill each hole to…

S now blowers come in two basic types: one-stage and two-stage. One-stage blowers use an auger to pick up snow and discharge it through a chute. Two-stage blowers add an impeller, which shoots snow clear of the machine (and your driveway) for faster removal. Before the first snowfall, do a quick preseason tuneup to ensure your machine operates smoothly (see Figure A). Then follow these steps to start a two-stage blower. 1 CHECK THE OIL Park the blower on a flat, level surface. Pull out the dipstick, wipe it clean with a paper towel then reinsert it. Remove it again and examine the high and low markings carefully. If the oil level is between them, you’re good. If it’s low, add more oil of the type specified in your owner’s manual.…

1. Oscillating Edge Belt/Spindle Sander One of the best-value tools in my shop is the Ridgid Oscillating Edge Belt/Spindle Sander ($299). The generous 19 x 24-in. work surface is perfect for shaping curves and handling tricky profiles. I also like the onboard accessory storage, which neatly holds the spindles, throat plate insert and washers. When I’m tackling detailed shapes, this tool delivers consistent, professional results. 2. Rotary Tool With the right attachments, rotary tools have almost limitless uses, including cutting, drilling, carving, detail sanding and polishing. The Dremel Variable Speed 1.2-Amp Multipurpose Corded Battery Rotary Tool Kit ($60) is compact, powerful and useful for everything from fine woodworking to model-making and craft projects. It gets into hard-toreach areas without damaging your workpiece and can be used on wood, metal and…

1 INSTANT LAUNDRY ROOM CUBBIES If you have a small laundry room without cabinets or shelves, buy a few inexpensive plastic crates at a discount store and create your own wall of cubbies. Just screw them to the wall studs using a fender washer in the upper corner of each crate for extra strength. The crates hold a lot of supplies, and they keep tippy things such as irons from falling over. 2 UTILITY SINK SHELF To make paint cleanup a breeze, cut a section of leftover wire shelving and set it over the front of your utility sink. It’s the perfect place to dry sponges, foam brushes and roller covers. Hang the paintbrushes from S-hooks so they can drip into the sink. When you’re done with the shelf, hang…

Red/Orange Bold red or orange walls are ideal for intense workouts such as highimpact cardio or circuit training. “They will help evoke energetic feelings, giving you that extra psychological boost to power through your reps,” says Old Crow Painting’s Travis Nolan. His pick: Emotional from Sherwin-Williams, a blend of both hues. Sage Jamie Gold, author of Wellness by Design (Tiller Press), finds sage green soothing thanks to its biophilic quality. Nature-inspired paint colors such as Saybrook Sage from Benjamin Moore make a calming backdrop perfect for yoga lovers flowing through sun salutations or settling into Savasana. Blue Blue tones can elicit calm, composure and concentration, ideal for focusing on fitness. “For a home gym, where you know you’re going to make your body temperature rise, a shade of blue visually…

Most people think of a lazy Susan as a simple circle that spins on a table. I decided to take the idea up a notch by turning it into a charcuterie board. With elaborate boards popping up everywhere—from restaurants to weddings and house parties—why not make one that spins? Shaping the tray is easy with an acrylic router template, and installing the lazy Susan mechanism is simpler than you might expect. Follow this foolproof process and you’ll have a beautiful tray for nuts, fruits, cheeses and cured meats, ready to steal the show at your next gathering. 1 SET UP THE ROUTER TEMPLATE Cut the wood slightly larger than your acrylic router template. At its widest points, my template was roughly 12 by 8 in. Position the template on the…

Closets are precious real estate in any home. That’s why you’ve probably heard, “I don’t have enough closet space” or “My closets are too small!” more times than you can count. In search of ways to maximize closet space without sacrificing tidiness, I turned to professional home organizer Rachel Winter of Happy Home Organizers. Her standout advice? “Don’t put anything but a clothes hamper for laundry on the floor of your closet.” It certainly makes sense—a clear floor instantly makes a closet look bigger and more organized. But who wants to give up all that usable space? Winter’s insight sparked an idea: What if I built a customized closet organizer to hold a laundry hamper, storage bins and shoes, all while maintaining the illusion of a clutter-free floor? Here, I…

DIY Ladder Caddy If you’re constantly switching between two drills—one for pilot holes and the other for driving screws—while hanging suspended ceiling grids, use this easy fix to avoid climbing up and down the ladder. Take a scrap of ¾-in. plywood (10 x 24 in.), and cut an opening in it to fit over the stepladder (7 x 14 in.) and cutouts to hold your drill and your driver. Wedge a scrap piece of 2×4 between the ladder top and the holder to stabilize it when one tool is in use. This seat-of-the-pants solution will save you a lot of time and labor, and it’s handy for a variety of ladder-related tasks. Grease Gun Holder A grease gun is big and, uh, greasy. So don’t slime up your garage cabinets…