When you think of pencils, you will mainly think of school and writing. But aside from academic purposes and writing down your grocery list later, did you know that there are other unusual uses of pencils?
From taking off crayon marks my daughter made on the wall to me using it to tie my hair in seconds to a bun, you will really be surprised with the bizarre and unusual things that you can do with a pencil.
It’s only limited to your imagination, really! And today I’ll be giving you great ideas of how you can use a pencil in one way and many more others because something as simple as a simple can blow your mind with what it can do!
Let’s go ahead and dive in and make our pencils work beyond their purpose!
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15 Clever Yet Unusual Uses Of Pencils!
We’re going to break this down into two parts. The first half would be for useful home hacks that you can do with a pencil that is definitely not related to writing and you will surely be surprised that you can do these things with something like a pencil.
The next part would be the funniest things that you can do with a pencil because unusual things are also something fun to do!
So keep on reading and maybe you’ll pick up a few hacks that you’d wanna try after reading this.
10 Useful Home-Hacks
#1. Remove Crayon Marks On Painted Walls
If you’re going to take a tour of my house you’ll find abstract paintings on most of our walls made by my daughters using their crayons because I let them be, I feel like I’m letting them be creative and help improve their imagination by letting them run loose on our walls.
But the first time it happened, I admit I panicked a bit. I searched countless DIYs on how I can remove the crayon marks because some of them were really stubborn and I was really starting to lose hope.
Until I found one hack where a pencil was involved. At first, I was a bit skeptical but then I thought why the heck not? I mean, I don’t have anything to lose right? And I do have a lot of pencils lying around at our house during that time since my daughter was in kindergarten already.
And alas! It worked like a charm. All you need to do is find a pencil with a pink eraser which most pencils are equipped with it really did an awesome job and removing the crayon marks was effortless!
A bit of a disclaimer, it’s best to try it on a small fraction of your wall before you go all in.
Some paint might tend to turn dull or be removed by the friction caused by rubbing the eraser on it. But for most of my walls, it worked all okay. There’s just some type of paint that might react with the friction and I really just wanted to give you a warning.
#2. Get the most out of your tubes
Are you struggling to get the most out of your toothpaste or your paint tube? And out of frustration you just end up throwing it away because you can’t seem to find a way on how to get every single drop out of it?
Well, don’t fret because the pencil’s got your back to make sure you’re not wasting a single drop of any tube product anymore.
To get the most out of your tube products all you need is one pencil and roll it down from the end of the tube all the way to the other end and you’ll be surprised as to how much product you still have left to use!
#3. Remove Stubborn Sticker Gunk
We’ve all been there, trying to remove stubborn sticker gunk that’s so stubborn you just left it alone and accepted defeat that you won’t be able to remove it whatever method or hack that you have already tried.
But don’t you cry no more, because just like the crayon marks the pencil’s eraser can cleanly remove sticker gunks too! Amazing, right? You just erase it like you’re erasing writing on paper and watch how the sticker residue disappears like it was never there!
#4. Reset your wireless router
In today’s time where most households are relying on WiFi to stay connected whether it’s for work school or for other purposes, we’ll surely encounter a few issues with our wireless network every now and then.
But those issues can really affect our productivity and other important tasks that we need to do during those times when the internet is down.
And as a remedy, a good reset is all a wireless router needs sometimes for it to go back to working like how it is before. But the only challenge is that the button to reset it is sometimes so small that only pins and needles can go through.
It’s time-consuming to scour around your house just to find pins and needles to reset your router, luckily a pencil can help to do the job for you which is conveniently lying around your desk at the moment.
You just need to make sure that it is sharpened finely and you’re good to poke that reset button and refresh your network connection in no time.
#5. As a plant stand
We all have different ways how we cope with the pandemic and many of us have chosen to do it through plants. Having plants and taking care of them is a great way to relax and take our minds off of things that stress us even for a little while.
And if you are trying to plant and grow from seeds right now, you will surely love this unusual use for a pencil hack as they can be used as a plant stand too!
If you have a couple of young plants that can be a bit frail from windy or harsh environments you can use pencils as durable plant support that they can lean on while they grow and get stronger day by day.
#6. Unlock frozen locks
This was a trick taught to me by a friend. She noticed that I was having an issue with my locker’s lock as I couldn’t fit in the key. She handed me a pencil and told me to rub the lead all over the key’s teeth and try to go at it again.
And voila! It worked like a charm. Another great and unusual use for a pencil that had me mind-blown again.
#7. Solve Zipper Problems
Before you go ahead and throw away that bag with a zipper that won’t budge no matter what you do, you guessed it correctly again! A pencil can help you with that.
Go ahead and grab that bag and a pencil and just like the key hack runs it along with the teeth of the zipper and try to move it back and forth until you have a zipper that closes and open smoothly like butter was put on it.
Graphite is the key to this since it works as an amazing dry lubricant for metal. And it’s not only for bags you can do this with jeans or jackets with zipper problems.
#8. Free and natural bug repellant
Got pencil shavings on your electric sharpener? Well, don’t throw them away yet because those cedar shaving will scare off moths and you’ll get to keep your sweater free from moth holes.
Just place them in a small cloth just the size of a tea bag or a tad bit bigger and place them in moth-prone areas in your cabinet and watch them be moth-free after!
#9. Avoid the headache and relieve jaw tension
If you used to bite down on your pencil when you were younger there’s a good reason behind it.
We tend to bite down our teeth and clench our jaw especially when we’re stressed out or under pressure. Which then strains the muscle that connects our jaw to our temples and eventually leads to tension headaches.
Turns out that putting a pencil in between our teeth greatly helps relieve that tension and helps our jaw relax more and avoids headaches in general.
Just remember to use a clean one and not that one from your colleagues’ table, alright?
#10. As a bookmark
If you love books then you’ll love this next hack, and you’re probably already doing this one.
If you’re in a middle of a read and you suddenly need to put down your book but you want to mark it so you won’t get lost when you get back. Just read out for the nearest pencil and you’ll instantly have a bookmark.
Fun and Unusual Things To Do With A Pencil
#11. Decode a secret note!
Have you watched mystery movies where the detective tries to decode a secret message just by using a pencil? You can absolutely do that too!
Just find a page that has been written on previously and pot a paper on top of it and gently use the flat edge of the pencil to reveal the secret message.
#12. No hair tie? No Problem!
Want to tie your hair but you don’t have a hair tie to do it but you have a pencil? Then you’ll be able to tie your hair with just that!
This is easy and fun to do, you just need to get the hang of it at first and the rest is history. There are a number of ways to do this but I’ll give you a quick guide on the easiest one just follow the instructions below.
Step 1: Make sure your pencil is not that long, try to pick one that has already been sharpened a few times this will help you maneuver it better and if it’s a bit sharp try to write it down on paper first to dull it up and it won’t poke you.
Step 2: Gather your hair all up into a ponytail and position it to where you want it. After that start twisting your hair to form a normal bun.
Step 3: Your next step is to take your trusty pencil in your dominant hand and poke through your hair on the side and start weaving up and down all the way through the other side.
And that’s it! You’ve successfully tied your hair with a pencil. There are other styles you can try and you can even use two pencils at a time if you’d like!
#13. Make fantastic hair curls!
This one’s a great hack too, especially if you have packs of pencils around the house or if you only have a hair straightener at home but you want to curl your hair for the day.
You can try heatless curls with pencils or with heat using a hair straightener. It’s fun and you’ll definitely look gorgeous after. For quick tutorials just watch the videos down below.
For heatless curls with pencils:
For curls with heat:
#14. As a back scratcher
I think this no longer needs a step-by-step guide, whenever your back itches just reach for the nearest pencil and scratch away. Very useful especially when you’re alone and have no one to ask to scratch your itchy back!
#15. To play fun games and as a fidget toy
One of the first-ever fidget toys that almost all of us have ever played with are pencils, and up til now whenever I get my hands on one I play with it while I’m working or doing something.
You can use them as drumsticks for an emergency drum rehearsal, or even use them as a toy for your cat or dog when they’re bored. You can even play some games with your friends using pencils.
Simply put
So you see, the uses for a pencil are endless. As long as you’re creative and resourceful you’ll be surprised with what you can do with a pencil other than writing.
This is just a shortlist of some uncommon uses of pencils, and if you know other unusual uses of pencils go ahead and comment down below and let’s find out more ways we can use this amazing multipurpose tool.
Have a good one!
