As the fall season draws nearer each year, the festive excitement does as well. We’re making Halloween costumes and looking forward to harvesting pumpkins from the gardens, and our towns are buzzing with activity. However, playing hard means working hard, and with each color-changing and falling leaf, our yards are looking a lot less green and a lot more orange. It’s raking season, and while it may suck the fun out of your weekends, tidying up your lawn is a necessary chore you have to get done.
One reason a lot of people dread raking is how labor-intensive it is. You have to repeatedly drag the rake across the lawn until all the dead leaves are gathered in a pile and then load them up into bags — not a job for the faint of heart. To make it even more tasking, the wooden or iron pile of the rake can be difficult to hold for very long and can lead to blistered hands. However, this fall, we are taking raking to another level with an ingenious pool noodle DIY hack that will make gripping the handle much easier.
If you’re a fan of cartoons, then you’ve probably seen one where the character stepped on a grounded metal rake only to have the handle fly up and whack them in the head. Rake handles can cause some serious physical damage, especially internally. That is why with a pool noodle and a little bit of WD-40, we are upgrading our raking game this autumn.
Turn your rake handle ergonomic with a pool noodle
A lot of rakes are far from being ideal ergonomic yard tools. Rakes with short handles are prone to give you spinal problems and muscle strain, and they can worsen your symptoms if you suffer from arthritis. In order to transform your rake into an easy-to-use device that can get the job done without leaving you bent double in pain and cursing your fleeting youth, you have to try this pool noodle hack. All you’ll need is a pool noodle and some WD-40.
TikTok DIY creator @jmg8tor shows us how to turn a regular rake handle into a physically friendly one by first spraying enough WD-40 into a long, uncut noodle. Then, push the handle of the rake all the way through the noodle and you will have an insulated and elongated handle that’s the perfect grip and length. One user commented on the video saying: “@SecretSquirrel: I’ve got arthritis in my hands this is a brilliant idea!” Gone are the days when you had to break your spine and wreck your joints to rake a few leaves off the driveway.
