As we are slowly making our way through this home renovation, I find myself coming up with additional, frugal ways to get the job done. I’ve already explained the work we did to keep 10 grand in our hands. Here are three other tricks we’ve discovered to keep our budget on track and the redo moving forward:

• Use a clothes iron on steam setting to remove wall paper.
  The powder room in our house used to feel like one of those rooms from “Alice in Wonderland.” That’s because it was floor-to-ceiling wallpaper in a loud, burgundy pattern. You felt like the walls of that tiny room were closing in on you. Once the construction began on the rest of the house, I took that as my signal to start redoing that bathroom. And the first thing to go? The wallpaper. While much of it peeled off without much effort, there were two walls where, clearly, they’d slapped on tons and tons of glue. I knew I could get a steamer machine from a place like Home Depot to help take the wallpaper off, but why not do the job for free instead? I got out my clothes iron, topped it off with water, and then pushed the “steam” button while holding the iron about two inches away from the wall. A few puffs of steam later, and a putty knife to get the peeling started, and the wallpaper came off like butter.
• A sanding sponge smooths walls without killing your fingers.
  I don’t know about you but I hate sanding manually because of how my hands and fingertips feel after I’m done. They are raw, red and aching. This past winter I got a press kit from the folks at 3M, which included a SandBlaster sanding sponge. What was neat about this product was that on one side was a fine-grit sandpaper. On the other side was a sponge that you can use to wipe down the wall you’ve just sanded. It’s got a wavy design that makes it easy on the hands to hold. This has been the perfect tool to get rid of any residual glue left from the wallpaper in my powder room.
• Recycle old shower curtains as drop cloths.
  I’ll never understand why people spend money on drop cloths for painting when, if they looked around their house, I’ll bet they’d find tons of free drop cloths they could use. For example, whenever I switch out an old shower curtain for a new one, I fold up the used shower curtain so I can put in on the floor in the future when I paint. I do the same with sheets and blankets that have becoming too ratty to use.

What about you? Do you have other frugal renovation tips to offer?