27 Pool Noodle Hacks That Will Improve Your Life
Updated: May 24, 2024
Those colorful foam pool toys come in handy all around the house, garage and yard. And with a little ingenuity, they can be even more fun in the water.
Even in a world of floating basketball hoops and donut-shaped rafts, the pool noodle is still the most ubiquitous pool toy of all. But this humble piece of foam is more than a symbol of summer fun — it’s a DIY workhorse.
What Are Pool Noodles Made Of?
Polyethylene. It’s a closed-cell foam made from millions of tiny bubbles pressed together. That’s why it’s such a great pool toy — water can’t penetrate the foam cells, and it’s light enough to float. The material bends but bounces back from compression and retains its shape.
You’ve probably seen polyethylene in packing materials. If you’ve ever done any plumbing work, you might have noticed foam pipe insulation and pool noodles are the same thing.
Polyethylene foam can be difficult to recycle. Fortunately there are lots of non-pool uses for pool noodles, so you can reuse them all over the garage and throughout the house.
They’re so handy it’s worth keeping a few pool noodles around the workshop. And if you can’t find a pool noodle, you can always grab some pipe insulation at the hardware store.
You’ll find some of our favorite pool noodle hacks in the list below.
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Keep Your Plants Cool
For plants in pots, you can use pool noodles standing vertically to fill the container to about 3/4 of the height of the container. That way you won’t need as much soil in your largest containers, and it’ll help with drainage, keeping the soil from getting over saturated.
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