Some people call them “water woggles,” while others refer to them as “pool noodles.” Whether you pick one or another doesn't change that these are fantastic tools for aquatic playtime. If you're learning how to swim, water woggles will help you float, making the experience much less scary. Once you are already as skillful as a fish, a pool noodle can be a fun water toy. Besides, because woggles are flexible, soft, and very easy to manipulate, they can also be used outside the water for different purposes. Who would have thought pool polyethylene foam noodles could be used for many intelligent hacks. Let's dive in!
How to craft a foam raft
Water woggles float because they are light and made of polyethylene, which is not damaged by water. It is widespread knowledge that one can make themselves float with a single water woggle between their legs, but this is a much better idea.
See what you can do with a little bit of creativity and a budget? Stick a bunch of woggles side by side, and make sure they are secured and won't split once they have weight on them. You've made a perfect raft.
Duct tape and foam surfboard
Considering the water woggles' ability to float, you can make a perfect surfboard for your kid. You will only need a couple of foam bars and some connectors to join those bars. Then, finish your craft with duct tape.
Make sure you don't leave any holes where water could go through because this will make your board sink fast. Otherwise, if there are no holes, the board and the adequate weight you put on top will remain floating.
A floating fresh beverage
It seems pretty ungrateful to complain about something while inside a pool, given that many people don't have access to one. However, pain is personal and cannot be compared. You could suffer because (from inside the pool) you can't reach your beverages, for example.
You shouldn't, though. With a Tupperware or a Ziploc, you could have the beverages in the pool. The water would even cool them. You will need to attach a container to a couple of woggles to make it float and voilà.
With foam, anything can float
Almost anything that is attached to a few water woggles will float. With this concept in mind, it is effortless to think of practical games and facilities inside the pool (or a lake, or pond ─ you get it).
Grab a cutter and cut a cavity on the center of the foam, so you can fit the legs of something that would, in other cases, be supported on the ground. The woggle will keep it floating on the water.
Woggle laser swords
These kids use foam bars to have a sword fight, making for the most adorable image. Their parents must be huge Star Wars fans, and they are also conscious of safety. Foam is so soft it won't hurt.
They look like they are having so much fun! And how could they not? A foam fight is exciting, and, unlike plastic swords, these weapons won't cause any accidental damage. Also, the wide variety of colors shows the parents' commitment.
Make sports safer with foam
Woggles are useful for aquatic exercise, but they're used for land sports too. In the following picture, a foam bar supports the ball before the kid hits it. The bar could have ruined the hit if it had been made of a more rigid material.
Other sports involving sticks and bats can also be played with water woggles, especially if there are young kids involved, who could accidentally (or on purpose, as a game) beat themselves or each other.
Pool noodles can help kids learn math
Math is one of the most challenging school subjects because numbers are abstract and hard to visualize. Once you get a child to see numbers, operations might become easier. The same happens with fractions.
Pool noodles are helpful when teaching fractions to kids because they are easy to divide into multiple pieces. Get them to understand what a whole is, and they will be able to compare a whole to smaller pieces.
A foamy base for your paintbrushes
Painting with watercolor is different from painting with colored pencils. When using the latter, you will probably not face any difficulties. But since you need brushes to use watercolors, and not everybody owns enough brushes for all the colors they want to use, they need to be cleaned frequently.
Even if one has a few paintbrushes and uses the same amount of colors, one needs to think about where to put the brushes so they don't leave stains on the painting or furniture. Holding them on top of a pool noodle is a great idea.
Simple polyethylene card holder
Usually, a card slot is a tiny hole placed on the side of your PC's monitor or in the front or back of your CPU. You can put a memory card, read it, or store information from your computer there.
This person cut a circular piece of water woggle and opened a slot on top to help them hold their cards. This is an excellent idea, especially for kids, because their tiny hands can have difficulties doing this.
Avoid a risky trampoline hook
Even if Mr. Phil Dunphy, from Modern Family, says otherwise, trampolines are made for kids, and they are entertaining ─until they are not anymore. As amusing as they can be, they are dangerous too; firstly, because you can jump and fall to the ground.
Secondly, they are also risky because the hooks that keep the canvas tight sometimes get loose and pinch you. Thirdly, and what is most unsafe of all, your feet can get stuck between those hooks, and you can twist an ankle. Wrap the hooks in water woggles and avoid all these troubles.
A spongy bed barrier
In our experience, babysitting can get boring. It is challenging if you are looking after a toddler. Yet, if you're looking after babies, you probably already realized that they don't do much. They cry and sleep, and you have to make sure they don't roll over the bed and fall.
Most people arrange pillows like a fort for the baby not to fall. However, this person made great use of a pool noodle. They stuck it to the mattress to create a simple barrier that is more discrete.
A noodle sprinkler
In this picture, we can see that somebody poked several holes in a woggle, and then stuck a hose in it to make a great sprinkler system. It turned out to be a blast for that kid.
As you can see, kids will have a lot of fun with water woggles, whether someone has made a game out of it for them or if they made a game for themselves. It may have something to do with the colors and versatility of the woggles.
Makeup brushes foamy hunger
Not only children will take advantage of using a water woggle outside the pool, and not only artists would benefit from using an ordinary pool noodle for their brushes. Makeup artists can store their clean brushes just like in the following picture.
Once the brush is washed, it is convenient to hang it faced down, so water can decant. If it doesn't, humidity from the bristles can grow some fungi, or if they are stored faced up, it could go inside the ferrule, ruining a pretty expensive tool.
An effortless lollypop displayer
This decoration doesn't work at all. That could be due to the color of the noodle or the fact that not only did this person not wrap it in something nice, but they didn't even bother to take the labeling off.
Anyhow, anything made of this material (and appropriately decorated) would make a suitable stick holder. It is tidier to keep lollipops displayed, ready to be taken, than to throw them on a kitchen table.
Hand-free video watching
Speaking of holding stuff, check out this cellphone holder. This is a phenomenal idea because, with one of these, one doesn't need to have the phone in their hands while watching a video, especially if it's a long one. Do you think it would work in the pool too?
All that you need is a round piece of noodle in which you should make two V-shaped cavities, one perpendicular to the other: one will be where the phone is placed, and the other will allow you to move your finger through it. Nice, huh?
Prevent wax from ruining your furniture
From one single water woggle, one could get several candle holders. Little candles can overload when their wax gets liquid, and even though it is easy to clean once it dries, it could ruin some delicate surfaces, like wooden tables.
Carving a noodle and making it a candle holder can prevent wooden furniture from getting affected by the wax or by the heat of that tiny flame. A quick tip: the more samples you have, the better the decoration will look (if you don't live in a fancy place, of course).
How to make a flower door ornament
This is what can be called a nice wrap of a noodle. Unlike the picture of the lollipops, this water woggle is very well presented. This person made a sunflower ornament for their door, and it looks beautiful, simple, elegant, and sweet.
They used the foam because it is easy to shape and place the steel wires a flower arrangement needs. The ornament is even prettier because the foam is disguised to fit the sunflowers.
Plant pots with stem support
The material water woggles are made of is sometimes used in gardening because it can help plants grow straight, but it is not too hard to hurt the plant. If you go to a gardening store, they will sell you special foam, but a water noodle is cheaper.
This person used blue and green noodles to give their plants support. Having different colors can be helpful to distinguish different plants when all your flowerpots look similar. If you are a bit creative, you can even make a rainbow in your garden.
A woggle donut will hold your curtain
The pool noodle inventor probably never thought his invention could do this: someone used a piece of noodle to hold their curtains. Once again: wrapping the foam would make it look so much prettier. Still, it is a bright idea.
Cut a piece of foam in the shape of a donut. Then, open it from one side, and it will look like Pac-man. It is easier and quicker than grabbing the curtains with a ribbon (which would look much prettier but might be more expensive).
Keeping a door open
Opening a piece of water woggle like Pac-man can be helpful for more than one hack. For instance, these people have used a portion of a noodle to keep their door open. This is a handy hack if you live in a windy place.
Nowadays, we have been strongly advised to keep our windows open to let the sunlight and fresh air in, but the wind can suddenly slam our doors, making a loud noise, thus giving us quite a scare. These people must have been sick of those scare jumps!
Keeping a door closed
If you're suffering from winds in your house, there is another solution: if a piece of open noodle is placed on the bottom of the door, not only will it keep the door from shutting, but it will keep it as open as you want because it won't let it slide.
This hack can also work to keep a door locked. If you push the door until it is closed, it will stay stuck there. That way, it will also prevent the light and noises from coming inside.
Avoid fold marks in pants
Hangers are suitable to hang some clothes, like blouses and dresses. Yet, they may not be the safest choice for pants. They could end up with the same folding mark they'd have if they were folded.
This person had a clever idea, though. They wrapped a noodle around the hanger. This way, the pants they hang will not have a marked line. The downside is that it will take up more closet space.
DIYing cute accessories hangers
If you liked the previous idea and want to get fancy, you can cut more prominent pieces of noodles and wrap them in some cloth you like to make them prettier. This is the perfect way to hang headbands.
They look cute, but the doorknob might not be the right place to hang it. It could be uncomfortable, and the room looks cluttered. If you put them inside the closet, they could help you keep your things organized while not causing clutter in your room.
Half a noodle will save your boots
Since you already got a few hacks to make your closet experience more suitable, check out this one for your boots: putting half a noodle inside each boot will make them stay up (thus, they won't get ruined from bending).
You could also use offcuts of water woggles to stretch new pairs of shoes that are still not used to your feet' shape. It is incredible the variety of things one can do with a simple pool noodle.
Bed frame made of foam
Although not everyone needs a bed frame, we all know bed frames make the experience of buying a bed way more expensive. But with a couple of pool noodles stuck together, you can make your own with a much cheaper budget. Besides, you can decide on the height it will have.
There is no need to say that whoever performs this hack should ─with no exception─ wrap the noodles in a cloth. Under no circumstances should you leave the foam uncovered. It won't look charming even in the most beautiful room.
Untangle your wires with pool noodles
Uncovered foam is acceptable in one's room if (and only if) it will be hidden behind something else; for example, if the TV is hiding it. You can use woggles to keep wires untangled neatly throughout your house.
On the one hand, many loose wires make an awful sight. They can make a room look messy and cluttered even if it is not. On the other hand, if the foam is in plain sight, it doesn't look good either.
Store your cleaning tools easily
Uncovered unhidden foam could be acceptable in certain places around your house but not in your bedroom or living room. If you have a basement, you could expose your noodle hacks there.
A sliced lengthwise pool noodle can make an excellent holder if glued to a wall. As in other hacks, a couple of slots need to be made. In this case, as many as the things you want to hang.
Helpful tool to make an ergonomic working space
Working from a desk has its pros and cons. If you spend a lot of your day working with computers, you could be harming your body without even realizing it. You could damage your back but also your wrists.
Some people spend fortunes on ergonomic chairs and ergonomic devices, like a particular mouse or a palm rest, but this person chose to protect their wrists by resting them on a sliced noodle. That's a clever way to save money.
Stick a needle in a foam roll
They say a needle is hard to find in a haystack, but the truth is needles are hard to find anywhere. That is why sticking them into a piece of foam could be a great idea, cause there's no way you'll miss the woggle.
Besides, tailors and fashion designers can roll the clothes they are working on around the woggle and easily carry everything together. This is perfect for people who don't have a suitcase. Actually, tailors used to transport their work rolled up years ago.
This is how you can protect the roof of your car
You already witnessed how water woggles can be used to protect kids from hitting each other hard. Inanimate objects can get hit as well, and a scratch on a nice car could be more painful than on one's actual skin.
Not everyone can afford a car, and, even if they can, they need to take care of it to last longer. If things need to be carried on top of your vehicle, a couple of woggles can keep it from being harmed.
Protect your bumper with a noodle
People often take pride in their driving skills, but few can brag about their parking abilities. Has your car ever been touched while being parked? If a safe distance is not an option, water woggles can also protect your bumper.
Okay, let's admit that it does take away some of the glamorous effects a nice car has. But at least you could take the noodle shield away if you need to impress someone. A scratch will stay forever.
Cover your car
Everybody knows you need to be at least a little bit crazy to be a genius. Ordinary people with flat minds could never develop such brilliant ideas because their brains are just not wired that way. Lack of creativity? Could be.
This person went full cray-cray with the idea of pool noodles protection for cars and decided to cover their whole vehicle. It may work against a hail storm, but that's about it. It was not genius labor.
Foamy buffers in your garage
There's another way to protect your car with noodles except for sticking them to the sides, the front, the back, or the vehicle's ceiling, especially if you know your truck frequently touches the same thing.
Let's say your garage is not big enough, the car barely fits, or the trunk touches the roof when you open it. Attaching a noodle to the top of your garage could enable you to open and close the trunk while protecting it from possible bumps and scratches.
Prevent your car doors from scratching
Here we have another hack for people struggling with a tiny garage. But in this case, the issue is that the car doors are too close to the walls, so they need to open them carefully.
However, once in a while, you might forget about the situation before you open the door, and you could also have guests that are not aware of this situation. Sticking a noodle to the wall at the right height will make a perfect buffer.
A foamy pillow substitute
Being on a long road trip, most of us tend to lean to the side so we can take a nap, but the inside of the car is too uncomfortable. We all have used hoodies and towels as pillows to make the experience a bit more bearable, but it is never comfy enough.
You can create a circular pillow with a foam bar and a connector made from the same material. With it, we isolate our heads from the hard door and won't get hit when the car meets a bump.
To make the invisible visible
As we can see in this photograph, there is a specific time when the sunlight gets tricky, and some cables, pipes, and metal rods can become almost invisible. Frequently, we fail to see them and end up hurt.
These people went camping and set up a canvas cover on their minivan. To hold it still, they need two metal rods. Wasn't it wise to make them super visible, covering them with red noodles? No way will they miss them.
How to protect your hands from heat
Metal has molecules that can conduct heat ─ which means metal objects get hot when heat is applied. Now imagine holding on to your lawnmower on a hot summer day. It hurts just thinking about it, right? Well, here's the solution.
That is why many tools' handles are made of a different material. For example, some metal spoons have wooden handles. You could also create a foam handle to enable yourself to touch metal objects that have been left in the sun or have been exposed to heat.
Keep your arms from burning
There is nothing like having a relaxing time. What better place to do that than sitting on a deck chair outdoors? Sounds good, but be careful with the iron armrests, which can get sizzling, and you can burn yourself.
There is no need to pour cold water on them. Do not despair! You already know a water woggle is the best solution. Grab two pieces as long as your forearms, and carve them to wrap the chair armrests.
Stick bars into the ground to delimit areas
This noodle stuck in the ground is a little bit confusing. What would you interpret from this picture? If there were two noodles instead of one, we would think kids might have improvised a football pitch.
If there were more than one (maybe a number closer to ten), someone might have tried to imitate a parking lot. Delimiting areas with sticks or foam bars is a clever, simple hack you can do and undo as many times as you want.
Make a metal rod thicker with a woggle
Have you ever gone camping? Isn't it a fantastic activity? Sure it is, but only if you have a tent that won't crumble in the middle of the night because some metal rods are too weak to stand.
Sometimes the tent's canvas is too heavy, and the rods collapse. Water woggles can be wrapped around rods to make them thicker and help them support the whole structure. This will also prevent raindrops from leaking through any holes.
Make some delicious chocolate-looking foam donnuts
April Fools is a trendy day to mess around with your friend's trust. Water woggles are perfect for an innocent prank. You will need some chocolate spread, but only to disguise small slices of foam. They'll look like candy.
One needs to be careful with whom they are pranking with chocolate snacks. Some people will say a prank like this is unforgivable: these foam pieces will look irresistible, so imagine the disappointment of biting into a dry, flavorless sponge.
Cover a dangerous rake
Rakes are helpful to gather fallen leaves that have spread all over your lawn. They are also beneficial for farming activities. But whenever you need to put your rake away, it is better to cover the skewers to be safe.
A portion of a sliced noodle will do a great job guarding the spikes for you not to get accidentally hurt. You can use the rest of the woggle as a handle if the sun reaches the rake.
Noodle collar for your dog
Dogs are the most adorable animals ever. However, they can be as stubborn as a mule. It is a pity that we cannot communicate why they shouldn't lick or bite their wounds. Luckily, we have Elizabethan collars.
Yet, you may need to get a collar with urgency. So, if you don't own the actual cone, you can make one out of noodle pieces. The more you attach to the collar, the harder it is for the dog to move their head around.
Find the fun in bathing your dog
Considering dogs' stubbornness, you can't find it hard to believe that they tend to make a mess every time they need a bath. Watering a dog can become a difficult task since most run once they see a hose.
An intelligent move is to make your dog believe you two are just playing. Turn a hose into a circular sprinkler with the help of a few pieces of pool noodles and make the dog go through it. It will be like a lion going through a fire ring but coming out clean.
Make a homemade safe hose to avoid spilling
Since water woggles are not affected by water and can be extended with connectors, you will see that it is possible to direct water from the water tap to someplace far from it, with woggles shaped like a long hose.
You'd better try this hack because it looks like you could avoid some spilling with it. Just like hoses, the woggle will be able to wrap around itself, making it easy for you to carry it from and to the storage room.
How to connect your RV to running water
Pool noodle hoses are an excellent device not to spill water from the tub. But also, since they can get as long as one wishes, they could be a convenient way to transport water from an RV to a campground.
Going camping is an excellent way to spend a weekend. However, as you may know, not all camping spots have running water. There is no need to worry: if you see an RV nearby, they'll probably share it.
Organizing your organizers
After Marie Kondo released her show on Netflix, many people were inspired to declutter and organize every single closet and drawer in their house. Clothes are the easy step. The kitchen is more challenging cause we usually don't think of tool sizes when we buy them.
After Marie, several organizers emerged from nowhere. Nowadays, they are everywhere. All of them use and sell these cutlery organizers or drawer divisors. They look helpful, but not if they are loose in a drawer that is too big for them. Putting a piece of noodle inside the drawer will help you keep these organizers in their place.
Struggle to keep tools standstill?
It may not be correct to say this hack would be helpful with this particular flashlight because it is not precisely cylindrical: there is a slight change in the shape, which would prevent it from rolling. Nevertheless, a piece of foam would stop other flashlights from moving around.
If you have a cylindrical flashlight (or any tool shaped that way), you probably have struggled to keep it still more than once. A piece of carved water woggle can hold the lantern, and the inclination will stop it from rolling.
Stopping the ladder from skidding
Generally, the number one fear when it comes to climbing a ladder is vertigo: looking down and getting that feeling in your stomach can be very unpleasing. However, that fear is irrational. Fearing that the ladder could slip is entirely rational.
Two smooth surfaces enable sliding and are likely to make us feel insecure when we are up high. If one of those surfaces is ruffled or ragged, motion is more likely to be stopped. A foam handle can help with that.