My dining table wobbled for a year before I fixed it. Every meal came with a side of clinking glasses, because the whole table rocked whenever someone leaned on it. I assumed it needed new hardware and a professional. Turns out it needed a matchbook and a screwdriver.

A wobbly table is almost always one of two problems: a loose joint or a short leg. Both are quick fixes.

Turn it over and tighten everything

Flip the table on its side and check every screw and bolt where the legs meet the frame. Tighten anything loose. On older tables, the screws might spin without gripping because the wood holes have stripped out. That is a fixable problem too. Stuff a few wooden toothpicks coated in wood glue into the hole, let it dry, break off the excess, and the screw will bite again. This one trick saves more tables than any other repair.

Find the short leg

If the joints are tight and it still rocks, one leg is shorter than the rest. Set the table on a flat floor and push down on each corner. The corner that moves is the problem. The classic quick fix is to wedge something under the short leg: a folded matchbook, a furniture pad, or a small piece of cardboard. It is temporary, but it buys you time to do it right.

Use a furniture leveler for the real fix

Many table legs have adjustable feet built in, little round pads that screw in and out. Look for them before you do anything else. Just twist them to extend or retract each foot until the table sits flat. If your table does not have them, you can buy self-adhesive furniture leveling pads for a few dollars.

Glue a loose leg joint

For a leg that is loose where it meets the frame, wood glue and clamps are the permanent fix. Remove the leg, spread glue on the joint, put it back, and clamp it for a few hours. If the joint has a bolt, tighten it after the glue dries. This is a thirty-minute job that makes the table solid for years.

Check the floor too

Sometimes the table is fine and the floor is not. An uneven floor will make any table rock. Test by placing a level on the floor next to the table. If the floor is the problem, the same furniture pads under the short corner fix it without touching the table at all.

My table has been rock solid for two years off a toothpick-and-glue repair on one stripped screw. It took longer to read this article than it did to fix.