I was hanging a towel bar in the bathroom. Two screws on the left side went in fine. The right side — the last screw, the one that determines whether the whole thing is level — spun in place. The hole in the drywall anchor had stripped. The towel bar sagged. I said a word I will not repeat here.

My dad happened to be visiting. He walked in, looked at the sagging bar, and said, “Got any toothpicks?”

Five minutes later the towel bar was solid. It has not moved in two years.

The toothpick trick

When a screw hole in wood or a drywall anchor gets stripped, the threads have nothing to bite into. The fix is to fill the hole with something that the screw can grip. Toothpicks are made of soft wood that compresses when the screw goes in and expands to fill the gaps.

How to do it

1. Remove the screw and the old anchor if there is one. Clean out any crumbled drywall or wood dust from the hole.
2. Take two or three wooden toothpicks — the flat kind, not the round cocktail ones. If you only have round ones, they work too, just use more.
3. Dip the tips in wood glue. A tiny drop on each one is enough.
4. Push the toothpicks into the hole as far as they will go. Pack them tight. If the hole is big, use four or five.
5. Snap off the ends so they are flush with the surface. You can use wire cutters or just bend them back and forth until they break.
6. Let the glue dry for about fifteen minutes.
7. Drive the screw back in — it will bite into the toothpick wood and hold tight.

When this works and when it does not

This trick is for wood and drywall anchors. It works great on door hinges, cabinet handles, towel bars, and furniture assembly. It does not work on metal or concrete.

For drywall without an anchor — if the screw was just straight into the drywall — the toothpick trick is a temporary fix. Drywall is basically compressed chalk. You need a proper toggle bolt or molly bolt for anything heavier than a small picture frame.

I have also used golf tees for larger holes — same principle, coat with wood glue, hammer in, cut flush, drill a pilot hole, drive the screw. A golf tee fills a hole about the size of a pencil.