How To Keep Paint From Sticking To Your Paint Tray (Hint: It's Not Plastic Wrap Or Foil)

There's nothing more exciting than when you pick out a new paint color to completely transform a room in your home. However, dealing with the messy aftermath is a chore that most of us dread. As soon as you pour paint into the pan, it creates a thick, goopy solution that seems to take hours to clean up. If you give up and leave any of it behind, it will dry into a hard crust. Then, the next time you use that tray to paint your kitchen cabinets or update your living room, you'll get dried paint stuck on your roller, leaving annoying lumps all over your freshly painted walls. Fortunately, there's a way to keep this from happening, and it's not plastic wrap or foil. You can easily avoid all of this by reaching for a simple kitchen garbage bag. 

The good news is this solution has multiple use cases. For example, if you pour too much paint into the tray, you'll likely want to put it back into the can to save it when you're done for the day. But trying to pour paint from a large tray back into a small can may seem impossible. Chances are you'll end up spilling it down the sides of the can and all over the floor. For this reason, many people end up throwing the whole tray away and purchasing a new tray every time they paint. If you find that you paint a lot, this waste adds up due to rising paint costs. Thankfully, a kitchen garbage bag is here to save the day. 

If you're a DIYer, you've probably tried lining your paint tray with foil or plastic wrap. The problem with that is these materials tear easily and then crinkle under pressure, so you end up getting paint in the tray. This creates an additional mess to clean up. Trash bags are made from low-density polyethylene, which is very flexible and water-resistant. The bag will conform to the shape of your tray and withstand the friction from your roller without ripping, making it a smart paint hack.

Before you get started, place your paint tray inside a standard kitchen garbage bag and pull the ties snug to close it. This will prevent the tray from moving. Next, smooth the bag onto the surface as best as possible and tuck the remaining material away. Pour your paint onto the bag, and then you can get to work.

Once you're done for the day, carefully turn it inside out as you remove it. This will trap all the unused paint neatly inside. Next, hold it over your can and smooth all of the paint into one corner. Then, snip it with scissors and pour into the can. Once it is empty, throw it in the garbage. Now, cleanup is done, and you are prepared for round two! Before you get started, gather all the essential room painting supplies. Also, keep in mind that you can't throw oil-based paint into regular household garbage, even if it's dry. This is an environmental hazard. Instead, search online for your local hazardous waste disposal site and dispose of the paint responsibly.