What Home Improvement and Gardening Advice Does Hunker Offer?

Updated

Hunker covers home improvement and gardening through short, practical articles organized around specific tasks: concealing a modem, building a potting bench from concrete blocks and wood planks, trapping ants with bottle caps, leveling a bumpy lawn, and refreshing wooden furniture with flat beer. The site is aimed at renters and homeowners who want low-cost, do-it-yourself solutions rather than contractor-level renovations. Its advice is most useful when you already know roughly what you want to do and need a concrete method, a material comparison, or a design alternative.

Home improvement and interior design

Hunker's design coverage leans toward small, reversible changes and workarounds rather than full remodels. Recurring themes in its recent stories include:

  • Hiding utilitarian objects. One article describes a low-cost way to conceal a modem in a living room so it stops being a visual distraction.
  • Rethinking standard fixtures. A piece argues against tilt-up garage doors in favor of a rustic-looking alternative, and another suggests moving away from subway tile toward a more distinctive kitchen backsplash idea.
  • Storage that doubles as decor. A wall-mounted paper towel organizer is presented as a way to hold multiple rolls, save space, and act as a focal point.
  • Furniture care. A cleaning-focused article explains how to reuse flat beer to restore color and shine to certain types of wooden furniture.

The through-line is substitution: instead of buying the conventional product, you use a cheaper or more attractive option. That makes the advice easy to test on a single wall, door, or piece of furniture before committing further.

Gardening, lawns, and outdoor tools

Gardening content splits into building, planting, and maintenance:

  • Structures and hardscaping. A potting bench made from concrete blocks and wood planks is pitched as a near-free alternative to a store-bought bench that can run into the hundreds of dollars.
  • Lawn repair. One article compares sand and topsoil as fill for smoothing a bumpy lawn, including which works better for severe unevenness.
  • Pest control. A DIY ant trap uses bottle caps filled with a sugar-and-borax or sugar-and-baking-soda mix instead of conventional pesticides.
  • Wildlife and garden accessories. A project repurposes a tennis ball tube as a bird feeder, framed as an alternative to traditional feeders.
  • Tool upkeep. A lawn mower article addresses how long mower blades typically last, which helps you decide when sharpening or replacement is due.

If your goal is a quick weekend project, the potting bench and ant trap are the most self-contained. The lawn-leveling comparison matters more if you are deciding what to buy in bulk, since the wrong fill is expensive to undo.

Problem-solving: pests, cleaning, and maintenance

A large share of Hunker's output is troubleshooting rather than decorating. The pattern is usually: identify a common annoyance, then offer a household-material fix. The ant trap and the flat-beer furniture polish are both examples, and both rely on items you likely already own. This category is where the site is most actionable, because the instructions tend to be short and the materials cheap. The trade-off is that household remedies are not equivalent to commercial products in every situation — for a severe infestation or a damaged finish, test on a small area first.

How the content is organized and updated

Hunker publishes new stories continuously, with timestamps showing items posted within hours of each other across categories such as Garden Tools & Supplies, Pests, Weeds & Problems, Design, Lawn, Organization & Storage, and Cleaning Hacks. Articles are short and task-focused, and some include product reviews alongside DIY instructions — for example, a review of the Dreame Aero Ultra steam floor cleaner framed around whether it suits city living. That mix means you can use the site either to find a project to do or to check whether a specific tool fits your space before buying.

When Hunker is the right source — and when it isn't

Your situation Hunker fits Look elsewhere
You want a cheap DIY fix for a specific annoyance Yes — pest, cleaning, and storage hacks are its core —
You need design alternatives to a standard fixture or finish Yes — substitution ideas are a recurring format —
You are planning a structural remodel or permit work — Licensed contractors and local code resources
You need a product's full specifications or current price — Manufacturer listings; Hunker's page evidence does not include pricing
You want expert comparison of materials for a large purchase Partly — the sand-vs-soil lawn article is an example Extension services or supplier guidance for large-scale work

Use Hunker when the job is small, reversible, and cheap enough to attempt yourself. Treat its reviews and material comparisons as a starting point for your own research, and verify anything involving structural changes, electrical work, or chemical pest control against local regulations and product labels.