How to quickly fill small holes in your wall

Hanging posters and banners all over your apartment is great (how else are you going to show your love for Björk?), but when your lease runs up, and you're hoping to get your full deposit back, all those little holes in the wall can cause a bit of a problem. Now, there's two ways you can approach this problem: the college dorm way, or the grown-up way. Since I'm sure our readership has a healthy dose of both college kids looking for a quick fix, and people who are looking for a more permanent solution, we'll cover both methods.

Give it the old college try

If the hole is smaller than 1/4 inch, the first weapon in your quick fix arsenal should be toothpaste -- preferably the same shade as your wall. Simply squeeze the paste into the hole, and then use a putty knife (or playing card) to scrape off the excess. Try to get the paste as flush as possible with the wall. The toothpaste might shrink a bit when it dries, so a second application may be needed.

If the toothpaste trick doesn't appeal to you, another quick fix is to crush up an aspirin into as fine a powder as you can manage, mix the powder with just enough water to form a paste, and then use that to fill the hole. It'll work in a pinch, but the toothpaste method is a lot easier.

Let's do it right

Make a run to your local hardware store and pick up a small tube of spackling, either a putty knife or a joint compound knife, some fine grit sandpaper, and touch-up paint (if needed). Now just pretend your spackling is the toothpaste from the quick fix method: squirt the spackling into the hole, use your knife to scrape away the excess, allow the compound to dry, reapply if necessary. Once everything is dry, sand down the compound so it's level with the wall, and apply touch-up paint if needed. Voila! Now where was that hole again?