Blu-Tac

As I stuck up another picture on the wall yesterday, I stopped for a moment and thought of the joys of Blu-Tac which I have enjoyed throughout my life. Sometimes, banging a nail in a wall, buying a frame and hanging it neatly is just not possible. Neither does cellotape do a good job. Double-sided tape is too good and leaves a dirty, sticky, hard-to-scrub mark when you decide that what you had posted is now obsolete and needs a change.

Blu-Tac is the best material to stick things. I have stuck photographs, newspaper cut-outs and little reminders on walls (most notably, pictures of the great man, Roger Federer), I have attached a manual powerpoint to the side of the computer table, even hung a Manchester United towel on the wall above our TV using this remarkably flexible sticky substance. And it's generally easy to remove as well, leaving no unsightly residue behind.

It also comes in a variety of colours, not just blue. I am currently using White-Tac which is very nice and sticky, and easy to use over and over again. In the past I have not found pink, yellow and orange-Tac to be useful. Their stickiness fades quickly and it hardens onto the wall so that when you try to take something down, the corners get ripped and left behind on the wall!

I don't like the walls of my house to be full of pictures, photos, articles etc, but I do like a few nice family and religious pictures on show, and Blu-Tac, or the white version of it I am currently using, does the job nicely. So if you can't hack it, Blu-Tac it!