Caulk - Necessary Evil

I have a caulk-adversion thanks to the previous residents of my home (see this and this), but the real truth is I don't like dealing with caulk even for its appropriate uses. It's messy. It doesn't matter how gentle I am, it continues to come out of the caulk gun when I don't want it to. Plus there are the times I'm clumsy and let it drip on my bathroom rug (let's just say it's not my day). It doesn't store well if you aren't using it all at once... and who uses a whole container of caulk at once?


But there are things homeowners need to do even if they don't like it and I needed to stop the water that gets outside of my bathtub from raining into my kitchen (eek!). So if you have to use caulk and are not a fan, here are ways to make the job easier:
1 - Have paper towels on hand... trust me
2 - Keep goo-gone around  - It got the caulk out of my rug easily and makes hand washing much easier.
3 - Get  handy little caulk caps to help keep it from drying inside the cap. I normally use plastic wrap with rubber band, which works all right, but I'm hoping this is better.

4 - Buy the dap brand with screw off cap... it's about time! You can take the cap off and clean it out (with the paper towels from tip 1) so that it doesn't harden inside.

Ok... maybe caulk is growing on me a little... and I better get used to it because I'll need to finish off my baseboard installation. I'll have posts on that topic soon.