I just spent 3 days hand planing the edges on two sets of doors to make them close. Had one more set to go when I stumbled across your video. Thank you. Was about to waste another day of my life...
Thank you for this video. Just painted our kitchen cabinets and replaced the hinges. Some of the doors overlapped and the towel instruction was THE BOMB!!!!! Thank you!
Short, sweet, to the point. A lot of UA-camrs have failed to realize when doing these quick repairs they end up filling in the episode with an excessive amount of crap versus getting right to the point and bringing us the fix. You did a great job thank you for the video.
I immediately said this was too good to be true, then I tried it! Holy moly! Our bathroom vanity doors haven't closed properly since we bought our home 11 years ago. Now they're perfect! Thank you so much for sharing! This is one eternally grateful homeowner.
I painted my kitchen cabinets/ doors and replaced hinges. The wouldn't close. After drilling numerous holes and patching I tried this. It worked!! Thank you
Seriously tho. We've been living with sticking cabinets for years. And in 10 minutes every cabinet is fixed! I'm seriously mind blown! thank you so much
Life saver trick !!! We just painted our cabinets and when we went to reinstall them they were rubbing together and scratching the paint ! This worked !! Thank you so very much!!! 🙌🏽 we are so glad we found your video!!!!
Wow! It worked! I just replaced the hardware on old 1960s cabinets yesterday and was so bummed out when the doors didn't close. Figured I did something wrong, but nope, just the hinges. Thanks!
I was so disappointed when I finished installing a brand new cabinet in the bathroom and the doors were rubbing against each other just as yours were. Thank you so much for sharing your tip. It worked like a charm.
For some cabinet doors, this will work, but if it doesn't the problem is likely where the "elbow" of the hinge makes contact with the cabinet face. In this case, fold a potholder between the cabinet face and elbow of the hinge, making sure to keep the potholder within the cabinet opening (so that it doesn't extend to the corner of the door). Press the door closed repeatedly, like with the towel procedure shown in the video. Do it for each hinge the door has. You are now essentially making your hinge "taller". After this process, you will likely need to re-do the towel maneuver to re-align the doors. Now for the single door, do the potholder trick first and then, since you don't have a 2nd door to press the towel between, just put the towel between the door opening (wrap around the face and inner edge of the cabinet where the door and shelves meet) and press. I would fold the towel in a two-ply fashion for this part add additional plies if the door still touches the opening. It has worked perfectly for me and I had 27 doors to do!
Not sure if you're still around here, but I can't visualize what you mean with the potholder and I think what you're describing will help us - Care to provide more detail?
You just saved me!!! I had one kitchen cabinet hinge break. The door did not close with the new hinge. A few minutes with a towel and it's done!!! Thank YOU!!!
Thank you, thank you. This was the exact solution I needed. I have 8 cabinets were we are replacing hinges with opposing doors. On the first set, I had that same O-shit moment, so I took to UA-cam and found your magical towel trick. So far, with 4 of these scenarios down, the towel pressure corrected the overlapping doors. You and your towel trick saved the day.
This was awesome!!! We sanded down our cabinet doors and could not for the life of us get the doors to close properly with new hinges. Tried this and it perfectly even out the doors. No over lap and they open and close beautifully!! Thank you for this fix!
AHHHHHH! This issue was driving my hubby and I CRAZY all day long, taking doors off and on (and they were heavy). THIS WORKED! You deserve a knighthood Sir Door Man!
OMG! We have been living with this problem literally for years! This summer I added trim to my cupboards and painted them. Looks great, except the cupboards under the sink got way worse, actually rubbed the paint off where they hit. I've unscrewed and screwed the hinges a dozen times trying to fix them to no avail. Thanks to your video, they're perfect now! Going to touch up the paint knowing it will stay on this time. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Oh my goodness. I just tried this and it worked. Thank you soooooo much! I also tried it on a stand alone cabinet door that would not close. It would always be opened slightly. I opened the cabinet door and put a dish towel in the opening between the cabinet box and door, then I closed it repeatedly and it worked using the same principle. Thank you!
I was desperate for an opportunity to fix the doors in the bathroom cabinets after I updated and painted them. This technique is absolutely fabulous! I was so disappointed when after replacing the hardware that the doors would not close and I didn’t know what to do. Thank you so much for posting this video. It is truly a magic trick.
Just put new hinges on and was so frustrated they wasn't closing up to the box. They had gaps. Put a dish rag between each of the two hinges and (one at a time) and now they close!! Thank you so much for the information.
Thank you so much for this video!!! My wife and I were doing some remodeling and had this issue and well we haven’t had cabinet doors for some time now. Well we watched this video at 1 in the morning and we both got up to test this out. We are going to have cabinet doors tomorrow!
Thank you for the tip--it worked for me! The other one is similarly using a cloth on the hinge side to adjust for vertical evenness. I went around my 1979 house today and adjusted cabinets. I feel more comfortable about my aging solid wood cabinet doors and may next give them a paint job and new hinges.
Amazingly helpful, glad I found this tonight. I thought I had a long day ahead of me tomorrow. Instead, the project is almost done! Thanks, liked and subscribed!
Thank you so much for this sanity saving tip! After 3 trips to Home Depot to purchase 3 different types of hinges, with your handy tip, we were finally able to use the first set.
Thank you so much. I spent an hour wondering how I was going to fix the slight overlap and was dreading having to redrill the holes. I am fitting the same old hinge with the new hinge you have in your demonstration, and it didn't matter for single cabinet doors but any that butted up to another door this happened to. It does seem like the hinge is fatter on the new hinge. Thanks again from New Zealand
I bought 3 different brands of 3/8 inch inset hinges; even some from Lowes and they would not work with the cabinets here in my house that was built in 1970. The bend in the elbow of the old hinges fit the doors perfectly but these new ones leave a bit of a gap between the rabbet of the door and the hinge which pushes both the doors closer toward each other when closed. The towel trick works okay but I'm probably going to have to sand the edges of the doors....
If you are replacing the really old hinges, i.e., the ones that look just like the hinges in the video, except without the self-closing mechanism, then your problem mounting the new hinges will be a bit worse, according to my experience. The gap difference is more profound between the old and new hinges and if you try to use the existing screw holes, NONE of your doors will fit, and the towel method depicted in the video will work only in rare cases where the tolerance was sufficient. I tried the towel method on one set of doors and ended up bending the hinge so far that the self-closing mechanism crunched up against the metal basically destroying the hinge and the door would not even close all the way by itself. Out of 22 doors I was replacing, the towel method worked on 1 set. For the rest, I used a combination of new screw holes, sanding the doors edges, and when absolutely required, chiseling notches in the face frame.
This works if you do not have a lot of overlap. If you have too much and you try this you will only end up putting too much stress on the hinges and the wood where the hinges are screw will end up splitting. Sometimes it’s easier to drill new wholes a little further out.
HO...LEE....SHIT...Man this video saved my ass you guys. Thanks so much. This trick saved my day. Like you gifted me an entire day with this video. I was having visions of sanding my goddamned cabinets and repainting. Thank you soooooo much for this trick!
Magic, thanks so much. I have been learning facts (facts I don't want to know, mind you!) about hinge types, etc (yawn) so I could try to find adjustable ones to replace the ones I didn't know how to get to hang straight. Now , one less hardware store trip, yea!
Similar to minor tweaking we do in the autobody industry. Either using a "door bender" tool between the latch and striker, or shutting the door against a rubber sanding block.
When you remove an old hinge there is a number stamped on it. Do a good search of it first and you can likely find a far better hinge online at some cabinet part stores. Having said that, if you purchase any at the box stores for these type of doors you will definitely Not be able to close the doors without some modifications.
If your cabinets are made out of particle board - DON'T DO THIS. If you do, you will rip the screw or even worse, a complete chunk right out of your cabinet.
I wish they made better looking new hardware. Preferably a bit more simple looking. These new ones still have a “dated” look. ☹️ The cabinets look great
I have an issue with the long cabinet door bout 5' feet tall from the bottom to bout half way up the door does not meet flush with the cabinet edge frame I am worried if I use a towel as you show may cause the screws to pop out or loosen them not sure if door is warped or what I just repainted the doors I guess worse case scenario is if I try towel trick & pops the screws I will just have to relocate the hinges.
I just spent 3 days hand planing the edges on two sets of doors to make them close. Had one more set to go when I stumbled across your video. Thank you. Was about to waste another day of my life...
Thank you for the tip. You helped to fix an annoying problem that existed for almost 3 decades.
Thank you for this video. Just painted our kitchen cabinets and replaced the hinges. Some of the doors overlapped and the towel instruction was THE BOMB!!!!! Thank you!
Short, sweet, to the point. A lot of UA-camrs have failed to realize when doing these quick repairs they end up filling in the episode with an excessive amount of crap versus getting right to the point and bringing us the fix. You did a great job thank you for the video.
I immediately said this was too good to be true, then I tried it! Holy moly! Our bathroom vanity doors haven't closed properly since we bought our home 11 years ago. Now they're perfect! Thank you so much for sharing! This is one eternally grateful homeowner.
omg it works!!
I painted my kitchen cabinets/ doors and replaced hinges. The wouldn't close. After drilling numerous holes and patching I tried this. It worked!! Thank you
My freaking holy sweet baby Jesus. I've been dealing with this FOR MONTHS. But my burden has been LIFTED because of you good sir. Liked. THANK YOU!
Seriously tho. We've been living with sticking cabinets for years. And in 10 minutes every cabinet is fixed! I'm seriously mind blown! thank you so much
Life saver trick !!! We just painted our cabinets and when we went to reinstall them they were rubbing together and scratching the paint ! This worked !! Thank you so very much!!! 🙌🏽 we are so glad we found your video!!!!
I just wanted to say "THANK YOU"! I have been losing my mind with this problem and am so thankful for this 2 minute fix! God Bless You!
Wow! It worked! I just replaced the hardware on old 1960s cabinets yesterday and was so bummed out when the doors didn't close. Figured I did something wrong, but nope, just the hinges. Thanks!
My problem exactly, and this solution solved the problem brilliantly. I was anticipating hours of adjustments. You've made me a believer in UA-cam!
Give this man the Nobel Prize 🙏🏽
I was so disappointed when I finished installing a brand new cabinet in the bathroom and the doors were rubbing against each other just as yours were. Thank you so much for sharing your tip. It worked like a charm.
For some cabinet doors, this will work, but if it doesn't the problem is likely where the "elbow" of the hinge makes contact with the cabinet face. In this case, fold a potholder between the cabinet face and elbow of the hinge, making sure to keep the potholder within the cabinet opening (so that it doesn't extend to the corner of the door). Press the door closed repeatedly, like with the towel procedure shown in the video. Do it for each hinge the door has. You are now essentially making your hinge "taller". After this process, you will likely need to re-do the towel maneuver to re-align the doors. Now for the single door, do the potholder trick first and then, since you don't have a 2nd door to press the towel between, just put the towel between the door opening (wrap around the face and inner edge of the cabinet where the door and shelves meet) and press. I would fold the towel in a two-ply fashion for this part add additional plies if the door still touches the opening. It has worked perfectly for me and I had 27 doors to do!
Thanks for this additional info! It was just what I needed!!!
Not sure if you're still around here, but I can't visualize what you mean with the potholder and I think what you're describing will help us - Care to provide more detail?
You just saved me!!! I had one kitchen cabinet hinge break. The door did not close with the new hinge. A few minutes with a towel and it's done!!! Thank YOU!!!
Oh my God! Thank you for posting this. I am not a handy person and have been losing my mind for months trying to fix this issue
Glad I found your post. Helped. Thank you for saving my mind.
Me too!
I cant believe this worked.i have been living with this for 20 years
Thank you, thank you. This was the exact solution I needed. I have 8 cabinets were we are replacing hinges with opposing doors. On the first set, I had that same O-shit moment, so I took to UA-cam and found your magical towel trick. So far, with 4 of these scenarios down, the towel pressure corrected the overlapping doors. You and your towel trick saved the day.
This was awesome!!! We sanded down our cabinet doors and could not for the life of us get the doors to close properly with new hinges. Tried this and it perfectly even out the doors. No over lap and they open and close beautifully!! Thank you for this fix!
Man I tought I was gonna have to sand down all the doors. Absolutely a life saver. Gotta love UA-cam
Having the same problem. Glad I walked away and took time to find your video before my rest 😊
I just did this to my bathroom cabinets that were overlapping, holy moly!!! IT WORKED!!! thanks for the tip and demo!!!
AHHHHHH! This issue was driving my hubby and I CRAZY all day long, taking doors off and on (and they were heavy). THIS WORKED! You deserve a knighthood Sir Door Man!
This video is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
Me too
OMG! We have been living with this problem literally for years! This summer I added trim to my cupboards and painted them. Looks great, except the cupboards under the sink got way worse, actually rubbed the paint off where they hit. I've unscrewed and screwed the hinges a dozen times trying to fix them to no avail. Thanks to your video, they're perfect now! Going to touch up the paint knowing it will stay on this time. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Oh my goodness. I just tried this and it worked. Thank you soooooo much!
I also tried it on a stand alone cabinet door that would not close. It would always be opened slightly. I opened the cabinet door and put a dish towel in the opening between the cabinet box and door, then I closed it repeatedly and it worked using the same principle. Thank you!
This worked for my 1960 overlay hinged kitchen cabinets. Thank you. Used a much smaller towel. A bar rag folded twice, then 3 times. Yay!!!
I was desperate for an opportunity to fix the doors in the bathroom cabinets after I updated and painted them. This technique is absolutely fabulous! I was so disappointed when after replacing the hardware that the doors would not close and I didn’t know what to do. Thank you so much for posting this video. It is truly a magic trick.
Just put new hinges on and was so frustrated they wasn't closing up to the box. They had gaps. Put a dish rag between each of the two hinges and (one at a time) and now they close!! Thank you so much for the information.
Thank you so much for this video!!! My wife and I were doing some remodeling and had this issue and well we haven’t had cabinet doors for some time now. Well we watched this video at 1 in the morning and we both got up to test this out. We are going to have cabinet doors tomorrow!
Ooops! That's an Awesome trick! Thank you so much. I was afraid it would take me a long time to get my cabinets lined up. Now they are perfect!
I didn't think this would work. I was wrong. It fixed every one of my kitchen cabinet door issues. THANK YOU!!
You are awesome! I was in tears over trying to fix my doors. Easy peasy!!! Bless you!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just tried this!! I have been playing hell with these doors!! It worked!!! THANK YOU
Thank you for the tip--it worked for me! The other one is similarly using a cloth on the hinge side to adjust for vertical evenness. I went around my 1979 house today and adjusted cabinets. I feel more comfortable about my aging solid wood cabinet doors and may next give them a paint job and new hinges.
This worked for us! I pulled up your video before going to get the sander. Whew, that would've been a mess. Thank you!
What a great trick! Getting ready to put on new hinges on our kitchen cabinets and was afraid this would happen. Thank you!!!
OMG, my bathroom cabinet has been overlapping for years. This fixed them. Thank you
Amazingly helpful, glad I found this tonight. I thought I had a long day ahead of me tomorrow. Instead, the project is almost done! Thanks, liked and subscribed!
Amen brother!
Same!!!!
Thank you so much for this sanity saving tip! After 3 trips to Home Depot to purchase 3 different types of hinges, with your handy tip, we were finally able to use the first set.
Thank you so much. I spent an hour wondering how I was going to fix the slight overlap and was dreading having to redrill the holes. I am fitting the same old hinge with the new hinge you have in your demonstration, and it didn't matter for single cabinet doors but any that butted up to another door this happened to. It does seem like the hinge is fatter on the new hinge. Thanks again from New Zealand
That completely worked!!!!!! I am so very happy with this extremely easy and quick fix!! Thank you!!!!!
Thank you thank you! You saved me hours of work. Had just put cabinets back together and couldn't get them to fit at all.
This did work for me--not on all cabinets but some. Great tip. Thanks!
You just saved me a HUGE headache. Thank you sir.
No way, never thought about this. I replaced all my hinges and ended up with overlaps. And 1/8 gaps on the hinge side. Thanks.
Dude! This might have just solved half my problems! Thanks for posting this.
All you do is hit the top or bottom of the door with the palm of your hand
I bought 3 different brands of 3/8 inch inset hinges; even some from Lowes and they would not work with the cabinets here in my house that was built in 1970. The bend in the elbow of the old hinges fit the doors perfectly but these new ones leave a bit of a gap between the rabbet of the door and the hinge which pushes both the doors closer toward each other when closed. The towel trick works okay but I'm probably going to have to sand the edges of the doors....
YOU SAVED ME FEOM A MELTDOWN. THANK YOU. IT WORKED.
Same problem here! Replacing 20 yr old hinges with new ones and the doors won’t close. Gonna give it a try. Thanks a lot!
If you are replacing the really old hinges, i.e., the ones that look just like the hinges in the video, except without the self-closing mechanism, then your problem mounting the new hinges will be a bit worse, according to my experience. The gap difference is more profound between the old and new hinges and if you try to use the existing screw holes, NONE of your doors will fit, and the towel method depicted in the video will work only in rare cases where the tolerance was sufficient. I tried the towel method on one set of doors and ended up bending the hinge so far that the self-closing mechanism crunched up against the metal basically destroying the hinge and the door would not even close all the way by itself. Out of 22 doors I was replacing, the towel method worked on 1 set. For the rest, I used a combination of new screw holes, sanding the doors edges, and when absolutely required, chiseling notches in the face frame.
please make a video on how to do this on one of the single doors.
I was scrating my head.............Your trick works perfectly......Thank you.
You literally saved me so much time and money. Thank you so much!
Thank you sooooo much. Was so excited when it worked! It’s a miracle!
This works if you do not have a lot of overlap. If you have too much and you try this you will only end up putting too much stress on the hinges and the wood where the hinges are screw will end up splitting. Sometimes it’s easier to drill new wholes a little further out.
OMG this is wonderful!!! I can't thank you enough!!!
Thanks John it worked! It shuts now. Although the wooden piece holding the hinges on one of the cabinet doors just split. Not going to open for now.😩
WOWZA. Thank you for posting this. I am going to try right now. Looks way easier than sanding and chipping the frame like I was planning on doing
HO...LEE....SHIT...Man this video saved my ass you guys. Thanks so much. This trick saved my day. Like you gifted me an entire day with this video. I was having visions of sanding my goddamned cabinets and repainting. Thank you soooooo much for this trick!
Just saved my life. So happy this worked.
Wow! If I ever see you in person I’m buying you a beer!! Thanks!!
Magic, thanks so much. I have been learning facts (facts I don't want to know, mind you!) about hinge types, etc (yawn) so I could try to find adjustable ones to replace the ones I didn't know how to get to hang straight. Now , one less hardware store trip, yea!
Where there’s a will there’s away!! God, is good!
Similar to minor tweaking we do in the autobody industry. Either using a "door bender" tool between the latch and striker, or shutting the door against a rubber sanding block.
This video saved my marriage!!!
Works like a charm…thank you!
This is exactly what I needed!!
This saved me so much therapy!!!!!
My wife and I couldn't figure out how to get the cabinet doors to come out right until we watched this video. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you so much for the tip! It worked perfectly for my bathroom cabinets.
Thank you thank you thank you you just saved me so much work With the other alternatives I would’ve tried
Holy cow! It worked for mine! Thank you!
Worked like a charm! Thanks!
Worked perfectly. Thank you.
Thank you thank you thank you. You’ve saved me a lot of work.
Oh wow, I have the exact same problem, gonna try it tomorrow 👍☮️, subscribed ❤️
I actually tried this and it worked on all but one of my cabinet doors.
This worked perfectly for me. Thank you!
Wood between the hinges split so I tore the door off with hinges. Now there's that problem and the Ol' Lady .
What kind of crazy Black Magic is this? Jk Seruously, though, how in the World did you even come across this method? Well done!
Thank you very much it was very helpful! I need to try this asap!
When you remove an old hinge there is a number stamped on it. Do a good search of it first and you can likely find a far better hinge online at some cabinet part stores. Having said that, if you purchase any at the box stores for these type of doors you will definitely Not be able to close the doors without some modifications.
Thank you very much, your video worked like a charm. Thanks so much for you help.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you, The towel worked GREAT!!!!!!
If your cabinets are made out of particle board - DON'T DO THIS. If you do, you will rip the screw or even worse, a complete chunk right out of your cabinet.
I am forever grateful!
Dude, thanks! This solved all my problems.
THIS WORKS!!!!!!! Thank you!
Thank you, John Malkovich!
Omg I was thinking the same thing lol
this worked perfect, thank you!!!!!
It worked. Thank you so much.
I wish they made better looking new hardware. Preferably a bit more simple looking. These new ones still have a “dated” look. ☹️ The cabinets look great
Awesome tip!
3 options or more. You can also close out all the old holes with wood glue and tootpicks. Then new holes can go anywhere.
🥲👍🏼. Awesome man! Lifesaver.
I have an issue with the long cabinet door bout 5' feet tall from the bottom to bout half way up the door does not meet flush with the cabinet edge frame I am worried if I use a towel as you show may cause the screws to pop out or loosen them not sure if door is warped or what I just repainted the doors I guess worse case scenario is if I try towel trick & pops the screws I will just have to relocate the hinges.
So simple yet Amazing !