Rat traps and bun tins: the DIY essentials on the lockdown shopping list

Confinement has given us all time to take a long hard look at our homes, what’s working and what’s not working. Bin companies have already noted an increase in waste as some of us have finally tackled the decluttering jobs we tend to put off.

Hardware stores that remain open have seen a spike in sales of paint and are experiencing difficulties in replenishing stocks.

People have nothing to do in the good weather, says Clive O’Reilly, a director of Pearse Street Hardware, which is located in the heart of the docklands and tech quarter of the capital. The shop has reduced its hours and is currently open from 9am to 1.30pm, Monday to Saturday, which allows it to also facilitate the maintenance needs of nearby Holles Street hospital.

Customers are shopping for advice from a distance. "We’re bombarded with customers emailing us pictures of their fencing and brick walls that they want to tidy up and looking for solutions.” Grey is their colour of choice, he says, but they’re now less demanding about their options. “Their perception of what they want and what they can get has changed,” he says.

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He’s also seen an increase of about 20 per cent in sales of rodent traps and poison. He says a spike in such sales is usually as a result of building works, but in this instance he puts it down to the increase in store cupboard goods now sitting in presses, waiting to be used, their tantalising smells luring vermin in. The foods stockpiled in the early days of the crisis and now languishing in bins may be another factor, he says.

Old-fashioned spring-loaded traps and poison remain the popular choices with his customers. There are sticky traps that glue the rodent in place but the result is not a pretty sight, he says. It’s also cruel as the vermin have to be disposed of and are still alive. Another option is the humane catch and release trap, which sounds kind but it hasn’t caught on with customers.

Forget using cheese or bacon rind as bait. Instead, O'Reilly suggests chocolate is the best option. He recommends smearing Nutella on the trap or using warm milk chocolate squares so that they can be moulded around it.

It’s business as usual for his tech sector clients, a demographic that he sees in the store on Saturdays but never during the week. The lockdown hasn’t changed this. “They’re still floating in on a Saturday,” he says, “but still working from Monday to Friday, although now from home.”

The shop is surrounded by boom-era apartments occupied mainly by renters. “They have balconies rather than gardens and so are looking for decking paint and masonry paint for the side walls, but supplies of the latter are low.”

Drainage can be an issue in such builds, O’Reilly says. So residents are always looking for drain blockers.

Damp and mould, especially in internal bathrooms with little ventilation, is another regular problem. He suggests using Kontrol, €8.95, which uses moisture-absorbing crystals to reduce humidity levels and musty, damp smells. Set into a tray, the crystals can absorb about one litre of fluid and you can buy replacements.

HG mould spray is another recommendation. This best seller, €9.75, destroys fungus, algae, moss and mould and can be used on tiles, marble and grouting. It also removes tea and coffee stains from laminate countertops.

Home improvement chain Woodie’s has adapted to the current market by offering a delivery service on some of its range. These include special Easter offers such as a Rok power washer that will clean patios, decking and moss-covered walls, down from €199.99 to €89.99; a Pro Lawn self-propelling electric mower that should reduce the arguments you have with family members about cutting the grass, down €80 to €319.99; and a Black and Decker grass strimmer, reduced from €74.99 to €54.99.

In a Dublin 6 hardware shop it is gardening and baking supplies that are the hot sellers. This shop can’t keep compost and weed killer on its shelves. “These are jobs that are usually tackled later in the summer but they’re all stuck at home looking for something to do,” says its owner. A new customer base is adult kids shopping on behalf of their elderly parents.

The shop is restocking loaf tins and bun trays three to four times a week but getting new stock deliveries is becoming more difficult as all his suppliers are closed.

He used to sell seeds but the buy-in for a small independent shop was in the region of several thousand euro, for stock that was going out of date before it all sold. Right now he’s regretting his lack of investment. “I swore I’d never again do seeds but right now I could retire on the number of seed packets I could have sold.”