Stabilize Your Rocking Furniture With This Clever Pool Noodle Hack
While many enjoy relaxing in rocking furniture on their front porches, there are a few reasons why you may want your seats to no longer move back and forth. Maybe those who sit in the chairs have trouble standing up off of the moving furniture, or perhaps they are a danger to your curious young children. Another potential reason is that you just don't enjoy the feeling and would rather have stationary seats. If so, you could temporarily stop the movement with just a pool noodle.
This hack is temporary because you can easily slide the pool noodle on and off of the rocking chair's tracks, or the curved pieces on the bottom that cause the furniture to rock. If you wanted a more permanent solution, you could screw on a wooden block that fits perfectly between the chair frame and the hinged box. However, this would be difficult to remove and would require more tools, resources, and time than the simple pool noodle hack to complete.
How to place a pool noodle on a rocking chair
All you'll need to complete this simple hack is a pool noodle, which you could purchase from your local dollar store for less than $2 or at Walmart for under $4. If you're worried about aesthetics, find one in a neutral color like black or white. In order to cut the pool noodle to the right length, measure the length of the back of the rocking chair's tracks. Start where the back legs of the chair meet the tracks and measure until you reach the end of the tracks.
Once you've found the right measurement, cut two pieces of the pool noodle down to that length or slightly shorter — typically, 4 to 8 inches is the right size. You can easily cut the foam with a serrated knife on a cutting board or with scissors. Then, make a lengthwise slit down the side of each piece. To complete this simple hack, place the pool noodle pieces on the tracks and push them down until they are snugly pressed into the floor.
Another precaution you could take
This hack works because the foam of the pool noodle keeps the rocking chair's tracks always perfectly in place. If you find that the rocking chair is starting to slightly rock, push the pool noodle pieces down so that they're wedged into the floor. Then, if you want to make your furniture rock again at any time, simply remove the pool noodle pieces from the back of the tracks and store them for later.
You may find that even though the rocking chair doesn't move backward when the pool noodles are in position, it may start to rock forward slightly when you lean forwards, perhaps when you're standing up out of the chair. If you come across this problem, cut two additional pool noodle pieces that are a few inches in length and slice them lengthwise.
Then, place these on the front portion of the rocking chair's tracks and push them into the floor as well. If the leg of the chair is in the way, you may need to wrap the pool noodle around the track on the inner part of the front legs.