I’m not sure how I accomplished the feat, but somewhere in my innocent online shopping and scrolling I managed to subscribe to a couple of home-improvement, DIY and arts and crafts websites.

I could easily unsubscribe, but every once in a while they come up with a gem that causes me to pause, and — eventually — click. (They don’t call it clickbait for nothing!)

I’m usually disappointed when I do click. I feel like I’ve been had, because the really great, new and unique home cleaning hack that I was promised turns out to be something I’ve known about since the 90s. Still, for entertainment purposes, I compiled a few to share with you. Maybe we can share a giggle.

Let’s start with the most obvious: toilets. Apparently home-improvement experts spend a lot of time experimenting with the best methods and chemicals needed to maintain and clean toilets. Some of those hygienic solutions have headlines like this:

“Throw lemons in your toilet!” Another advised: “Throw vinegar in your toilet!” Or: “Pour hydrogen peroxide in your toilet!” “Pour some Dawn dish soap in your toilet!” “Dump baking soda in your toilet!” Finally there was: “Put two bars of soap in your toilet!”

After following all this advice, it was hard to tell if my toilet bowl was any cleaner, but it was definitely getting pretty full.

Another headline admonished: Don’t do THIS to your toilet! (This particular one outlined a bunch of toilet cleaning mistakes, like flushing the wrong way; don’t ask.)

Still another promised: “Homemade poo-pourri!” This ended up being nothing more than adding rubbing alcohol to the toilet bowl.

“Lay paper towels around your toilet,” might appear to be advice about catching errant toilet misses. In reality it was about cleaning the floor and base of the toilet using shaving cream and (you guessed it) paper towels.

I always thought cleaning the toilet was a pretty straightforward (albeit unpleasant) task. Turns out there are a lot more variables than I ever could have imagined.

Thankfully, not all home-improvement clickbait is about toilets. (Did I just write that?)

Many of the others focus on using regular household products in innovative, out-of-the-box ways.

“Clean your closet with a pool noodle,” wasn’t really a cleaning hack at all, but more of a boot-saver. Pool noodles, positioned vertically in boots, keep the boots from flopping over. Plus, they might keep them afloat in case of a flash flood.

“How to change your lifestyle using a nine-dollar garbage can!” Who doesn’t want a newer, better lifestyle? I was all in. Then I found out the solution involved a compost bin. Not a life-changer for me, but I’ll let you be the judge.

“Put a tampon in your shoes!” I have to admit, this one had me at tampon. Who doesn’t have tons of extra tampons lying around the house just waiting to rescue our shoes — as a deodorizer, in this case? If your shoes aren’t stinky, there are plenty of other uses for the beloved tampon, which include using them as fire starters, watering plants and (I saved the best for last) as a cork for your wine bottle. Red or white? I don’t even want to go there.

“The craziest and most surprising things you can do with a can of WD-40!” We all know WD-40 is a versatile household friend, but this headline promised big and delivered, well… let’s just say it wasn’t as exciting as the tampon solutions. Cleaning garden tools and stainless steel, removing scuff marks from floors, keeping locks from freezing, removing stickers and labels and removing the ring from the toilet bowl.

Toilet bowl? Did we just take this thing full circle? Seriously, folks, you can’t make this stuff up!

— Jill Pertler’s column Slices of Life appears occasionally in the Times. She can be reached at slicescolumn@gmail.com.