If you have an area that mice or rats bother, you can keep them out using hot Cayenne pepper. They sniff an area and if they sniff up the pepper, they leave. Works well if you have them around your seedlings, under a bird feeder or in a work shed. It will not get rid of them, but it's an easy way to deter them.
Save your chopsticks from the Chinese restaurant. They make great small stakes for young plants. You can use 3 to make a "teepee" for a vine seedling.
A nail with a large head works really well for doing small cuttings or planting small seedlings. You use the pointed end to make a hole to insert the cutting and then use the flat head to smooth the soil around the cutting.
A large, clean paint brush works very well for "sweeping" up a potting area.
You can "spot compost" if you do not want to deal with a compost area. Just take your potato peelings, coffee grounds, etc, dig a small hole with a shovel, stick them in, then cover them. They will compost nicely and you will have no mess or flies.