Clean the area around the hole or crack with a dry paintbrush. Pull any hanging Sheetrock paper off the wall to smooth the area around the damage. Chip any splinters of wood away from a hole or crack with a chisel.
Insert a small putty knife into the can of vinyl spackling and stir the contents until it is uniform in color and texture. The contents of stored spackling tend to separate.
Dip the tip of a putty knife into the spackling and place the knife just above the repair area. Wipe the putty knife down into the crack or hole while applying pressure to force the compound into the damaged area.
Fill deeper holes with spackling compound by inserting a larger amount of spackling into the hole.
Smooth the spackling to the same height as the surface around the damaged area with the putty knife. Allow the spackling to dry completely. Spackling is a gray color when it is wet and it dries to a white color.
Add additional coats to fill very deep holes. Let the repairs dry completely and lightly sand with wet sandpaper before painting.