Just the other day I had to repair and repaint my back door. I had no alternative but to put it back up at the end of the day. When I went to open it the next morning I found that there were places where the new paint had stuck to the weather striping. Of course in opening the door some of the paint pulled off and stayed with the weather stripping. I have also seen this problem with other things I have painted. It seems to me that most water based paints even when properly installed over a good primer and etc. do not harden up right away. Painted kitchen shelves are another example. It seems like it takes sometimes even weeks for them to cure to the point that heavy things like china will not stick to them some.
So the question is:
Are there any tricks either to get the paint to harden faster or to prevent the paint from sticking to things it comes into contact with while if fully cures? I thought about using Vaseline or maybe even Chapstick or some such thing along the weather stripping (after the fact of course). What about using something like wax paper on my shelves at first? And just how long does it take for paint to cure enough anyway?