No matter what kind of a house or apartment you own, small home repairs will have to come your way from time to time. Whether it’s a broken window, faulty power plugs or a leaky faucet – something is always wrong. Hiring a handyman to fix all these problems for you may be a viable solution, but it gets old quite quickly, so an even better idea is to learn how to fix these issues by yourself.
It does not take a lot of skills or tools to make sure small home repairs never bother you again, so here are some of them that will definitely come in handy for an aspiring handyman.
A Very Particular Set of Skills
First of all, all those quick repairs around the house will require just a few things from you –precision, neatness, organization and promptness. You do not have to be the world’s best handyman, but a desire to upgrade your skills over the course of time is preferable.
Moreover, think about the most frequently used tools around the house. Picture yourself fixing previously mentioned windows, power plugs, faucets and other stuff and you will realize that all of these can be taken care of with just a few good tools.
Screw Driver 2.0
Traditional manual screw drivers have been a thing of the past for quite some time now and a better solution for a modern handyman is a semi-automatic model. Those work on batteries, have a dozen driving bits and are faster than you can imagine. Without this, your repairs will be slow, inefficient and boring.
Sharpen Your Tools
For all wood-related repairs, you need, among other things, a chisel and a plane, but they will not do you much good if blunt. Therefore, all good woodworkers have a sharpener that will get their tools into the right shape in no time. This does not have to be a state of the art model, so even older and cheaper ones will suffice.
Test the Power
Whenever you have an issue with electrics, the biggest concern should be safety and making sure you are not putting yourself in danger. That is why an electric/voltage tester is such a good and versatile tool – it tests for a hot wire, reads voltage and measures continuity. These testers are generally very easy to use, but do make sure you have turned the power off before starting any electrical repair.
No More Cords
Regardless of what kind of work you are doing, you should help yourself as much as possible. This usually means minimizing the amount of cords everywhere around you, getting in your way and making your job difficult. Nowadays, a set of cordless tools is a must in a number of situations since they are high quality and more than practical. Enabling yourself an easier access to your work is the key to faster and more efficient repairs.
All-Around Knife
Even though it seems that cheap yet handy tools are hard to find, a linoleum knife proves otherwise. This tool is irreplaceable when it comes to any flooring work as it lifts tiles, cleans dirt between them, organizes broken pieces into a pile, scores backer boards and so on. Since their price is only a few dollars, having two or three of these with you at all times is more than sensible.
Protection and Organization
Of course, these are not all the tools a handy handyman needs. Among those rarely mentioned are safety tools like goggles, work gloves, boots and a hard hat. Moreover, organizational items like a tool pouch or a tool bag are always useful to keep your tools close and ordered.