What Every DIYer Needs in Their Garage
So you want to be a DIYer? It’s a wonderful journey, but it’s not always easy. Getting started with DIY projects will require you to do your research and make more than a few mistakes — some of which will cost you more than it would have cost to hire a professional in the first place.
But for those who emerge as true DIY wizards, the rewards are great. You’ll be the competent person who can fix or improve nearly anything in your home, allowing you to increase the value of your property without having to call in a contractor for every last little job.
If you’re committed to becoming a great DIYer, then you’ll need some key equipment and resources to get you there. With that in mind, we’re laying out a few things that every DIYer needs to have in their garage.
A pickup truck
The ultimate utility vehicle for simple construction and repair jobs is the pickup truck. Sure, you can rent them at Home Depot, but that’s not a financially sound long-term decision for a serial DIYer like yourself. If you’re going to be making trip after trip to load up on hardware and big-time tools, then you want to invest in a pickup truck of your own.
Of course, your pickup truck doesn’t have to be your “daily driver”. It can be a weekend ride that serves you only when you need the cargo space for mulch, lumber, or that big piece of furniture you just had to have. If you’re not using your truck every day, be sure not to overspend. Make smart use of online truck auctions.
The auction model allows some online vehicle dealers and secondhand sellers to part with vehicles for less than they’d price them in a “buy-it-now” type of sale. Just be sure to do your research before you buy and, if possible, get your hands on the vehicle history reports and other relevant documentation for any used truck that you’re considering.
The right big equipment
No DIYer is quite the same. Each one of us handles certain jobs more frequently than others, and that means that each of us needs different large-scale equipment. Maybe you need a belt sander in your garage, and maybe you don’t. Maybe you need big yard work-related tools like snow blowers and leaf blowers, and maybe you don’t.
Acquiring big-time tools like this can be fun, but there’s a bit of a science to making it cost-effective, explain experts in outdoor power equipment in Oregon. Sometimes, it makes much more sense to just rent the big tools from your local experts than it would to buy them outright.
So which tools are which? Well, that’s up to you — you should crunch the numbers using an estimate of how many times you think you’ll use a given power tool or piece of equipment. Don’t forget to factor in maintenance costs and the occasional upgrade. In many cases, you’ll find that renting makes more sense.
Safety gear
Working on your own home improvement projects is a whole lot of fun, but it can also be dangerous if you’re not careful. That’s why every DIYer should have eye protection and other safety essentials stashed somewhere that’s easy to get to.
No matter how big or small the job, take the time to make sure that you’re geared up and protected. Even the most experienced among us can make mistakes, so don’t let carelessness lead to a serious injury.
A broom and other cleanup gear
The least glamorous part of the job is important, too: if you’re going to be tackling big DIY projects, you need to be ready to clean up after yourself. An unclean workspace means that your job isn’t done, and can be dangerous too.
So make sure that you have a nice big push broom to clean up that sawdust, turpentine to remove paint and glue, and other clean-up basics. The better your cleanup gear, the more painless this final part of the process will be. Then you can go back to working on the fun stuff.
