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Eventually, something in your home is going to break. For new homeowners, these are the must-have tools that you need handy. Unless you really want to spend your hard-earned money paying someone else to fix things for you. Luckily, most home maintenance issues don’t need a ton of tools to handle them. These are 10 must-have tools will cover most of your basic projects. You can do this.
1 Hammer – This may seem like common sense, but it’s crazy how many people don’t have a basic hammer. They’re cheap to get and you never know when you might need one.
2 Screwdrivers – Again, it’s quite obvious, but many don’t have one, let alone the two you need. You need to have a flat head (shown above) and a Phillips head. The Philips head has the cross top. You need both to be able to fit all possible screws.
3 Cordless drill – A cordless drill is a must-have for installing cabinets, drawer pulls, hinges, picture frames, shelves and hooks, and more. Without a cordless
4 Stud finder – If you are hanging anything with some weight to it, you will need to have the screw or nail go through the stud in the wall. A stud finder will make it quick & easy to find the stud. This is where the cordless drill will come in handy. It is really difficult to get a nail or screw through the stud. But if you don’t, whatever you are hanging will likely make friends with the floor.
5 Drain cleaners – All sink drains are susceptible to clogs because of the daily buildup of hair and debris (think oils from your skin). There are chemical clog removers like Drano, but they don’t work great if they work at all. Plastic drain cleaners can be better than liquid cleaners. They can reach into the drain to pull out the clog of hair and gunk. Bonus is that they are pretty cheap. Keep up on the drain & you won’t get watering backing up on you.
6 Adjustable wrench – A standard wrench will fit one size. With the adjustable, you can change the size to fit whatever you need at the time. If you have a nut that needs to move, say when you are dealing with a water leak, you don’t want to be without one.
7 Loppers – A what?! Likely you haven’t heard of this, but if you have trees in your yard you will want to have one. A lopper is used to remove damaged branches, vines, thick weeds, and any other unruly plants in your yard. Do you have a tree that hangs over into a neighbor’s yard? You will need to keep on this before it gets out of hand. In a storm, it could cause damage to the neighbor’s house. Although, insurance will most likely cover it, this doesn’t help your relationship with your neighbor.
8 Flashlight – Yes, you can use your phone’s flashlight, but it won’t be powerful enough in a crawl space or an attic. Plus it’s a good idea to have more than one in case the power goes out. You don’t want to waste your phone’s battery as a light in case you need to make a call or waste time on social media.
9 Ladder – You will need this to change light bulbs, batteries in smoke detectors, hang things on the wall and to work outside. It’s best to get a folding ladder for work inside your house and a flat long ladder to get onto your roof. You will need to check the roof out from time to time to be sure things look good.
10 Plunger – Most people only think of a plunger for a toilet that won’t go down. Yes, that is an extremely important use of a plunger. But a sink that won’t go down will also benefit from a plunge before you try to clear it with a liquid chemical or a plastic drain cleaner. They don’t cost much to buy and if your toilet won’t go down they are priceless.
The most costly items on this list are the ladders. You can get by without those
