Home Toolkit For Every Homeowner And The Tools Everyone Needs

Owning a home is not a maintenance free experience and every home and every homeowner should have a toolkit of a few useful tools to make those minor repairs and improvements to keep a happy home.

We are not talking about turning everyone into a construction worker or building maintenance expert but we are talking about fixing those minor but irritating little problems we have around the home.

If you want to put up shelves and build furniture then great but even the most inexperienced person should be able to carry out at least some minor repairs around the home for their own convenience and to save on the cost of employing a tradesman who is likely to smile when they see what a small job is required and charge you a lot more than the job would cost you to do yourself, if you had the tools.

You may not need an industrial toolkit but a hammer a few screwdrivers and a spanner or two can get you over a problem and allow you to relax, stop worrying about some annoying little thing that needs fixing and enjoy life more.

Deciding which tools you need will depend on what sort of home you have and how you choose to decorate it and what items you have in your home but here are a few general tips about tools you might need.

Everyone will need to hammer a nail into the wail or some piece of timber at some time in their lives. It maybe you want to hang a picture or tighten a loose nail in a floorboard but most of use need a small hammer. Hammers come in several different sizes but a light to medium weight hammer would suit most people.

Screwdrivers are an essential item to have in your tool kits for tightening screws on any number of things or if you are assembling flat pack furniture so few of us could manage without screwdrivers. They come in several different sizes and also in the blade shape they have to suit different types of screws.

Other tools you might need include a tape measure, wrenches or an adjustable wrench for tightening or loosening nuts and bolts. A pair of pliers is always useful for all sorts of jobs and a spirit level will be essential if you want to make sure anything is level with the ground.

You might need some protective items such as gloves and protective glasses because no job is worth injuring yourself.

Before we go on to describe the individual items we might want in a toolkit it is worth pointing out that there are some great deals on comprehensive tool kits that contain all the common tools you will need.

Since these are offered as a package deal with all the items in a small case they work out a lot cheaper than buying individual tools so if you are starting out I suggest you seriously consider buying one of these complete home toolkits.

UPDATE:-  While writing and preparing this page it has become more obvious to me that the sort of people who are likely to be reading this page will be people who have little experience or knowledge about tools so most of what is written will be confusing and when you don't know what jobs you will need to do it is hard to know what tools you will need.

If you are just starting out and need a few tools buy one of these comprehensive home toolkit sets. That way you will have a selection of tools to cover most requirements for day to day maintenance jobs and repairs. As you get more experienced you can add to your tool kit later on but for now just purchase a toolkit set.

You may be thinking that all hammers are the same but there are a few different types of hammer and they come in different sizes described by the weight of the hammer head.

The variation of hammer types is down to the reverse side of the actual hammer head but the most common type is the claw hammer and this is probably the best choice for most people. The claw is used for pulling bent nails and that may be useful especially when you are first starting out using a hammer.

The weight of hammer varies quite a bit but most people should start with a 12 oz or 16 oz claw hammer. Lighter hammers are used for tiny nails or tacks while large hammers need strength and experience to use properly.

Screws are used to keep all sorts of things together and you may need to use screwdrivers to screw together some flatpack furniture or you might need to tighten something up or remove something that is screwed to a wall or cabinet.

Screwdrivers come in several different sizes and they can have many different types of head, that's the blade or pointy end.

You would probably want to have two sizes of screwdriver, a small one and a medium one, in each of the two main screw head types which is flat blade and posidriv, or Phillips. Posidriv and Phillips screws are the screws that have a cross shape in the top to take a cross head screwdriver.

You can buy screwdrivers individually or in sets and the a set of screwdrivers usually offers the best value. You could instead buy a cordless screwdriver which makes screwing and un-screwing screws and small nuts and bolts a lot easier. These usually come with a selection of replaceable screwdriver bits to fit the majority of screw types.

A tape measure is useful for all sorts of things like measuring room sizes or drapes but also for measuring furniture or to see if there is room for a piece of furniture in a certain position but if you are ever needing to cut a piece of wood to size for a shelf.

Tape measures come in different lengths from just a few feet to dozens or even hundreds of feet long. For most of us a six or ten foot tape measure is adequate. Quality varies too and if you purchase a top quality tape it should last you a lifetime but a cheap one will probably do the job if you are not likely to be using it a lot.