Upping Your DIY Game
DIY is something that some of us love, and others don’t. If you love it, you might be happy to get stuck into any job that crops up around the house, keen to save money by not having to hire help, and eager to learn new skills and try new things. You might gain enormous enjoyment from walking around a DIY shop looking at new tools and supplies. If you aren’t as keen, you might find that you are happier to pay someone to take on the work for you. Which is fine too.
If you are a great lover of DIY, you might find that you sometimes get frustrated by things holding you back. You might feel like you can’t do as much as you would like to. You might be keen to take on much greater jobs, to save more money and improve your skills, but feel as though you can’t, without making costly mistakes, ending up with a poorly finished job or causing damage to your home.
The benefits of DIY are huge. It’s not just about saving money. Being able to tackle jobs around the house means that you can get the home of your dreams, without having to rely on someone else’s help or worry about sharing your vision for your house with someone that might not get it. It’s also fantastic exercise, a fascinating and exciting hobby and an excellent way to improve skills that could be useful in other areas of your life.
So, it’s undoubtedly worth developing your skills and upping your DIY game, giving you the chance to do more and complete your tasks to a much higher standard. Here are some ways that you can do that.
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Get the Right Tools
When we first start doing DIY in our own homes, we usually start with the basics, hanging pictures, building flatpack, and putting up wall shelves. We get the tools that we need but try to pick them us as cheaply as possible. You don’t need an expensive hammer to put up a frame after all. But, if you want to start taking on bigger jobs, where there is more to get wrong, and greater detail is needed, the tools that you use become much more critical. The right tools can make sawing better and more accurate, reducing your chances of making a mistake and helping you to do a job well.
There’s no need to rush out and buy everything all at once, however. When a job comes up, buy what you need to get it done well, and you’ll soon have a comprehensive toolbox.
Practice
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The best way to get better at anything is with practice. If a job around the home comes up, don’t shy away from it if it’s something that you’ve never done before. Have a go. Practice building things and doing more yourself, and if you do need to get help, make sure you learn from them as you go.
Help Others
Of course, there is a limit to the amount that you can do in your own home. You don’t want to start changing rooms just so that you’ve got something to practice on. So, help other people. If any of your friends and family have got jobs that need doing, offer to lend a hand.
Take Up a Hobby
You don’t need to be doing DIY or specific tasks to practice your skills. Take up a hobby, like carpentry or painting, that will help you to develop skills needed in DIY. If you’ve got space at home, add a workshop so that you’ve got somewhere to practice. Use it to try building things for yourself, to practice with your tools and to have a go at new things, without risking damage to your house.
Do Your Research
Practice is the best way to get better at something, but it’s by no means the only way to learn. Today, there are plenty of things that you can do to help improve your DIY skills. Read books, find the best DIY and home improvement blogs, watch videos on YouTube, and learn as much as you can. But, don’t stick to what you know. Try to research different tools and methods. Learn more about different ways to do things, and when new things come out, learn about them.
Take a Course
If you want a more structured learning program, taking a course can be an excellent idea. Online courses are a great way to learn from an expert and can be ideal if you don’t have the flexibility to get out of the house when you would like to. You’ll still be able to practice what you learn, and you’ll have access to resources like videos and blogs.
But, if you can get to a class in the real world, perhaps at night school, you might find it easier to learn, with someone on site to look at your work and give you some pointers on how to improve.
Hit the Gym
You don’t need to be super fit and healthy to do DIY. It is something that absolutely anyone can do. But, many bigger jobs are easier if you’ve got great levels of strength and stamina. If you can carry heavy supplies yourself, you won’t need help. If you’ve got excellent fitness levels, moving and lifting won’t take you as long, and you are much less likely to hurt yourself with pulled muscles or damaged joints. If you want to take DIY more seriously, get to the gym, making sure to practice both strength and cardio exercise.
Take Your Time
When it comes to DIY, most mistakes are made when people rush and try to finish jobs quickly. If you want to improve your skills, you need to learn to take your time and check things twice. Make sure you measure everything, you double and triple check your plans, and you prepare well before you get started. Then, give yourself plenty of time to finish the job instead of rushing.