For homeowners, having DIY skills is more than a party trick- it can make a huge difference to the overall quality of your property and your bank balance. After all, every property will have issues from time to time (or, more often than not, all the time). Homeowners who have invested in their DIY skills will be able to quickly patch up any problems without having to call up an expensive professional to do the work for them. Getting your DIY skills to a high standard is easier than you might think. 

Never took on a DIY project before? While you might eventually become a DIY master capable of fixing anything and everything around the house, in the early days, it’ll be best to start small. Building your skill set by undertaking easily achievable tasks such as painting, caulking, and tiling will get you familiar with DIY in a relatively low-stakes way. Plus, the sheer sense of pride you feel after you’ve completed the work can really be a great motivator for continuing to learn. 

They say that you should never blame the tools, but actually, that’s not really true- if you have low-quality tools that you panic-bought when you had a DIY task to complete, then it’s unlikely that they’ll produce outstanding results. Building your tool kit won’t only ensure that you have all the essentials you need for the standard, routine DIY jobs, but will also increase your chances of performing the work to the highest of standards (well, the highest of your standards, and that’s good enough for now!). You can buy full ‘essential’ kits at reputable hardware stores. They might set you back a small fortune, but consider it an investment. A good toolkit will be with you for the rest of your life, and will also help you to save money in the long run — just think of all the money you’ll save when you can complete jobs yourself, rather than having to call a professional.

DIY tasks become much more difficult (and unnecessarily so) when you’re trying to complete the work at the kitchen table. By putting together a dedicated workspace, you’ll be making it much easier to bring the necessary levels of focus and skills required to perform DIY tasks to the highest of standards. Already have a garage or shed? Then look at adding a workbench, which will offer a strong, stable surface for all kinds of DIY tasks. Throw in overhead lighting and a speaker for listening to music, and you’ll have everything you need to spend a few hours tinkering around and developing your skills. 

Some people seem to have a natural talent for DIY. But that’s not most people. In fact, if you’ve never engaged in any sort of DIY before, then you might even think that you’re terrible at it. But that’s not the case! You might not be amazing at DIY right now, but with a little time and effort, you’ll get there. Following along with YouTube tutorials is an effective way to get to grips with DIY. This page outlines some of the most popular YouTube DIY channels- whatever task you’re looking to complete, you’ll surely find it on one of these pages. 

Looking to seriously improve your DIY skills? Then look at taking an in-person course. You’ll obviously need to pay for it, but it can be worth it in the long run. As with putting together your toolkit, you can think of it as an investment. Unless you live in a remote area, you’ll almost certainly find that there’s a DIY course in your local area. Most of them are taught in a day or so, but some will take place over multiple weekends. This is a more effective way to learn than YouTube channels since you’ll be able to receive one on one guidance on how to do things correctly, mistakes you’re making, and so on. 

And talking of mistakes: you’ll need to accept that you’re going to make them! Even professionals make mistakes from time to time, so what hope do us mere mortals have?  Remember that making mistakes is not, on its own, a problem. Failure to learn from mistakes, on the other hand, very much is. So don’t stress if you make a mistake, even if it’s a major one. So long as you make a note of what went wrong and how you can avoid it next time, then it’s fine — in fact, you could argue that it’s sometimes better to make mistakes. Nothing will alert you more quickly to how you should have done things than committing an error!

While there are plenty of jobs that you can attempt by yourself, there will be times when you need to simply accept that it’s time to call a professional. For instance, while you can attempt to fix basic plumbing problems yourself, if it becomes a bigger issue, then call a professional plumber as soon as possible. Anything involving gas, asbestos and many electrical jobs will need a professional.