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Sequel to The Home Toolbox Essentials
The list of tools every home owner needs for basic home repair
This month projects are in full swing and many clients are moving into their first-time home! It is also time for the follow-up to an article I posted two years ago about what essential tools and maintenance items every home owner should have on hand. Two years later I can say this is the most helpful and accurate article I’ve put together and hope it will prepare you for what you need as spring wraps up and summer maintenance begins.
Who is this article for? Home-owner beginners, those who dislike home repairs but want to save money, and the experienced do-it-yourselfers.
This past week I made a trip to a family vacation house to perform some needed maintenance. I was hours away from home on a time crunch to complete a handful of projects – some planned and others unexpected. How would a handyman or boy scout prepare for such an endeavor? Pack it all and anticipate every unexpected thing; wander through the garage and load boxes, tubs and buckets; make lists, mentally prep and pray for divine insight of what they need to bring.
Not me! Not this time!
I arrived at the house and opened the garage and walked to the back shelf where a large black toolbox sits. I opened it up and smiled, a fully stocked HOME TOOLBOX ESSENTIALS. When our family took shared-responsibility for the repairs the first thing I did was grab the list from my original article (The Home Toolbox Essentials published May 30, 2021) and headed to Home Depot to create the needed tools. The house had zero tools – not one. Only an empty garage. I added a few items from the EXTRA list and put together a simple kit that fits into a large, plastic Husky tool box that I can carry to the house project site and return to a contained place on the shelf. It’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant!
Print the HOME TOOLBOX ESSENTIALS list and take it with you to the hardware store. Download the PDF document below.
On August 31, 2022 I made a trip to Home Depot that lasted about one hour. After reviewing the receipt I want to share with you exactly what I bought and how much each item cost at the time. Let this help you budget and plan to have a fully stocked essentials kit for all your home maintenance.
- Milwaukie battery-powered drill and driver set: $199
- Husky 26” plastic toolbox: $27.98
- Flashlight (handheld, 650 lumen): $37.97
- Impact driver bits (70-piece kit): $20.97
- Drill-bit set (22-piece kit): $19.97
- Plyer set (4-piece): $26.97
- Socket wrench set (3/8” 24-piece): $29.97
- Super glue (Loctite): $3.68
- Straight-edge scraper (blade holder): $4.88
- Spackling compound (small patch ‘n paint tub): $6.98
- Roll of 1” ScotchBlue tape: $5.38
- Putty 1.5” knife: 8.98
- Stud sensor: $19.97
- Screwdriver set (12-piece flat and Philips): $19.47
- 25’ tape measure: $11.97
- Classic, retractable utility knife: $5.97
- Pack of utility blades for knife: $2.97
- 24” Stanley level: $14.97
- Wrench set (24-piece, SAE and MM): $59.97
The total cost of this whole kit was $581.35 including tax. It’s a financial chunk. Most of these are one time purchases, are already part of our tool collection or can be requested as gifts or donations from dads or friends who have an extra sitting around.
Our homes are so many things and I cannot encourage home owners enough on one oft-neglected point: Take care of the structure you call your home. Small maintenance efforts have a compounding impact on the quality of your home. Equally, neglected maintenance has a compounding negative effect on the investment that has changed our financial legacy.
Got limited space? Do you have too many tools you don’t use?
It’s hard to get rid of something you might one day need or an item someone deemed indispensable to home repair. There is actually a point when the clutter and overwhelming number of “tools” will decrease your motivation, ability and enjoyment of home repair. When you streamline your tools by de-cluttering your garage or workshop, you multiply your effectiveness and drive to get things done. Here’s a pro tip!
Step one: Get a large leftover Amazon box or a plastic tote with a lid. Collect up every tool you have not touched and used in the past twelve months. Do not put any of the items from the HOME TOOLBOX ESSENTIALS into this box. Write the date you put the tools in the box. Use a piece of tape and stick it to the box. Set the box in a corner of the garage or on a shelf out of the way but accessible.
Step two: In the upcoming months, if something is needed from this box go retrieve it and use it. When done, return it to your tool collection. This is a keeper! Be prepared. This box is going to be donated in twelve months. After a full year, you will know what won’t be missed or needed.
Step three: Follow through. When the twelve-month mark comes donate this box. You don’t need these tools. And if the day comes you do need a tool you gave up you will have the opportunity to borrow or buy a new one! Meanwhile you will have a simplified and streamlined tool collection to work with.
