Time saving tools? Here are six must haves

Tell me if this sounds familiar. You’re on a ladder or, gulp, step-stool. You’ve got screws in your mouth, a pencil behind your ear, wire pliers on the ladder tray and that bracket thing for the ceiling fan electrical box in your front pocket along with the wire nuts and some other random pocket stuff you don’t need. And you’re sweating.

You’re balancing the ceiling fan (that’s heavy) that you hope to one day install in the third hand you need but don’t have. It’s then you realize you’ve forgotten the screwdriver on the windowsill next to your coffee and the cordless drill.

Now you have to trounce back down the ladder—trying to not swallow a screw— and get the screwdriver.

You see where this is going. We’ve all been there.

Turns out, there’s this amazing invention that would put the minutes and momentum otherwise poured down the drain back into your DIY life.

Some guys call ‘em bags. Others, an apron. Then there’s tool pouch or tool belt.

Whatever you call it, its purpose is to keep all the stuff you need for completing most projects where it is needed: near you, when you need it.

I realize this might sound patronizing, but, as they say, I’ve only been doing this a long time and I have seen DIYers, pros and everybody in between do the randomest things during projects. I could tell you stories.

Anyway, the point of DIY for me is, yes, to enjoy doing the project, but also, to come to some form of completeness such that my home is nice. The one key to doing that is maximizing my available time and mental energy and a tool pouch with a few indispensible items in it is about the world’s biggest DIY time saver.

OK, esoteric big picture stuff over. Here are tools that I have at-hand on every project I do, from quick repairs to big remodeling projects.

Click here to read more by Mark on Improvenet.