DIY toolbox essentials
A first toolbox, not a workshop. Everything here earns its place by being needed more than once a year — the specialist tools are worth hiring, not owning.
36 items
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
The items
- The first five
- Cordless drill with two batteries
- Screwdriver set, flat and cross-head
- Spirit level, 60cm
- Claw hammer
- Tape measure, 5 metres
- Fixings
- Assorted screwsA boxed set of sizes beats three trips to the shop.
- Wall plugs for masonry
- Plasterboard fixings
- Picture hooks×20
- Nails, assorted
- Cutting and gripping
- Utility knife and spare blades
- Adjustable spanner
- Pliers, and long-nose pliers
- Small hacksaw
- Scissors that live in the toolbox
- Finishing
- Filler and a filling knife
- Sandpaper, three grades
- Masking tape
- Sealant gun and a tube of bathroom sealant
- A small paint brush and a roller
- Safety
- Safety glasses
- Work gloves
- Dust masks×5
- Cable and pipe detectorThe cheapest way to not drill through a live wire.
- Useful sooner than you expect
- Allen key setFor every piece of flat-pack furniture you will ever move.
- Torch
- Step ladder
- Extension lead
- Duct tape and electrical tape
- WD-40
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- What should you buy first?
- A cordless drill, a decent screwdriver set and a spirit level. Almost every job in a home is a hole, a screw or something that needs to be straight.
- What is not worth owning?
- A tile cutter, a wallpaper steamer, a floor sander. All three are cheap to hire for a day and expensive to store for a decade.