Top DIY hacks to help over the Bank Holiday

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For many of us the last Bank Holiday weekend likely involved taking a trip to the hardware store and setting up the equipment, before losing steam and resolving to try again later in the month. Now, with the final Bank Holiday of Spring fast approaching, it is time to take up our tool belts and tackle the task head on.

Often, we dream up a DIY or home decorating project without really thinking the scale of the project through and one of the biggest deterrents in actually getting started is the amount of mess, time and effort that the task will involve. While DIY will always require an element of dedication, Joseph Beeby, DIY Guru and Handyman Operations Manager at Handy, shares his top DIY hacks to help make your project just a little less arduous.

1. Line your paint trays – It sounds so simple but it is a top tip that many don’t even think of. One of the biggest roadblocks to completing a paint job is the thought of cleaning up the various paint trays. By lining your tray with a black bin liner, once you’ve finished you can just wrap up the bag and throw it away, without having to clean your tray or replace it.

2. Keep a rubber band close by – Often people don’t get around to re-building furniture after moving house or having purchased something second hand because the screws are blunt. Similarly, many don’t want to take apart furniture, be it to up-cycle it or to sell it on, for fear of blunting the screw. To avoid blunting a screw, all you need to do is place a rubber band between the screw and the screwdriver. This stops the screw from getting damaged, meaning it remains in perfect condition. Simple but also very effective!

3. Use sticky notes to collect dust – For many people, the mess of drilling a hole is enough to put them off hanging a picture. A ridiculously simple hack for this is to place a sticky note below the hole you are about to drill and fold it to a right angle so it forms a horizontal lip beneath the hole. As you drill the dust will collect in the paper and can be easily cleared away.

4. On that note – Out of masking tape? No worries. You can also use your sticky notes to surround your light switches and door handles when painting. When you are done, simply peel them off and throw them away.
5. Work in pairs – While not all DIY jobs require two people, a second person is always a benefit. From offering a second pair of eyes to help see where that pesky screw rolled away to, to providing a spare pair of hands to help hold two panels in place while you screw them together, when it comes to DIY, two heads are always better then one. Similarly, having someone else there will motivate you to work even harder and finish the job quicker!

Joseph Beeby, DIY Guru and Handyman Operations Manager at Handy, the UK’s fastest-growing provider of on-demand cleaning and DIY experts

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