Vol. XXVI · No. 04 • Workshop Almanac
— The Everyday Handyman —
Est. MMXIX
Vol. XXVI · No. 04 • Workshop Almanac
Est. MMXIX
Tool wisdom, hard-earned tips, and a directory of trades you can trust. Gathered, weighed, and set in type for the everyday handyman.
§ I — Index
No. 01
No. 02
No. 03
No. 04
§ II — Field Investigation
Craftsman 3-Drawer Portable Steel Tool Chest with Ball-Bearing Drawer Slides
Milwaukee 46-Inch High-Capacity 16-Drawer Steel Tool Chest & Rolling Cabinet
§ III — The Starter Kit
Every home eventually asks for one. A loose hinge. A picture that will not hang straight. A drip under the kitchen sink at eleven on a Sunday night. The question is not whether you will need tools. It is whether the ones you have will do the job when the moment comes.
Most big-box starter kits are a polite lie. Twenty-eight pieces in a plastic case, half too soft to drive one screw without stripping the head. We have spent years building and dismantling these kits. The truth is simple. You need fewer tools than the marketing suggests, but each one has to be honest.
Below is the kit we would give a friend moving into their first house. Not an exhaustive list. Not a sponsored one. Just the ten pieces that quietly handle ninety percent of what a home will ever ask of you.
No. 01
No. 02
No. 03
No. 04
No. 05
No. 06
No. 07
No. 08
No. 09
No. 10
That is the entire starter kit. Ten pieces. Maybe two hundred dollars at the low end, six hundred at the high end. You can keep adding. A circular saw, a multimeter, a nail gun. But you do not need to start there. Start with ten honest tools. Add the next when a job demands it. The kit grows the way a craftsman does. One need at a time.
§ IV — Directory
No. 01
Find one near you →
No. 02
Find one near you →
No. 03
Find one near you →
No. 04
Find one near you →
No. 05
Find one near you →
No. 06
Find one near you →
No. 07
Find one near you →
No. 08
Find one near you →
No. 09
Find one near you →
No. 10
Find one near you →
No. 11
Find one near you →
No. 12
Find one near you →
§ V — Judgement Calls
The internet is full of confident strangers telling you that you can do anything. You cannot. Some jobs are a Saturday afternoon and a careful tutorial. Others are a permit, a license, and a tradesperson with insurance. Knowing which is which is the most underrated skill in homeownership. We are not gatekeeping. Half of what handymen do is genuinely teachable. A patient homeowner with the right tools can pull it off. But the other half involves load-bearing walls, gas lines, and mistakes you cannot undo with a second coat of paint. The question is never can I do this. It is always should I do this. Below is how we decide.
Is it permitted?
Is it dangerous?
Is it reversible?
Is it worth your Saturday?
Use our trades directory above to find a vetted pro in any of the twelve categories we cover. Read the reviews. Get three quotes, never one. Always ask for a license number. And remember the oldest rule in homeownership. The cheapest contractor is rarely the cheapest decision.
§ VI — Field Notes
You don’t need a garage full of equipment to handle most household repairs — you need the right ten tools
Before the cold sets in, an afternoon of preventive maintenance can save you from frozen pipes, roof leaks, and heating
From doorknob dents to nail holes to fist-sized accidents, drywall damage is inevitable — and almost always repairable without replacing
A door that drags, sticks, or won’t latch is one of the most common — and most fixable — household
Swapping a light switch or replacing an outlet cover is well within reach for most homeowners. Rewiring a panel is
A dripping faucet or running toilet can waste hundreds of gallons of water a month and quietly inflate your bill.
§ VII — The Method
Most tool reviews online were written by someone who never held the tool. We know because we have read them. They paraphrase the spec sheet, lift a few customer reviews, sprinkle in keywords, and publish before lunch.
We do not. Every tool we feature has been pulled from its packaging and put through a real project. Every tip has been tested, broken, and tested again. Every trade has been vetted against licensing, real reviews, and where possible a phone call. This is not a content site that happens to be about tools. It is a workshop that happens to publish.
Below is exactly how we work. Read it once and you will know what every star, every rank, and every Best Overall tag is built on.
We earn money two ways. Affiliate commissions when you buy a tool we recommended through our links. Display advertising on some pages. That is it. There is no third revenue stream we are quiet about.
We do not accept payment for reviews. We do not take sponsored placements in our buying guides. No maker has ever paid us to bump a product up the rankings. None ever will. The day that changes is the day this site stops being worth reading, and we know it.
Some tools are sent to us by makers for testing. We accept them. We test them on the same five axes as everything else. If they do not make the grade, we do not review them. If they do, the affiliate commission works the same way as any product on the site.
We update our buying guides at least twice a year. New models replace old ones. A tool we loved five years ago may no longer be the best. When that happens, we say so. An old review dated three years back is not one you can trust. Spot a pick that no longer holds up? Write to us. We read every email. The almanac is a living document. Set in type, but never set in stone.
§ VIII — The House Style
Handyman Guides exists to make the right tool, the right fix, and the right tradesperson easier to find. Without the noise of the modern internet. Our reviews come from people who actually held the tool. Our tips are tested before they are typed.
We don’t believe in listicles, SEO mush, or 10-things-you-need-now. We believe in honest tools, careful work, and the quiet satisfaction of a job done properly.
Handyman Guides · Vol. XXVI
One email, every Sunday. New tool reviews, the best tip of the week, and a single recommendation from the editors. No clutter.
