What’s in your toolbox?

Sometimes, DIY around the home isn’t a planned event. Sometimes, it’s a case of dealing with a situation before it gets out of hand. And it’s at those times that you really need to ensure you have the best set of tools in your toolbox.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Yesterday was windy in Sydney, and when I got home from a day driving around, it was to discover that my side gate had been blown of its hinges, leaving an open passageway for my golden retriever to escape. Fortunately, Simba’s pretty well trained and was sleeping around the other side of the house when we got home, but the situation did mean that I had to ransack the toolbox to fix the gate post-haste.

It wasn’t too easy a job – many of the palings had been knocked off from the impact of falling, and the screws had been ripped right out of the wood, so to fix it I decided to flip the Z-frame and hammer the palings into the other side.

But it was at that point I was struck by how fortunate I was to have everything I needed in my toolbox. Sure, everyone has a hammer, but having nails of the right size was a fluke. The screws for the hinges were also a lucky find in the toolbox, although the ratchet set I used to attach them has been invaluable to me over the years.

It made me think – what tools should be in every handyman’s toolbox. Hammer, drill, screwdrivers, wrenches and pliers are a must, but can you get away without anything else? Is it worth having a collection of nails, screws and bolts sitting in your toolbox for those emergency situations like a blown over gate?

Let us know what essential tools you have in your toolbox, and what tools you think you could do without, in the comments section below.