The worst thing that can happen when you are doing a home improvement project is to injure yourself or another person. Things can happen at any time, don’t ever think it can’t happen to you, because that is when it will.
If you want to find the best DIY Safety Gear, click here.
Wearing the proper protective gear is an absolute must for any DIYer. We never want to hear a story about someone injuring their eye because a piece of wood flew into it, or someone dropped a piece of wood on their toe and now they will lose a toenail because they weren’t wearing the proper safety equipment. Things like this happen, and will happen to everyone. The key is, we can take measures to ensure that the extent of the harm can be reduced or eliminated all together. 15 pieces of safety gear every DIYer must have:
- Work Boots
- Work Gloves
- Safety Glasses or Goggles
- Ear Plugs or Ear Muffs
- Chair
- Knee Pads
- Dust Mask or Respirator
- First Aid Kit
- Water Bottle
- Hard Hat
- Fire Extinguisher
- Ice
- Sun Screen
- Protective Clothing
- Hose
1. Work Boots
Protecting your feet and toes are especially important when doing any home project. When using heavy tools and materials we need to make sure, just in case we drop or run into something that our feet and toes are properly protected. We don’t want to run to the emergency room because we dropped a hammer on our toe or slipped because we weren’t wearing the proper foot attire.
When looking for quality work boots you can go with a steel toe or a composite toe. Steel toe boots are heavier but offer more protection. Composite toe is a lighter boot with slightly less protection for the toes. Another component to consider in picking a work boot is whether you want extra, medium, or no ankle support. Depending on your personal situation you can decide if you need more ankle support or not. Keep in mind it might take a few times wearing the boots to break them in and get them to fit nice and comfortably.
You can find a quality work boot with ankle and toe protection on Amazon by clicking here.
2. Work Gloves
Having the proper work gloves for your project is a must. It doesn’t matter if you are doing wood work, carrying bricks, working in the yard, or doing car work, it is important to protect those digits.
When looking for protective gloves it is important to keep in mind the materials you are working with. When working with liquids it would come in handy to have some disposable nitrile gloves around, but if we are working with wood, brick, or in the yard we want to have a nice pair of leather, canvas or cloth gloves.
You can find some cheap disposable nitrile gloves on Amazon by clicking here.
What are nitrile gloves?
You can find some high quality work gloves on Amazon by clicking here.
3. Safety Glasses or Goggles
When we are doing home projects, especially with wood working you never know what may be flying through the air. It is vital to make sure you are protecting you eyes.
You can go two routes to protecting your eyes, glasses or goggles. I tend to use googles because they don’t allow for any room for anything to sneak into the eye. Glasses are extremely effective as well and both are great options to protecting your eyes while doing your home projects.
You can find a great pair of safety glasses on Amazon by clicking here.
You can find a quality pair of safety goggles on Amazon by clicking here.
4. Ear Plugs or Ear Muffs
Depending on the project at hand you may need to use some power tools. These tools can be extremely loud and could cause harm to ones ears if not protected.
There are a couple of options for ways to protect your ears. You can go the route of buying some cheap disposable ear plugs that you can throw out after each job, or you can spend a little money up front and buy some nicer noise cancelling ear muffs. I tend to lean the route of ear muffs because they are more comfortable and I can tell they block out more noise for me.
You can get some cheap and disposable ear plugs on Amazon by clicking here.
You can get some high quality comfortable ear muffs on Amazon by clicking here.
5. Work Stool
Home projects take a lot of time and effort. You could find yourself standing for long periods of time. It is important to take breaks and rest from time to time.
A great way to make sure you aren’t overworking and keep rested is to have a work or garage stool in the same room. From time to time take a quick 5 minute break and make sure you aren’t over exerting yourself. It’s important to make sure you keep yourself motivated and healthy. There might even be some tasks on the project you can tackle while you are sitting on your comfortable work stool.
You can get a comfortable work stool on Amazon by clicking here.
6. Knee Pads
There are many projects around the home that require you to be on your knees. If you need to spend an extensive amount of time on your knees then you need to make sure you have some high quality knee pads around.
Knee pads come especially handy when you are doing any type of flooring work, fixing the sink, gardening and pretty much anything that requires you to not be upright. Knee pads are fairly cheap and will help keep the joints feeling good after a long day of project work.
You can get some knee pads on Amazon by clicking here.
7. Dust Mask or Respirator
During home improvement DIY projects there are sometimes minuscule toxic airborne particles that get tossed into the air. Specifically speaking, asbestos, fiberglass, and mold are big things we need to keep an eye out for and we need to wear our dust mask or respirator. The major difference between a mask and a respirator is a mask protects you from droplets, splashes, or sprays while a respirator protects you from small particle exposure and fluids.
Dust masks should be used when sanding, grinding, welding, sawing, and using fiberglass insulation. A dust mask will be enough to protect you during those uses.
A respirator should be used when spray painting or doing demolition. Using a respirator will protect you from all that nonsense getting into your body and causing you harm.
You can get a quality dust mask on Amazon by clicking here.
You can get a sweet respirator mask on Amazon by clicking here.
8. First Aid Kit
This may be completely obvious, but we are going to always want a First Aid Kit around the workshop. You never know when you may cut yourself or worse when using your tools.
There are so many sharp and dangerous tools around when trying to get that home project done. It just takes one mistake or oopsie and you’re looking at an injury that could easily be cleaned up with a First Aid Kit.
You can find a great First Aid Kit on Amazon by clicking here.
9. Water Bottle
An easy thing to forget to have available for keeping your safety is a water bottle. This isn’t exactly the first thing you think of when executing your home projects. Even though it is not common to think of, it very well might be the most imporant.
To make sure you are staying healthy and alert you need to stay hydrated. Home projects take a toll on the body and it could be hot outside. We put a lot of blood, SWEAT, and tears into our projects and we need to make sure we are always well hydrated. Sometimes we get so involved in our project, we forget to drink water, so having one close at hand is vital.
You can find a sturdy water bottle for the workshop on Amazon by clicking here.
10. Hard Hat
If we are working on a project that has heavy materials that are above our heads we are going to want be wearing a hard hat at all times. It is extremely dangerous to walk around somewhere if you know there is construction going on that is above your head. It just takes one time for something to fall and hit you to cause severe damage.
Places we will definitely need to wear a hard hat include tree maintenance, trimming, cutting, and walking through construction zones. We want to always protect our noggin. In order to do that we need to do, make sure we have our very own high quality hard hat on our head.
You can find a tough hard hat on Amazon by clicking here.
11. Fire Extinguisher
Everybody should have fire extinguisher around the home, but especially if you are a home project warrior. There are many power tools or materials that could catch fire at any time and having one around will ensure the safety and protection of your home.
Having a multi-purpose extinguisher is key. This ensures it is large enough to put out small fires and is light enough that you can handle it on your own.
You can find a multi-purpose fire extinguisher on Amazon by clicking here.
12. Ice
I know, very random when we are talking about home improvement projects. The thing is, you never know when you may need ice. If you bruise yourself or it is a scorching day outside you are going to need ice.
The key is, just make sure ice is available to you. You could have it in your freezer or you may want to buy a small ice machine for the garage.
You can find a small and useful ice maker on Amazon by clicking here.
13. Sun Screen
A bunch of our work will be done outside. This means we will be exposed to the sun for much of the day. Sun screen will come in handy to ensure you are protecting yourself from sun burn or worse.
You can either get a spray bottle or a tube of sun screen. Either one is effective in protecting your skin. The spray may be easier, but make sure its applied correctly and the wind isn’t making it miss the spots you want to lather. Also make sure you purchase the right SPF, you should know how sensitive your skin is to the sun. If you don’t know, then get the highest SPF you can find to be safe.
You can get a bottle of sun screen spray on Amazon by clicking here.
You can get a tube of sun screen on Amazon by clicking here.
14. Protective Clothing
Depending on the project, you may need protective clothing. You want to make sure all the limbs of your body are protected and can’t be harmed in anyway.
If you are using a chainsaw for instance, you’re going to want to wear protective safety chaps. These chaps will help protect you from unwanted touching of the chainsaw, they help reduce injury and give you more time to react to the issue at hand. Also if you’re using chemicals, you’re going to want to make sure you are wearing long sleeves and gloves. This is because we don’t want those harmful chemicals to get in contact with our skin, depending on the chemical it could burn, irritate, or even worse. We need to always make sure we are using protective clothing when necessary.
You can find safety chaps on Amazon by clicking here.
15. Hose
Access to a hose and water is another safety precaution we should always take. You never know when you will need to quickly wash something in order to make sure it doesn’t harm you or your project.
Using a hose with water will give you the necessary equipment to clean out your eyes if something lands in them, it will help you wash your skin if unwanted chemicals land on you. A hose and access to water is extremely important to ensure you have the necessary tools to keep you from harm.
You can find a hose on Amazon by clicking here.
Conclusion
Safety should always be the number one concern with any home project. To ensure your safety there are many tools you will need to have around your workstation.
The safety equipment listed in this article will protect all aspects of your body and home. It is extremely important to make sure you that you have these tools around before you start any of your home projects. Don’t forget that safety should always be your number one concern. Let’s tackle our home projects and stay safe at the same time!
