How to Become a Better DIYer in 2021

Building up a wide range of Do-It-Yourselfer's skills is personally rewarding on many levels. After all, you never know what manner of new projects lie ahead in the coming year and what skills they might require to complete.

The new year is a great time to set a few new DIY goals that will help you expand your knowledge base and get stuff done around the house. Here are a few tips on how you can become a better Do-It-Yourselfer in 2021.

Evaluate Your Skills

Before you set any new DIY goals for the coming year, take a little time to honestly recognize and evaluate your strengths and your weaknesses. This will help you select new projects throughout the year that will expand your skill set and allow you to tackle some of the areas that might be in need of improvement. Both in your home and in yourself.

Making a list of the things that you've accomplished can be a great motivational tool—one you can go back to if you ever find yourself getting frustrated during a difficult project.

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Set DIY Goals

Setting specific DIY goals for the coming year is undoubtedly the most important step in becoming a better DIYer. Not only will making a list help you frame out more realistic expectations, it will serve you well as a progress guide throughout the course of the year.

These goals should be as specific as possible and include some of the means by which you can actually accomplish them, whether it's learning a new skill on your own by taking a DIY class, or even volunteering on a neighborhood building project like Habitat For Humanity.

Take Classes

One of the easiest ways to expand your DIY skills is taking classes. In many places, local organizations offer affordable instructional classes on specific projects, construction and home improvement techniques, and the tools needed to complete them.

These days, you can learn a ton on online platforms, but if you're looking for more hands on experience in your community, a few good places to start your search are local libraries, schools, and big box stores. In addition to learning a new DIY skill, many of those classes also offer an opportunity to meet and network with other DIYers in your local community and around the world. These classes are a great way to share knowledge and expertise, and you never know what you might learn or whom you might meet.

Volunteer

Volunteering is another great way to learn a new set of DIY skills. Nonprofit organizations frequently use volunteers in building projects where you often get to work alongside seasoned professionals who love what they do.

This will help you master a new skill set at your own pace while challenging you to do something you might never get a chance to take on otherwise. Of course, volunteering also helps people in need and is a great way to give back to the community. While nonprofits are a good place to start, you should also consider volunteering yourself for projects with friends and family members, though this may require doing more learning on your own than not.

Self-Learning

In 2020 the internet is now the driving force behind the DIY movement, and for a very good reason too. You can learn just about anything online, and if you search hard enough, you can actually find solid advice on how to tackle just about any DIY project around the house that you can imagine.

Using the internet to expand your expertise is probably the easiest way to become a better DIYer in 2021. The best thing about learning online is that most of the content is available to everyone free of charge. Many organizations including this one are starting to create huge libraries of projects that include step-by-step instructions to guide even the most novice of DIYers to a happy home conclusion.

Get Outside Your Comfort Zone

As a rule of thumb, it's best practice to learn at least one new skill with each DIY project you start or are involved in, whether it's learning how to wire a simple electrical device, or learning how to properly finish a wooden surface. But in order to do that, you will need to tackle a few projects that reside outside of your usual comfort zone.

That shouldn’t be taken to mean that you should take on a project that is well beyond your expertise, however. It means that you can, but branching out in small steps is always the best way to start to expand your personal skill set. If you learn something new on each project, it won’t be long before you are comfortable doing things you never thought possible. Not only that but as you learn to assimilate the knowledge you gain and expand your thinking you will utterly amaze yourself time and time again.

Facing 2021 Fearlessly

Given all that has transpired over the course of 2020, it's easy to see why many DIYers might be discouraged and lose heart, but such should never be the case. In the end, it doesn't really matter what you do or whatever you have done because it's done and it will not be undone.

Such is life. And, since yesterday's dead and gone that only leaves us with today. Fortunately, today is the one and only day that we can actually exercise any semblance of control over. Since everything is a matter of perception, then you have the power in your own two hands to make 2021 a banner year or a serial bummer that drags on for 365 interminably long days and nights.

Today is all you have, and since nobody can guarantee you that you'll live to take your next breath, why waste it? If you can't make yourself happy then make someone else happy until happiness finds you on its own. But this we would implore you above all else, to thine own do-it-yourselfer be true.

Happy New Year from all of ours to all of yours.

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