Brits inspired to nail their DIY hang-ups on Face Your Fears Day

With nearly half of Brits (46%1) avoiding DIY due to a lack of confidence, people are being encouraged to find their inner DIY hero on National Face Your Fears Day tomorrow (Tuesday, October 10).

Top tips and advice to help people overcome their hang-ups have been provided as part of a campaign aimed at addressing the UK’s DIY skills shortage by waste removal experts, HIPPO.

Whether it be mastering a quick and easy way to hang a picture, dealing with a blocked drain or plucking up the courage to fix a garden fence, Brits are being inspired to have a go and learn how to approach home and garden improvement jobs that may have initially seemed daunting.

National Face Your Fears Day on October 10 encourages people to step out and overcome things that are holding them back, and HIPPO wants to help empower people with their home improvement abilities after a survey they commissioned revealed that not only was confidence a major factor, but a lack of skills prevents more than half of Brits (52%1) from doing DIY.

Other findings included 52% of Brits saying they don’t educate others around them on how to do DIY jobs and 38% saying they shunned DIY jobs because they don’t want to deal with the mess, while a startling 38% of people admitted to not owning a hammer. Time constraints were also cited as a reason (35%) for not doing DIY with 34% of Brits saying they didn’t have the right tools, while almost a third of Brits (31%1) said they didn’t know where to start when it comes to home and garden improvements.

In contrast to this, however, over a quarter of those surveyed (26%) said that this year, they’d be putting money into home and garden improvements rather than moving, with 40%1 saying they’d be doing these jobs themselves to help cut costs. In addition, 26% of UK adults said they would dedicate their bank holidays to DIY tasks while 57% said they’d utilise their weekends to get home improvement jobs done.

Gareth Lloyd-Jones, MD of HIPPO, said the findings underlined the need to help upskill the nation: “At a time when self-sufficiency and saving money at home are increasingly becoming a priority, the ability to carry out DIY tasks has become integral to this. Yet, it seems that a significant number of us are feeling less than confident when it comes to wielding a hammer or a paint brush.

“National Face Your Fears Day offers an ideal springboard to prompt people into DIY action and start tackling some of the home and garden improvement jobs they’ve always wanted to try. By investing in the right tools, starting small, sharing our skills and paying attention to detail, we can all become DIY Heroes. We can also do this in the most sustainable way possible with HIPPOBAGs ensuring that over 95% of all waste collected is recycled.”

TOP TIPS TO OVERCOME YOUR DIY FEARS:

1. A lick of paint can go a long way
Painting a room, exterior wall or piece of furniture is a guaranteed way to make an instant impact in your home or garden, but it’s one of the jobs we least look forward to doing.
To help reduce waste and ensure your painting area is kept nice and tidy, stretch an elastic band over the length of your paint tin and shift it across into the middle to help you get any excess paint off your brush and avoid unwanted spillages. Make sure you cover your paint tray and brushes with cling film between painting sessions to help save additional time, energy and paint.

2. Always make sure you’ve got the right tools for the job
It may sound obvious, but before you start any DIY job, you need to make sure you have the right tools to hand. HIPPO’s research shows that 38% of Brits don’t own a hammer while 34% say they don’t have the right tools overall. If you’re creating a DIY starter kit, top tool recommendations are a hammer, screwdriver, tape measure, drill and pliers.

3. Keep things tidy to help save time
Here’s a simple trick for keeping things tidy when drilling holes in a wall. Grab a couple of post-it notes, fold them in half and place the sticky strip on to the wall directly underneath the hole to create your very own makeshift tray for collecting drill hole dust. So simple, but so effective.
To keep on track of bigger indoor or outdoor mess that comes from your DIY projects, consider a HIPPOBAG. You can fill it up and book a collection with HIPPO to take it away – plus you can rest easy knowing that the waste will be disposed of ethically with at least 95% being recycled.

4. Always start small
The trick with DIY is often to start off small and slowly build up your confidence. Here’s how to hang a picture up on the wall with limited hassle:

1. 1. Squeeze a little bit of toothpaste on the outside of the nail hook hanger on the back of the picture frame
2. 2. Place the picture on the wall where you’d like to hang it
3. 3. Once the picture is precisely positioned, press down a little, allowing the toothpaste to naturally leave its mark on the wall, this will leave a clear mark where you need to put the nail

5. Skill-share with friends and family
If you’ve recently learned a new DIY skill or discovered a quick and easy tip or trick, make sure you share it with others, as just over 1 in 4 (26%1) of us admit to not educating others on how to do DIY tasks. Sharing tips is so important as we often assume other people are better at DIY than us but in fact 52%1 of Brits avoid DIY due to their lack of skills and 46%1 admit to not having the confidence.

6. Pay attention to detail
DIY shelves are great for extra storage or displays in any room. While it might seem overwhelming choosing a position or ensuring they’re straight, a little extra effort can go a long way in making the job much more efficient.
When putting up shelves at home, use masking tape to visualise where the shelf will go and to help mark out where the nails will be drilled.

1. 1. Firstly, use the masking tape on the back of your shelf to mark your screw holes, then peel your tape off
2. 2. Transfer the tape to the wall, and use a spirit level to make sure everything is straight before drilling where you have marked on the tape
3. 3. Peel away the tape and add in the screws

More insights from HIPPO’s DIY survey can be found here www.hippowaste.co.uk/blog/the-uk-diy-skills-shortage/

HIPPOBAGS are available to buy online at hippowaste.co.uk or through the HIPPO App, with prices starting at £14.99 for the MIDI Bag or £199.99 for the MIDI Bag with collection. These clever skip bags come in three handy flat-packed sizes so they don’t take up valuable room outside your home until you need to use them.