5 Ways to Become the MacGyver of Home Improvements

Hopefully most readers have heard of MacGyver, but for those who haven’t here is a very brief run through. MacGyver was an American television programme, which ran in the 1980s to the early 90s. The show takes its name from the lead character, Angus MacGyver, who was a secret agent for a fictitious government body. The show normally entailed MacGyver finding himself in a dangerous situation, making him use his skills as an expert scientist to engineer his way out of trouble using everyday objects.

So now we are all up to speed on the exploits of Angus MacGyver, what steps do you need to take to become an all-encompassing home improvement ninja?

Firstly, be aware of your surrounding environment, or in other words know your home. This might sound strange because you live there; you spend the majority of your time there, so surely you already know your home and I’m just being silly. The amount of times I’ve asked someone what needs updating or fixing in their home and they’ve replied saying they don’t know, or they name one or two things that are pretty inconsequential. Take time to learn about your home, not only what needs repairing, but also the potential your home has.

The next step on your path to enlightenment is to hone your skills. Signing up to a woodworking course or such like at your local college or institution is a great way to go about this. You are never going to be MacGyver if you don’t have a decent level of skill when it comes to using tools, understanding the materials you are working with and the potential your home has to improve. Don’t worry about going out and buying every single tool on the market, as you probably won’t use them all; you can always hire tools online instead.

Via Flickr

So at this point you’ve scouted your home and levelled up your skills with a hacksaw, but what comes next? At this point you need to sit down and creatively think about what direction you want your house to move towards. Do you want a fresh, modernistic space of minimalism or do you want a quaint, rustic farmhouse with plenty of charm? If you don’t have a goal to aim towards then you have nothing to benchmark your success against. Also, the majority of home improvements that begin without a definitive end goal in sight usually do not end so well.

Once you, and your partner if there is a special someone on the scene, have agreed where you want to take your house you then need to scout for the requisite materials. Remember, MacGyver was all about using the everyday or already available objects in order to solve a problem. Now, I’m not advocating your build your kitchen extension out of tin cans insulated with bubble wrap, but using already available or recycled materials is a larger step towards becoming MacGyver. Try visiting your local recycling centre or scrap heap to see if there are any materials you could salvage that are going to add value to your home without the exuberant prices we often come across.

The last step is the execution of the home improvement. This is where you channel your inner energy to focus and accumulate the knowledge and practicalities you have learnt from the previous steps of this article. A patient, focused and clinical execution of your improvement, whilst remembering to enjoy the process, brings you to enlightenment and promotes you to a black belt level MacGyver home improvement ninja.