An ADHD Handyman

 A professional handyman is someone who is in the business of maintenance, fixing, assembling, installing, and making.  Mostly in the areas of residential and light commercial locations.  We fill a "gap" between various licensed trades as well as fill a service need for customers who for various reasons, are unable or unwilling to make those repairs, or perform certain tasks themselves. Many of us have achieved various specialized certifications and formal training in addition to other general skills accumulated over time through hands-on experience. As a "professional", we are licensed or registered as local contractors, insured, and in many cases, are affiliated with professional organizations such as the Association of Certified Handyman Professionals (ACHP) or similar. When referring to ourselves as "professionals", we make sure to know what our "lane" is and we stay in our lane in an ethical and safety related focus to not endanger or otherw...

 Whether we are a DIYer trying to get materials and tools for a home project or a professional contractor doing work for customers, we all need to buy (or rent) tools and materials to get the job done.  We have a great variety of options for this. There are physical stores like Ace, Home Depot, Harbor Freight, or even Lowe's (I guess) and many others like them.  Then there are online-everything options like Amazon. Also, there are the online website and app options for stores like Home Depot and the others listed above that will even deliver to your location. For contractors,  another option is supply houses.  Some let anyone buy there but most want you to be a registered or licensed contractor.   Which are we getting our stuff at?  It depends. For, a one man operation, I personally,  absolutely, and utterly HATE shopping.  I despise and loathe the entire process.  So if I have the plan-ahead time, I'll always prefer the online opti...

 I am advising a lot more frequently that folks who are looking to do work in their home themselves try to avoid the YouTube "DIY" channels.   Not because DIY is bad or wrong or anything like that, but it seems more and more of the YouTubers are focusing on "hacks" and "tricks" to get things done and it cam end up really badly if we actually try some of that crap. Doing It Yourself, ESPECIALLY where electrical,  plumbing, and HVAC are concerned gets tricky.  Because in many places, building codes get a bit tricky.  In a lot of places, they want permits and licensed tradespeople to do specific tasks regardless of if it's a contracted or DIY project. Sure, we can just do it anyway and figure or hope no one will find out till we're dead or gone.  Happens a lot that way.  BUT... You owe it to yourself to do a project the right way.  Why?  Because you may want to sell that house someday and a mortgage inspection may show that work done and pu...

 I'm not making any more "D.I.Y." content.  Instead, I'm just doing, "D.I" content instead. "D.I" being just "Do It", of course.   My point in saying so is that the algorithms on most platforms seem to have gotten stuck into niches of doing things like, "Woodworking", "DIY" (referring usually to derision or low capability things), and so-called "Pro" stuff which is usually selling something or trying to one-up someone else. Even general "How To" content gets broken into such sub categories for the most part.  Thank God we still have "This Old House", and Norm Abrams that don't patronize us. But that's kind of my point, the fact that there's not much more that has a general, "here's how to do this" than "This Old House" and "New Yankee Workshop" to point out, is disappointing to me. So, I've struggled over the past year or so to make videos ...

 Occasionally, social media gets even dimber than usual.  For example,  over the past couple of months there have been a few posts and videos trying to convince people that given the current  state of cordless, battery powered tools, corded tools are no longer relevant.  Not only is this wrong, its aggressively stupid.  It assumes too much on behalf of the work and people doing it. Even the best battery powered tools still aren't good enough for multiple, replicated work.  If you need a few pieces done, cordless tools are awesome.  But if you're making thing in job lots, you'll just burn your batteries up.  Corded tools are significantly better for making lots of pieces and parts. Corded tools are still the best option overall,in my opinion, if you're working in a shop or production environment.  Yes, corded tools can sometimes feel clumsy and in the way, but a decently planned and laid out shop can overcome most of that. The consistent ...

 As a professional handyman, it often comes up that I'm asked to provide hauling service of some kind. The most common request being trash hauling.  Pretty much all of my residential customers are rental properties,  both long term and short-term.  So there are occasions where a long term rental moves out and leaves a lot of trash.  The property owner can get a good cleaning company but that might leave an unusually large amount of trash bags not able to fit into bins or qualify for street trash pickup.  Also fairly often, a short-term rental like an airbnb guest might rent a property over a holiday or seasonal event and leave a lot of trash behind.  A good guest will at least try to bag it and put it out.  Some don't and leave it up to the cleaners.  Either way, once again we have a lot of trash that weekly pickup often won't take. That or it's way too much before regular pickup and there's another guest coming in before that.  It happe...