71 and just opened the shed

Marija49

My husband died very recently. He was the "outside person", I was the "inside person", now I'm "the person"

At 71, I have a shed full of tools and no idea how to use them or even what many are for.

Does anyone know where I can go to learn simple things such as how to use my lawn mower and my Whipper Snipper. please?

My husband was forever dashing off to our local Bunnings for "stuff". Now I need to learn how to use his stuff. 

I need to update our home in so many ways but am on a tight budget so I truly do need to get out of my comfort zone and learn a few basic tasks.

I have 2 venetian blinds to hang but a friend told me they don't have anything  in the structure, to support them so they will need "special screws" to do the job. A bit daunting. I would have 2 buckets full of assorted screws in that shed and have no idea which to use. In addition, I would need to learn how to use a drill and which drill bit to use. I am going to be watching a great many You Tube videos to start with.

Any advice on where to start would be very welcome. Any alerts to a Bunnings class would also help.

I have no time for self pity, I have a house to fix and would gladly make a cup of coffee and a toasted sandwich for anyone with 30 mins to teach me one task at a time. 

Is that acceptable within this group? Advice is welcome, assistance would be a blessing. 

Jason

@Marija49,

I'm so sorry for your loss. This must be a really difficult time for you and we would be more than happy to help in any way we can.

The good news is that you've just joined a community that is really passionate about wanting to help you build your D.I.Y. skills and confidence. You'll note that we have many wonderful and inspiring members in the community sharing inspiring projects, including @DIYgals, @Tara86, @2Belindas and @prettyliving. Check out their stories in our About Us section as many are self-taught and were a similar situation to you not long ago. 

Apologies that we are not currently able to run D.I.Y. workshops within Bunnings stores. We certainly look forward to providing this service again as soon as possible. In the meantime, our resident Bunnings D.I.Y. expert Mitch noted recently that he'd noticed various Women's Sheds popping up all around the place, so it might be worth checking those out. Many Men's Sheds are also very open to having women join and are certainly not as exclusive as they once were. And of course, the team in-store at Bunnings are always happy to show you the safety equipment needed when using our tools.

You might like to start here on Workshop by taking a look through our How To section as we have many easy-to-follow step-by-step articles labelled with their level of difficulty. Tackling a small project can really help build skills and confidence. The guides Essential hand tools for beginners and Essential power tools for beginners and beyond might also be a great starting point for what tools you might want to learn how to use. Of course there's also the Bunnings D.I.Y. Advice section with many step-by-step guides and videos on how to complete an incredibly wide variety of jobs around your house and garden.

In regards to your specific questions, perhaps you could take a photo of your lawn mower and whipper snipper for us so we can see what you are working with and provide specific assistance to help you get started. 

Same goes for your blinds - probably best to hit the Start a discussion button again and create a seperate post for that project. There can be a bit of force applied on blinds when pulling them up and down so we'd want to make sure they are nice and securely fastened. 

Hope that helps,

Jason