A home tool kit that covers ninety percent of jobs

Large tool sets are good value and heavily padded. The useful core is small, and knowing which pieces do the work tells you where to spend and where a bundled item is perfectly adequate.

The measuring and marking core

A 25 foot tape measure with a locking blade, a 24 inch spirit level, a pencil and a utility knife. Almost every job starts with these and almost every failed job started with a guess instead of one of them.

A small torpedo level is a useful addition for working inside cabinets, where a 24 inch level will not fit.

Drivers: quality matters most here

A set of Phillips and flat drivers in three sizes each, plus hex keys. Cheap drivers have soft tips that round off, and a rounded tip destroys the screw as well as itself. This is the category where a bundled set most often disappoints.

A magnetic bit driver with a socket adapter replaces a drawer of individual drivers and is easier to store.

Gripping and cutting

Combination pliers, long-nose pliers, adjustable wrench, and a junior hacksaw. Water-pump pliers are the fifth item and the one people wish they had bought when a tap fitting will not move.

Side cutters are worth having separately if you ever work with cable ties or wire; combination pliers cut, but not well.

Striking and fixing

A 16oz claw hammer covers domestic work. A rubber mallet is worth its small cost for anything assembled rather than nailed. Add a nail set for finishing nails and a small pry bar for removing trim without damaging it.

A cordless drill-driver is the one power tool worth owning before any other, and the battery platform matters more than the drill – it decides what else you can buy later.

The consumables that stop a job

Assorted screws, wall anchors, PTFE tape, electrical tape, cable ties, sandpaper in three grits, and a tube of decorator’s caulk. These are what send people out mid-job, and they cost very little to keep stocked.

Keep them in a separate small box from the tools. Mixed together, the consumables end up at the bottom.

Safety, briefly

Safety glasses, work gloves and a dust mask. All three are cheap, all three get skipped, and eye injuries from drilling into masonry are common and permanent. Keep them in the toolbox rather than in a cupboard.

Storage decides whether the kit stays complete

A moulded case with a place for each tool shows a gap at a glance. A soft bag holds more and hides what is missing. A moulded case for the core plus a bag for everything else is a good compromise.

Whatever it is, keep it in one place. A kit distributed around three rooms is a kit you will buy duplicates for.

Where to spend and where not to

Spend on drivers, the tape measure, the level and the drill. Everything else can be a bundled item and be fine. That is roughly a quarter of the money on a quarter of the pieces, and it is the split that makes a cheap set work.

Our tool kit listings state the exact contents by type and size rather than a piece count alone, because a piece count tells you nothing about whether the set contains a driver that will survive its first stripped screw.