Six Reasons You Should Give DIY a Try

If you’ve browsed through Pinterest before,  then you’ve probably heard of DIY, or do-it-yourself. DIY involves crafting, building, restoring things, from accessories to furniture, all without the help of experts and professionals.

You do everything yourself, whether it’s making cards, crafting accessories, or building cabinets. It may sound difficult (and it is!), but it’s not impossible. Some people are in it to save money, but most DIYers do it for different reasons.

From relieving stress to gaining new skills, here are several reasons you should try DIY.

Gain New Skills and Knowledge

DIY is about discovering novel ideas and gaining new skills. Handling power tools, getting proper measurements, creating harmonious designs, mixing colors—there is a lot to learn in DIY. Most DIYers are very generous about sharing their work, so you can find plenty of tutorials and ideas on the internet to teach you how to do or to create a project.

As you get into the hobby, you will set greater goals for yourself, ones that will require a higher level of skills and expertise. But even as your experience grows, there will be more things to learn and skills to acquire because every project is different from the other.

Relieve Stress

Some people eat to relieve stress, while others go to the gym. Crafters and DIYers create to deal with tension and negative emotions. If you followed this year’s Winter Olympics, you must have heard about the knitting Finnish snowboarding coach, Antti Koskinen.

According to Koskinen, he did it as a joke to lessen his athletes’ tension. It was caught on camera and caused a sensation on the internet, with varying reactions of amusement and awe.

Although he did it for kicks, Koskinen was on to something. Researchers found that knitting lessens anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and dementia. It lowers the heart rate and gives you an “enhanced state of calm,” according to a 2007 Harvard study.

DIY allows you to use your body and your mind to do something enjoyable and rewarding, without the pressure you experience at work and other aspects of your life. It’s just you, your tools, and your project.

Boost Your Confidence

Remember the feeling of pride and achievement right after you succeed in completing a task by yourself? That’s the same feeling you get every time you do DIY. Sure, there are some challenges and frustrations in between, but they only serve to make the result more satisfying.

Knowing that you’ve put you’ve worked hard and accomplished something is a great confidence booster. And the effect is multiplied every time you receive compliments about your self-made accessory, home decoration, or product.

Face the Fear of Making Mistakes

 Behind the Pinterest-worthy crafts, you see online can be a series of failed attempts and touch-ups. No one was born to DIY. You gain the skills and knowledge through plenty of research and practice.

You’ll make mistakes along the way, which may frustrate and discourage you at first. When you have made enough, you will soon learn that mistakes are part of DIY, and you will stop beating yourself up every time you make one. Instead, you will come up with unique and innovative ways to turn your mistakes into successes.

Become More Productive

If you’ve fallen into the trap of listlessly browsing through social media on your free time, then you’re probably in desperate need of a new hobby. And DIY is just the perfect thing to try.

There’s a lot you can do—making arts and crafts, doing home improvements, designing clothes, or cooking food are some. That best part is that everything you learn and create has their practical uses, so you can’t really say that you’re just whiling away the time. And even if you start a project on a whim, your time will still be better spent this way than just repeatedly going through your Instagram feed.

Save Money

Why pay for expensive products and services when you can make and do them yourself? In fact, this is how many people stumble into DIY and get hooked by it.

With utility bills, grocery expenses, and loans to pay, every person will jump at the chance to save money on a purchase, especially if it wasn’t part of the budget. You can save $40 to $150 on home repairs, like fixing leaks and unclogging the toilet, if you can do it yourself. You’ll save even more if you learn how to paint your walls, install fixtures, and refurbish furniture so you don’t have to hire a contractor to do them.

Planning a celebration? You can create personalized invitation cards, instead of buying the same boring invitations you see in department stores. You can also use your skills in arts and crafts to save money on accessories, home decorations, gifts, and party things. Moreover, personalized items can communicate your thoughts and efforts better than store-bought ones can.

Final Thoughts

 While saving money is a sweet bonus in doing DIY, it’s not the greatest benefit you’ll get from this hobby. DIY gives you practical skills to solve everyday problems that go your way. It will teach valuable lessons about acceptance, patience, and perseverance.

You will learn to embrace failure and turn it into a learning experience. Most of all, you will learn to rely on yourself and overcome what you used to think was impossible.

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