Which tools to buy first when you move into a new home

What to buy in the first week

The first jobs in any new flat or house are hanging things, checking what is behind the walls, and tightening what the previous owner left loose. For that you need a stud finder, a decent screwdriver set with interchangeable bits, a spirit level at least 40 cm long, a tape measure, and a hammer. That is genuinely enough to start.

Buy quality on the screwdriver set and the spirit level, since these two get used for years and cheap ones drift out of true or strip screw heads within months. The stud finder does not need to be expensive, but it should detect both wood and metal, since panel flats have concrete and metal fixings behind the plaster where old wooden houses have joists.

• Stud finder (wood and metal detection)
• Screwdriver set with interchangeable bits, magnetic tip
• Spirit level, at least 40 cm
• Tape measure, 5 m
• Claw hammer
• A box of assorted screws, wall plugs and picture hooks

Why a stud finder is not a wasted purchase

People who have never owned one assume a stud finder is a gadget for enthusiasts. In practice it saves you from drilling into a heating pipe, an electrical cable, or thin plasterboard that will not hold a shelf bracket. In a Soviet-era panel flat the walls are often concrete, which is a different drilling job entirely from the timber-framed partitions common in newer developments.

The tool pays for itself the first time it stops you drilling where a cable runs, which in an older building is not always where you would guess. It also tells you quickly whether a wall is solid enough to hang a heavy mirror or a wall-mounted television without extra bracing.

What can comfortably wait

A power drill, a full socket set, a jigsaw, a stepladder taller than a kitchen chair, sealant guns, and anything described as a "multi-tool" can all wait until a specific job puts them in front of you. Buying them in week one is buying storage for equipment that may sit untouched for a year.

The exception is if you already know a bigger job is coming, such as flat-pack furniture assembly or shelving throughout a room. Even then, it is worth pricing a cordless drill against the hours it would take to do the same work by hand with a screwdriver, since for a one-off job the arithmetic often favours borrowing or booking help rather than buying.

When booking a job costs less than buying the tools

Some jobs look simple until you price the tools they need. Hanging a heavy curtain rail into concrete calls for a hammer drill with the right masonry bit, which is not a tool worth owning for one rail. Levelling and fixing a run of shelves along a whole wall takes a laser level and a confident hand with a drill, both of which cost more to buy well than to pay someone for an hour or two.

Odd jobs around a new home, from mounting a television bracket to fixing a wobbly door, are billed from 39 € an hour with a minimum of one hour, and the call-out fee of 25 € within Tallinn is deducted from the bill if the work goes ahead. For a single job that needs a tool you would only use once, that is usually the cheaper route.

Flat-pack furniture is the clearest case. A wardrobe or a bed frame needs an Allen key set, a rubber mallet, and patience, and doing it wrong the first time can strip the cam locks that hold the panels together. Furniture assembly is also billed from 39 € an hour, and it is often quicker to have it assembled correctly than to buy tools for a job you will not repeat for years.

A small toolbox versus a large investment

A sensible starting toolbox for a new home costs roughly the price of a mid-range kitchen appliance, and it covers picture hanging, minor repairs, and checking a wall before you drill. That is money well spent because you will use every item repeatedly for as long as you live there.

A full workshop of power tools, by contrast, is a large investment that only makes sense if you genuinely plan to do frequent DIY, since Tallinn flats rarely have anywhere to store a table saw or a large compressor. For most new residents, the more practical plan is the small toolbox now and specific tools bought only when a specific job demands them, with the rest booked as and when needed.