The miniature assistant people carry along on a daily basis is capable of doing an almost incomprehensible number of things. It acts as a personal banker, a secretary who sends letters and answers calls, a personal photographer, an entertainment system, a notebook, a highly detailed calendar, and can help with any number of other functional and useful tasks.
But many people don’t realize just how helpful it can be in the arena of home improvement. Even the most novice homeowner can instantly find themselves transforming into a confident handyman with the help of their smartphone.
Preparation and Protection
Before we begin exploring the ways in which your smartphone can be used to help you paint, build, repair, and create within your home, it is important to take the time to ensure your device will be fully protected. Yes, it is possible to learn to do remarkable things but even the most experienced painter and carpenter will drop things from time to time so make sure you have an iPhone 6 plus case, or something similar, to protect your phone. When choosing a protective case, it is especially important to find something that will limit the force of an impact and protect from leaks and spills. However, what you will need to most effectively protect your phone will depend greatly on what type of home improvement you will be engaging in. If you live on a houseboat for example, make sure that case is waterproof!
Another part of the preparation and protection process involves making sure you have enough memory free to install new applications and effectively use your phone. If you see you are running low on memory, take the time to free up some room or move items into cloud storage. There is nothing worse than being ready to go and receiving the insufficient memory notice.
Native Features
The are several things most smartphones can do without adding any type of application. The most important is the ability to access the internet. This is especially good for viewing step-by-step tutorials on free sites such as YouTube. Free videos give individuals access to experts in the fields of painting, plumbing, wiring, construction, and virtually every other home improvement related field. While it is important to choose the videos with care to ensure you are viewing reliable information, it is possible to find highly valuable and informative videos that are able to teach you the basics of most home improvement skills.
Another way in which you can use your smartphone throughout the duration of a home improvement project is entertainment. The sheer drudgery of many tasks associated with home improvement prevent people from even attempting them because they don’t want to be bored throughout the process. With a smartphone, it is possible to stream music or listen to a wide variety of podcasts to remain entertained and even to help further your own understanding of topics of personal interest. There are so many options, you may even find yourself looking for reasons to build and repair in order to make the time to catch up on your favorites.
Upgrading with Apps
The number of apps available for Android and Apple devices is truly remarkable. What is amazing to many people is the fact that these apps are not restricted to propelling cartoon birds through the air or listening to audio books. There are many apps out there which can help people with almost any home improvement task.
If you are trying to decide what color to paint your walls, door, house, or furniture you’re in luck because there’s an app for that. There are even hands on apps that can replace some tools such as a level for when you are trying to make sure something is plumb, calculators for complex construction calculations, apps to consolidate blueprints, and apps for vertical line measurement, and pitch gauge. There are even numerous apps dedicated to making design and landscaping more accessible to the average person.
Whether you are an experienced do-it-yourself pro or you find the whole idea of repairing and renovating on your own to be intimidating, your smartphone has the ability to make the process easier and more enjoyable.