Remember McGiver?
He’s that sleuth with the TV series who take a pile of useless stuff and make something cool out of it . . . something that would ultimately save him from certain death.
We REALTORS often run into “fix-it” issues that are FAR from life or death, but rank fairly high in importance ESPECIALLY when a closing hinges on the fix happening NOW.
I’m a retired US Army Combat Engineer which doesn’t really qualify me to do ANYTHING, but it does explain my propensity to tinker with things in a McGiverish way.
With that in mind, I keep certain things in my car and thought I would share. Thus far, these few items have successfully “fixed” an amazing array of problems.
- Speaker wire – Came from a LONG run from the stereo to the speakers in a former home – We moved and I didn’t need the wire for the speakers, so I coiled it up and stuck it in the trunk of the car. the cable has 2 plastic coated wires which can be pulled apart and used to tie things up with zero risk of damaging them . . . Everything from tree limbs to air conditioning ducts.
- Duct tape . . . Do I REALLY need to go into detail?
- Rubber Mallet – For those jobs where a steel hammer might do damage
- Hammer . . . HEAVY hammer – Pounds signs into hard dirt – Remove nails in walls
- 25′ metal tape measure – for interior house measurements
- 100′ Tape measure for exterior measurement
- Multi-head screw driver – Cool device with 5 blades – Flat, Phillips, and hex
- Pliers – One sturdy pair with the wire cutter
- Vice Grip Pliers – to hold things while I bend them pliers or pound them with hammer
- Rope – You never know when you might need to hang something BIG
- Flashlight + Extra Batteries
- Small box of screws, nuts, bolts, nails
- Sharp Knife – for cutting stuff 🙂
- 1 Roll of Paper Towels + 1 roll of Toilet Paper
- Bottle of Windex
- “T Bar” – To turn Water Supply on or off at the street meter
- A voltage meter to test electrical outlets
- 3 Plastic Milk Crates to hold all the stuff and keep it from rolling around in the trunk
- Jumper Cables (LONG ones)
- A partridge in a pear tree
That may seem like a lot of stuff, but I promise it all fits in the milk crates and has been just the right mix of tools to solve most “REALTOR emergencies” I’ve encountered.
Come to think of it . . . from the perspective of a Boy Scout – “Be Prepared” . . . Might make sense for EVERYONE to carry stock their trunks 🙂
Perhaps Lowes could bundle this stuff together and sell it as a package “survival kit”
Just sayin’
Best,
b
OBTW – there really ARE 1000 uses for Speaker Wire