DIY, do-it-yourself, hobbies are great for people who like making things and even optimizing things they already have such as their cars, exercise equipment, and even their homes.
The great thing about a DIY hobby is that it usually teaches you loads of useful skills whilst allowing you to have tons of fun at the same time. Best of all, there are tons of DIY hobbies out there to try! In this article, we’re going to look at 21 of the ones we think offer the most value in terms of longevity and overall levels of satisfaction.
As an added note, most people think DIY means big burly men throwing hammers around. In truth, it could be something as simple as knitting a functional, warm blanket for the winter or learning how to repair old electronics. DIY is perfect for basically anyone and once you know what you’re doing, you’ll be able to take on lots of big projects that give you weeks and possibly years of fun.
In fact, if possible, we recommend starting a DIY hobby with a partner or family member as you’ll both be able to share in the enjoyment whilst also using two minds to take on different challenges.
1. Woodworking
Woodworking is an excellent hobby and is one that is synonymous with DIY, whether to make stuff or optimize your home.
In fact, there are so many areas of woodworking such as wood carving, pyrography, whittling, and even more general areas of expertise such as carpentry.
We’ve talked about woodworking extensively in regards to how popular it is and how much it costs to get started depending on the area of specialization you choose; we’ve even looked at how enjoyable it is as a hobby and why you may want to choose it.
For most people, woodworking is the quintessential DIY hobby that will allow you to solve many practical tasks and can even get you to make exquisite objects that can be sold for thousands of dollars.
2. Knitting
Knitting is a fantastic hobby as it allows you to make a wide variety of functional garments that can keep you warm and can even help you look more stylish with your own personal touches.
Not only that, but you’ll also be able to make gifts for your friends, family, and even work colleagues — homemade gifts really are much more special than pre-bought ones in our opinion.
Knitting is similar to crochet, however, you’ll usually be using two needles rather than just one and thus, able to accomplish more complex projects.
There are plenty of knitting kits that can help you get started that include all the things you need to make a good go of it.
3. Meal Prep
As far as convenience goes, meal prep is an excellent DIY hobby where you’ll be cooking and packaging meals that you and your family will be eating throughout the week.
Meal prep has really taken off since the start of the 2010s and is only set to get much bigger, especially where business is concerned.
As a hobby, meal prepping can be far more efficient in terms of time spent, and can also help to reduce your energy usage at home which can save you money in the long term compared to cooking each day.
You don’t need much to get started aside from some easy recipes that you can find in this meal preppers recipe book and some storage boxes to keep your meals portioned for each day.
4. Furniture Restoration
As far as DIY is concerned, restoring furniture back to its former glory is probably one of the most valuable hobbies you can do!
Not only can you absolutely make someone’s entire year with your skill but you’ll also be able to make a pretty penny for offering those services.
It takes a real dab hand to get good at furniture restoration but once you know the tricks of the trade you’ll be able to take on harder projects.
From a personal point of view, furniture restoration can offer some therapeutic benefits and most people describe the process as being cathartic.
5. PC Building
PC building is a fantastic hobby and is something you probably won’t be doing too often due to how expensive the parts can be.
However, when given the opportunity, building PCs can be a really fun experience as it allows you to totally customize the system you’re going to be working and playing games on.
You can build a really simple PC using relatively straightforward components such as a motherboard, graphics card, processor, and fans, however, you can get far more exotic (if needs permit) by doing custom paint jobs, adding water cooling loops, and even hooking up RGB lights that sync to different activities on your PC.
As a hobby, you can start building really simple machines that can be put together in fifteen minutes, to more complex systems that take a good number of hours depending on your expertise or requirements.
If you’re not sure where to start then we recommend going to YouTube as there are plenty of instructional videos that show you what you need to do to get started.
6. Foraging
Foraging is another excellent DIY hobby that has you gathering plenty of your own food ingredients such as herbs, mushrooms, and even your own fruits depending on the climate.
As a hobby, foraging can reduce your spending and can even help reduce your climate footprint meaning you’re helping to save the planet too.
Better yet, foraging for ingredients means you’re getting your food straight from the source meaning it’s all organic food and as fresh as it can be.
Before foraging, we recommend getting a book on foraging to make sure you don’t ingest anything poisonous.
You may also want to consult a local foraging expert in your area for additional advice as they’ll be able to tailor it to your locality.
7. Survival
Could there be anything more DIY than keeping yourself alive?
Survival is an underrated skill but is actually one that could keep you living much longer than the average person if the crap hits the fan.
Most survival practitioners take up the skill under the assumption that one day, more than likely, a massive catastrophe will strike our planet, and the people who haven’t learned the basic skills of hunting for food, finding water sources, and making shelter will inevitably die off.
Some think that it’s an interesting premise to live under. However, in the last several years there have been several events where power is not available for days and people are trapped due to snowstorms. I don’t think those involved would consider this too an eccentric hobby.
To get started, we recommend doing plenty of research beforehand i.e. watching survival videos, learning to build shelter, and learning to forage for food, amongst other things such as locating water sources.
With that said, you can get lots of useful information from this survival book and if you want to give it a go then why not get a survival kit too?
8. Home Refurbishment
Redecorating or refurbishing your home is probably one of the most fun DIY projects you can involve yourself in.
Basically, you get to put your own personal touches on all the rooms in your house whilst freshening things up.
You can paint the walls, install convenient features like walk-in showers, and can even buy new furniture to blend with your new décor.
Better yet, when refurbishing your home you don’t need to rush to get things finished; simply taking your time and enjoying the process can give you weeks of fun and can really help you put the finishing touches on everything.
If you’re a dab hand with existing DIY skills then home refurbishment is an excellent project to involve yourself in.
9. Soap Making
Soap making is an interesting DIY skill and one that can help you get those creative juices flowing.
There are a few ways to make soap but most people use a chemical called lye (sodium hydroxide) which is blended with a few other ingredients including fragrance oils to make your soap smell amazing.
Not only is it fun, but soap making can also turn into a fully-fledged business whereby you’ll be selling your wares to folks on social media and even through convenient outlets like Etsy.
It can all be done from home, however, we recommend having a dedicated space as well as taking the correct safety precautions when handling certain chemicals.
If you’re not sure how to get started then we recommend grabbing a soap-making kit first to get you familiar with the process — this helps avoid over-ordering stuff that you may not need further down the line and is generally easier to follow as the measurements are already done for you.
10. Jewelry Making
Jewelry making is a fantastic hobby mainly because you can make things for yourself, can create gifts for family and friends, and can even turn it into a fully-fledged business pastime.
As a hobby, jewelry making gets you hands-on and involved in some intricate processes; there are very few limits to what you can accomplish or how you go about doing that.
You can really make some unique jewelry, it all depends on how creative you are, and even if you’re not, there’s plenty of inspiration on sites like Pinterest that show you what other people have made to get those synapses firing.
Again, similar to some of the other hobbies listed here, you can find jewelry-making kits to help you get started.
11. Painting
Painting (when done for the purposes of DIY) is a fantastic hobby and one that allows you to completely freshen up a living space or room in your house.
Most people become painters as a career path rather than choosing it as a hobby, however, if you enjoy changing things regularly then you might want to get involved.
You don’t need much to become a painter and even a simple rolling kit will include most of the things you need to get started.
12. Leatherworking
Leatherworking is an unusual hobby purely because it’s less relevant these days and is even frowned upon by animal-enthusiast groups, however, that still doesn’t stop people from trying their hand at this old-time hobby.
Some of the most common leatherworking items include belts, shoes, sheathes, and even holsters.
As a skill, leatherworking involves lots of carving, shaping, and hole-punching into your piece of material to make it functional or for decoration.
Leatherworking can be a straightforward activity, however, getting a leatherworking kit with all the basic tools will help you get started; we also recommend checking YouTube for instructional videos to make the process smoother.
13. Blacksmithing
Blacksmithing, similar to leatherworking, is an old-time hobby but one that still finds relevance even in today’s world of machine crafting.
As a caveat, we’re not saying you can’t use machines to make your blacksmithing process easier, however, most enthusiasts prefer hand-making the majority of their projects.
Most blacksmiths these days are known for making decorative weaponry such as swords, axes, and even replicas from movies.
As a skill, blacksmithing is probably one of the most nuanced activities on this list which is why we recommend doing heavy research beforehand.
You’ll also need quite a large, dedicated space to get started as you’ll need a safe area for working with extreme heat sources such as your forge.
14. Homebrewing
Homebrewing is something we’ve mentioned in a few of our other lists, however, it remains extremely popular across the board and is actually a brilliant DIY hobby that can get you hands-on with making your own beer.
In fact, it’s not just limited to beer either, there are kits that can help you make cider, wine, and a variety of other alcoholic beverages depending on your tastes.
Although the kits make it easy to get started, if you want to take this hobby to the next level then you’ll need to invest in a proper home brewing setup for greater efficiency so you can make your beverages more unique.
15. Hydroponics
Hydroponics is a brilliant DIY hobby because it allows you to grow your own plants and herbs, and produce using a water-based setup.
Because of this, it’s relatively straightforward to get started and all you’ll need is a hydroponics system. Once you have the system set up, it basically takes care of itself including watering your plants and giving them enough light with the built-in LEDs to help your plants grow.
If you’re partial to organically grown veg or growing your own herbs then hydroponics is probably one of the best ways to do this.
16. Cookery
Cooking, similar to some of the other hobbies on our list, allows you to get hands-on with the process of making meals and being responsible for the ingredients that go in them.
There are millions of recipes from around the world meaning you’ll never even scratch the surface of what can be accomplished without multiple lifetimes, however, you can focus down on the cuisine types or areas that best suit your skills to make it more enjoyable.
Some of the most popular cuisine types include Mediterranean, Asian, and even foods from the Middle East such as Lebanese food.
Alternatively, you can specialize in sweet foods such as desserts or baked products like cakes which offer a slightly different dynamic to savory meal prep.
There are tons of ways to learn cooking such as watching videos on YouTube and reading through recipes, however, the majority of your skill will be learned through getting hands-on and attempting to cook dishes for yourself.
17. Knot Tying
Tying knots might not jump out as being a very fun activity, however, it can really help you develop some practical skills that can potentially save your life or can act as a useful way to keep heavy objects harnessed.
As a hobby, tying knots is an old-time practice and is something that has been done for thousands of years.
It’s relatively common in the seafaring industry as a way to keep boats docked, but is also observed in other pastimes such as climbing.
There are absolutely hundreds of knots for you to try and they all offer their own unique benefits depending on the task you’re trying to accomplish — in fact, there are even books about different knots you can try meaning you can quickly get started.
18. Gardening
Gardening is probably one of the most popular DIY hobbies on this list and is something that is practiced by millions, if not billions of people all around the world.
Not everyone has access to a dedicated piece of land where they can garden, however, you can get creative by making indoor gardens with planters or pots that you can dot around the home.
Both indoor and outdoor gardens offer a myriad of therapeutic benefits and it can even be a great way to grow your own produce or food to add to recipes.
In fact, most people who start gardening rarely give up on it which is a testament to how enjoyable it can be to cultivate your own living, breathing garth.
19. Jam Making
Jam making is something we’ve mentioned on our ultimate list of hobbies as being a great DIY hobby, but it’s also something that can make you a significant profit if done right.
There are tons of fruits you can make jam from such as plums, strawberries, raspberries, apricots, rhubarb, and basically any other fruit you can think of.
Some people make smooth jams and others prefer chunky jams: there are plenty of ways to go about your jam-making process including the ingredients you want to add.
In case you didn’t know, most jams can easily be made with equal amounts of sugar and the fruits you want to use while slowly cooked over a preserving pan until thick enough to set.
20. Music Production
Music production is something we’ve talked about previously including why we love it so much, however, it’s also a great DIY hobby that can be used to provide music for a variety of things including your very own YouTube channel if you so wish.
Most music is copyrighted these days meaning if you can’t make music then you’ll be fresh out of luck without spending money to acquire licenses to use music on your content.
Not only that but making music is a heavily creative process meaning you can have tons of fun throughout the entire journey from concept to production.
You’ll want to invest in a DAW (digital audio workstation) that can be downloaded on your laptop or computer.
The DAW allows you to manipulate and create your piece of music whilst also including lots of handy features and plugins to make your music sound more professional.
Most people also invest in a MIDI keyboard (for easier notation input) and an external sound card to make their listening experience more accurate.
It’s worth doing some thorough research before getting started in your DAW as they can sometimes be overwhelming to look at, however, once you’re familiar it’ll be like riding a bike and should become easier the more time goes on.
21. Programming
Programming is the digital equivalent of DIY: essentially, you can program basically any piece of software to carry out tasks for you or to automate certain procedures.
As we become more reliant on machines and computers, learning to program is something that will pay dividends in the future especially since you can make serious money if you know how to do it well.
In fact, some of the highest-paying jobs are now in coding, programming, and other forms of digital development meaning you’ll be futureproofing your job prospects too.
Programming is often used for app making, game making, and even things like developing responsive websites, however, there are plenty of other nuanced things for you to try depending on how creative you are.
Conclusion
DIY hobbies offer you the ability to learn practical skills and can also be incredibly fun. They allow you to build, make, and even optimize different things in your life meaning you’ll always have something to do.
Hopefully, our article should have given you some brief tips on how to get started and what you might want to look out for in the world of DIY. As always, if you enjoyed our article then make sure to save our homepage to your favorites for more articles like this one.
