TikTok handywoman empowers others to learn DIY

When it comes to hanging shelves or resealing the bath, it has never been easier to click a button and employ someone to do it for you.

Hectic lives and a lack of confidence are often to blame for avoiding DIY, but a handywoman from Harrogate wants to empower people to give it a go.

Formerly a bomb disposal expert in the Army, Sarah Leslie made the decision to start her own handywoman business in lockdown.

But as business boomed, she realised she could save her customers a lot money and help them be more self-sufficient by sharing her DIY tips online.

"My mum and my gran are the reason I'm like I am," Sarah said.

"There was never a tradesman in the house. If something needed fixing they would do it themselves."

Sarah said if they had not known how to fix something, they would ask somebody to show them so they could learn.

"It would not always be perfect but the satisfaction that I saw my mum and gran get from taking care of themselves is what inspired me to do the same," she added.

While on furlough from driving a bin lorry, Sarah spent 2020 renovating her new house.

"I was stripping the paint off one of the radiators and I thought 'why don't I get people to pay me to do stuff like this because it's really what I enjoy'," she said.

"My husband put a post up on Facebook, someone he knew wanted some decorating doing and it has spread by word of mouth ever since."

Sarah's typical jobs include helping with furniture assembly, fixing leaky taps, installing electrical fittings and putting up blinds.

"Whenever I go to a job, if there's four things they ask me for, they'll show me three more, then I'll be back to do 10," she said.

But even though this is how she makes her living, Sarah believes people would lead less stressful lives if they had the skills to do odd jobs themselves.

"People have got enough going on with things they can't control and little things like the cupboard door sticking shouldn't be something that piles on top of the other things," Sarah said.

"If people knew where to come for the answers, they can tick them off and get on with the rest of their lives."

This inspired her to make a TikTok account, where she gives viewers free tips on how to fix a seized valve, silence a squeaky door and hang a picture.

Being a mum to young twin boys, Sarah said most of her customers were in the same position as her of being a really busy parent.

"I don't need any more work," she laughed.

"There's a cost of living crisis and if I can save people money on things they don't have to spend money on, then winner winner."

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