We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Every time you head to the hardware store, it seems like there’s a new cordless version of a tool you already own or a big company launching a tool to solve a problem you didn’t even know you had. It can be tough to navigate the constantly rotating inventory of hardware stores, whether you’re shopping in stores or online. Deciding what’s actually worth your hard-earned money is a hassle for both new homeowners building a tool collection from scratch and seasoned veterans simply looking to spend some extra cash on a new useful tool.

Of course, different renovation projects require different tools. Giving your bathroom a modern makeover is a much more involved project than organizing and hanging a photo wall. While each project might require a few specialized tools, there’s still a wealth of tools most homeowners would consider essential to have on deck at all times. We’ve rounded up 12 of these go-to tools, all of which are affordably priced under $75, well-reviewed, and can easily prove their worth after just a few uses.

If you have a ton of painting planned for future renovations, a paint sprayer will make the process much faster and easier. The Vonforn Paint Sprayer is equipped with a 700-watt motor, an attached container that can hold up to 1200 milliliters of paint, and adjustable flow control with four different nozzle sizes, including 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, and 3mm.

There are also three spraying patterns you can swap between — horizontal, vertical, and circular — to suit the needs of different projects. You can use this sprayer to put a fresh color on iron patio furniture or your kitchen chairs, to liven up an entire room in your home, or to paint pretty much anything else you can think of, including fences, doors, and cabinets.

Vonforn’s sprayer tool comes with a dust blowing joint that makes it easy to clear away dust and debris from the surface you’re about to paint. Then, cleaning up after you’re done painting is just as simple. The sprayer comes with a nozzle cleaning needle and a cleaning brush for the parts you’ll need to manually clean, and you can hook up the cleaning connector to your faucet to wash out any paint coating the pipe inside.

One of the best home improvement tools you can invest your money in is a good drill. The Ryobi One+ 18V Cordless Drill/Driver slides in at just under $75 and comes with a battery, a charger, and a 40-Piece Impact Drive Kit. Among the kit’s 40 total pieces, there are 14 one-inch impact drive bits, 12 black oxide drill bits, four bradpoint drill bits, four two-inch impact drive bits, three impact nut drivers, two woodboring spade bits, one impact magnetic bit holder, and a clear case to neatly hold everything.

As for the drill itself, it features a 3/8-inch keyless chuck, a variable speed trigger with possible speeds up to 600 RPM, and a built-in LED light to help you work in dark spots. Thanks to its lightweight of 2.8 pounds (without the battery), it’s comfortable to hold for long projects, and there’s an easy button to switch it between forward and reverse modes. And like many of Ryobi’s power tools, this 18V Cordless Drill is backed by a 3-year manufacturer’s warranty.

The laser level is easily one of the most underrated home improvement tools. You might not need it often, but when you need to hang some pictures, curtains, or any other decor piece in your home, you’ll be grateful for your laser level. The Motovera Self-Leveling Laser Level is quite an affordable option, and it comes with an aluminum tripod to make the process of hanging anything even easier. The tripod can extend from 15 to 46 inches in height, swivel a complete 360 degrees, and tilt 90 degrees.

The level is equipped with a green light that Motovera says is about four times the brightness of standard red lasers and stays visible on walls up to 100 feet away from the level. If you don’t need 100% brightness, you can adjust it down in 25% increments. You can manually set the laser’s trajectory or use the built-in self-leveling mode, which can level within about four degrees of accuracy. If you need to hang something outside in drizzly or dusty conditions, no worries. The level has IP54 dust and water resistance, and it’s able to survive accidental drops from up to 30 inches.

If you take on lofty home improvement projects, you might benefit from adding a circular saw to your collection. For quickly making precise, straight cuts in wood, metal, plastic, and other materials, there’s no better tool than a circular saw. The Skil 15-Amp, 7.25-Inch Circular Saw, in particular, is one home improvement tool designed to last a long time and carry you through hundreds of renovation projects.

This circular saw by Skil features a 24-tooth, 7.25-inch carbide blade, a 15-amp motor capable of working up to 5,300 RPM, a 51-degree bevel capacity with a positive stop at 45 degrees, and a durable bag to neatly pack it away when you’re not using it. There are also quite a few built-in safety features, like a laser to guide you while making cuts, a spindle lock to make it easier to swap out the blade, and a guarded trigger paired with a power-on indicator to prevent accidental starts. Then, a built-in dust blower helps keep the area and your line of sight free of sawdust while working.

A must-have home improvement tool for renters and homeowners is a solid set of basic tools. It doesn’t necessarily need to be super fancy or high-quality, but it should ideally have a good mix of screwdrivers and other tools needed to hang pictures, put furniture together, and carry out simple repairs around your home. For a budget of $75 or less, we’re fans of the Kobalt 158-Piece Household Tool Set from Lowe’s.

Inside, there’s a 12-foot tape measure, a fiberglass hammer, some scissors, a nine-inch liquid level, a set of eight Metric and eight SAE hex keys, some pliers, an adjustable wrench, multiple precision screwdrivers, and a screwdriver handle with 20 essential bits — and that’s not even naming everything included among this kit’s 158 pieces, many of which are made with Chrome Vanadium steel. To keep everything organized well, this Kobalt kit comes with a hard storage case and molded spots for each included tool.

If this $60 household tool set is out of your price range, no problem. Instead, take a look at the best home improvement tools under $10 we rounded up to start your collection.

If you love putting finishing touches on each renovation project, a rotary tool kit is a must. You can use a good rotary tool to make small, precise cuts, sand surfaces, drill, engrave, carve, sharpen, grind, clean, and polish all kinds of materials, including wood, brass, metal, seashells, terracotta, and more. For less than $75, this Dremel 3100 Rotary Tool Kit comes with the rotary tool itself, an extra attachment, and 15 accessories. If you opt for only the rotary tool and a few accessories, you can often find this home improvement tool for under $50.

Dremel’s 3100 Rotary Tool features a 1.2-amp, variable speed motor with five total speeds between 5,000 and 35,000 RPM to experiment with. It has an EZ twist nose cap that makes swapping out accessories a breeze, a lightweight main body that’s easy to grip and made with 65% recycled plastic, and a 6-foot power cord that allows you plenty of room to work without needing to worry about the battery dying mid-project.

This Workpro 8-Piece Ratcheting Wrench Set may be more expensive than a basic wrench set, but if you’ve ever worked on a project that involves using wrenches a lot, you know how invaluable the ‘ratcheting’ feature can be in a tool set. Here are all the sizes included in this particular set: 5/16, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, 5/8, 11/16, and 3/4 inches. It’s easy to use any of these wrenches in tight spaces, thanks to each wrench being equipped with a 180-degree pivoting head and a 72-tooth ratchet gear that needs only a five-degree swing arc.

Plus, the quality you get from Workpro’s wrenches is pretty great. Each of the wrenches in this set is constructed with heat-treated Chrome Vanadium steel and nickel-plated to prevent rust and corrosion. To further protect the tools, the set comes with a rolling pouch that’s made with durable, tear-resistant 1680D polyester material, has pockets with size markings for each wrench, and has four total fasteners to ensure the wrenches stay put while traveling.

If the only byproduct your renovation project has stirred up is a little dust and other small debris, you can probably use your home vacuum to clean up. But for many home improvement projects, there are nails, staples, big chunks of wood or sheetrock, other large materials, and occasionally liquids — all of which shouldn’t be sucked up by your everyday vacuum. Instead, you need a shop vac.

A good choice under $75 is Stanley’s 6-Gallon Shop Vacuum, equipped with a four peak-horsepower motor that promises powerful suction for dry debris and wet spills. In addition to seamlessly cleaning up these messes, it’s also capable of blowing air, great for clearing away leaves in your yard, quickly drying swimsuits, or airing up some inflatables.

With its 10-foot power cord, 6-foot hose, and two extension wands, you can clean over 16 feet away from an outlet. It also comes with a ton of accessories, including a crevice nozzle that’s great for cleaning vehicle seats, a floor nozzle, a gulper nozzle, a foam filter for wet debris, a reusable filter for dry debris, and a disposable filter bag. There are four spots above each wheel where you can store up to four nozzles or wand accessories.

Sometimes, multi-tools can be seen as a tool that’s only useful for outdoor enthusiasts or trades professionals, but they’re also insanely practical for DIYers taking on multiple home improvement tasks. By definition, they’re packed with multiple tools in a compact, pocket-sized footprint, and many of the tools they include are ones used frequently in renovation projects. For its value, we love the Wetols 27-in-1 Multi-Tool. It’s well under $75 (and often goes on sale for much less), made with hardened stainless steel that’s resistant to rust and corrosion, and comes with so many tiny yet quality tools.

Just to name a few of its most helpful tools for tackling home projects, it’s equipped with a small hammer, needle nose pliers, soft and hard wire cutters, a double tooth saw, a serrated blade, a knife, and multiple different screwdriver bits. Less practical tools that are still neat include a fire starter, a window breaker, a whistle, a wood and metal file, and an opener for bottles and cans. If you wanted a cheaper multi-tool with less tools, check out Wetols’ 21-in-1 Multi-Tool, a stellar option that’s surprised many Amazon users with impressive quality for its price.

Sometimes, the best tool for the job isn’t the smartest or the most powerful; it’s the simplest. This 15-Inch Carbon Steel Pry Bar by Kobalt isn’t much to look at, but it’s capable of quite a lot. It’s essentially a long, thin bar of forged and heat-treated carbon steel with a matte finish, all coming together to increase its strength, durability, and wear resistance.

This unassuming pry bar will keep your home repairs simple, especially when it comes to the demolition portion of a project. On one end of the bar, there are two different slots to help you safely pull nails out of wood, metal, flooring, and other materials. Then, if you need to lift or separate wooden boards, baseboard trim, clapboard siding, or pretty much any other material, you can use the pry bar’s other end to get great leverage. Plus, if you need to remove a small amount of drywall, you can simply use the pry bar instead of opting for a dedicated mallet or hammer.

Countless home improvement projects involve sanding. While you can certainly take on the process manually with individual sandpaper sheets or tackle small areas with a rotary tool, nothing can really compare with a power random orbit palm sander for big projects. A simple power sander is one home improvement tool some people don’t realize exists, but once you use one, you’ll wonder why you didn’t grab one sooner.

To save quite a bit of money on this helpful power tool, we’d recommend looking for the Bauer 5-Inch Random Orbit Palm Sander at affordable retailer Harbor Freight. This sander features a grippy rubber handle, variable six-speed control, a dust collection chamber, and a 2.8-amp, fan-cooled motor with sealed bearings that’s capable of producing up to 13,000 OPM (orbits per minute). Its random orbital action moves only 3/32 of an inch to give your surface a swirl-free finish, and the six-foot power cord gives you adequate leeway to move around.

Owning a socket set allows you to work on your vehicles as well as bicycles, some furniture, and various home improvement tasks. That said, for most homeowners or renters who rely on a mechanic for vehicle-related work, there’s no need to spend an arm and a leg on a super high-quality socket set. Instead, opt for an affordable yet reliable option through Harbor Freight, like this Quinn 66-Piece SAE and Metric Socket Set.

Quinn’s Socket Set comes with three 72-tooth, quick-release ratchets, three extension bars of various sizes, 26 1/4-inch sockets, 28 3/8-inch sockets, and six 1/2-inch sockets. All the sockets and ratchets are crafted with Chrome Vanadium steel to boost durability and resistance to rust, scratches, and corrosion. Then, every socket features a high-visibility marking and the SAE and Metric sockets are color-coded to make it easier to grab exactly what you’re looking for. To keep the whole set organized, each piece has its own dedicated spot in the included blow-molded storage case.

To create this list of home improvement tools that are actually worth your money, we used specific criteria to guide us while searching online stores. Each tool we selected needed to have at least 100 reviews, an average rating of at least 4 stars, and a price below $75. That said, except for a few items on this list, most items have well over 1,000 reviews and an average rating of at least 4.6 stars.

We scoured hundreds of possible tools online at these popular hardware retailers: Amazon, Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Harbor Freight. We tried to choose a good mix of tools that are essential for new homeowners to start their collection with, as well as tools that established homeowners might not have yet, but are incredibly useful.