You don’t need to be a contractor. You don’t need a garage full of specialty tools or a YouTube channel about home improvement.

You just need to know how to handle the stuff that breaks. Because it will break. The toilet, the bike, the doorknob, the relationship with your kid when you blow it. All of it.

Here are 15 things every dad should know how to fix. Some of these are literal. Some aren’t. All of them matter.

1. A Running Toilet

The most common household repair there is, and the one most dads still call a plumber for.

Nine times out of ten it’s the flapper. The rubber piece at the bottom of the tank that seals the water in. It degrades over time, stops sealing properly, and water keeps trickling through. A replacement flapper costs about $8 at any hardware store and takes ten minutes to swap. Turn off the water supply, drain the tank, unhook the old flapper, hook in the new one. Done.

If it’s not the flapper, check the fill valve next. Either way, this is a $10 fix that plumbers charge $150 for.

2. A Flat Bike Tire

Your kid’s bike will get a flat. Probably on a Saturday. Probably right when you were about to head out.

Pop the wheel off, use tire levers to get the tire bead off the rim, pull out the tube, find the puncture (a bucket of water helps, look for bubbles), patch it or swap in a new tube, reseat the tire, pump it up. Twenty minutes once you’ve done it a couple times.

Keep a basic bike repair kit and a pump in the garage. It will get used more than you think.

3. A Clogged Drain

Before you reach for the chemical drain cleaner, which is bad for your pipes and honestly doesn’t work that well, try a drain snake. Cheap, reusable, and gets through 90% of clogs in a few minutes.

For sink clogs specifically, the P-trap under the sink can be unscrewed by hand or with pliers. Most clogs are sitting right there. A bucket underneath, unscrew the trap, clear it out, screw it back on. Five minutes, no chemicals.

4. A Wobbly Chair or Table

Almost always one of two problems. A loose joint where two pieces of wood meet, or legs that are uneven.

For the loose joint: take it apart if you can, add wood glue, clamp it, let it dry overnight. For uneven legs on a hard floor: a set of adjustable felt pads or a small wood shim under the short leg solves it in two minutes.

This is the kind of fix that makes you look like a genius to your kids for basically no effort.

5. A Door That Won’t Stop Squeaking

WD-40 on the hinges. That’s it. That’s the whole fix. Takes 30 seconds, lasts for months.

If the squeak comes back fast, the hinge pin might need to come out entirely, get a thin coat of grease, and go back in. Still a five-minute job.

6. A Punctured Pool Float or Inflatable

Every summer, every family. A patch kit costs about $5 and works on pool floats, inflatable mattresses, kiddie pools, and most rafts. Find the hole (soapy water and look for bubbles, same trick as the bike tube), clean the area, apply the patch, let it cure per the instructions.

Buy the kit before you need it. You will need it.

7. A Loose Doorknob or Handle

Nearly always a screw that’s backed out over time from people gripping and turning it thousands of times. Most doorknobs have a small set screw on the side or underneath that you tighten with an Allen wrench or screwdriver. Two minutes, problem solved.

8. A Computer or Phone That’s Running Slow

You don’t need to be tech support for your whole extended family, but the basics matter. Restart it. Clear out apps and programs you don’t use. Check how much storage is full, anything above 90% will slow a device down significantly. Clear the browser cache. Update the operating system.

These four things solve the majority of “my computer is so slow” complaints, and now you’re the guy who knows how to fix it instead of the guy who has to pay someone $80 to do the same four things.

9. A Bike Chain That’s Fallen Off

This one terrifies new parents and takes 90 seconds once you know how. Shift to the smallest gear if you can. Pull the chain back onto the smallest chainring at the front, rotate the pedal backward slowly while guiding the chain on with your other hand. Keep a rag in your bag for this one. It’s always greasy.

10. A Hole in Drywall

Small hole from a doorknob or a kid’s toy? Spackle, let dry, sand smooth, paint over. Total cost under $10, total time about 20 minutes plus drying.

Bigger hole? A drywall patch kit with a self-adhesive mesh patch handles most household-sized holes without needing to cut and replace a whole section. Worth having one in the garage. You’ll use it.

11. A Sticky Zipper

WD-40 or a graphite pencil rubbed along the zipper teeth, then work it back and forth a few times. Works on jackets, backpacks, tents, anything. Most people throw away perfectly good gear over a sticky zipper that takes 60 seconds to fix.

12. A Wifi Router That’s Acting Up

Unplug it. Wait 30 seconds. Plug it back in. This solves the overwhelming majority of household wifi problems and yet most people call their internet provider before trying it.

If that doesn’t work, check for a firmware update in the router’s app or admin panel. If you’re still struggling, the router placement matters more than people think, central and elevated beats stuck in a closet behind the TV.

13. A Broken Promise to Your Kid

This one isn’t a tool fix. It’s a relationship fix, and it matters more than any of the items above.

You will break a promise at some point. You’ll forget the thing you said you’d do, or something will come up and you’ll have to cancel. The fix isn’t pretending it didn’t happen. The fix is naming it directly: “I told you I’d be there and I wasn’t. That wasn’t right. I’m sorry.”

No excuses tacked on the end. No justification. Just the acknowledgment and the apology. Kids don’t need perfect dads. They need dads who own it when they get it wrong. That repair is one of the most important things you’ll ever fix.

14. A Tense Moment With Your Partner

The instinct is to let it sit, to wait for it to blow over, to avoid the conversation because it’s uncomfortable. That’s how small tension turns into real distance.

The fix is almost always simpler than it feels in the moment. A direct conversation. An honest “I think we need to talk about this” instead of letting it fester. A genuine apology when you’re wrong, without immediately defending yourself.

Your kids are watching how you handle this one closely, even when they don’t say anything about it.

15. A Kid Who’s Having a Hard Day

You can’t fix every bad day. You’re not supposed to. But you can fix the part where they feel alone in it.

Sit down. Get on their level. Ask what happened. Actually listen instead of jumping straight to solving it. Sometimes the fix isn’t solving the problem at all, it’s just making sure they know you’re in their corner while they work through it themselves.

That’s a fix too. Maybe the most important one on this list.

The Common Thread

Most of these take less than 20 minutes. Most of them cost less than $20. And almost all of them are things people pay someone else to do because nobody ever showed them how.

You don’t need to master all 15 overnight. Pick one this weekend. Learn it. Do it once and you’ll never forget it.

That’s how every dad who seems like he can fix anything actually got there. One small thing at a time.