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Growing up as a young boy, I watched my Dad put up new shelves in our home, pave the patio in the garden and maintain of a massive range of tools in his shed. I looked up to him, and assumed (of course!) that one day, I'd magically aquire his DIY skills. Just because I was male too. Big mistake. Luckily, the internet has a range of resources I've been able to call on to help me put up some shelves of my own.

Now, the first and most important thing you need to think about when starting out in DIY is safety. has a great safety section with subsections dealing with areas like electrical safety, safety while using a ladder, and some more general tips for any situation. There's also this useful page from .

Getting started on the nitty gritty of DIY, the website has some really useful tips which focus on home repairs, including a list of the which even rates certain repairs by how easy they are. Bleeding a radiator rates 1 on the Easy DIY scale, while repointing a patio is a 3, much harder!

is a really comprehensive site site which features a blog, a forum, tutorials, a DIY Dictionary, and best of all, , broken up by subject area. I went into the Gardening section and watched a video about how to put up a shed. I'm now dreaming of constructing the writer's den I've always dreamed of!

A carpenter using an electric screwdriver - one day this could be you!

A site with a personal touch is . The site is designed in a clear, attractive way and each section has diagrams showing how to get those vital jobs done. is broken down into six sections - but if that seems ambitious, you might want to focus on simpler tasks first, like .

The most attractively designed DIY site I found belongs to . Their page on is easy to follow with plenty of photographs that help it all make sense.

is firmly pitched at DIY beginners and is run by Steve Venus, who's been a handyman for years. His site had the clearest explanation of I found, and is even broken up by type of shelving. If you also look at the you'll be able to put the two together, and get those bookshelves put up once and for all!

If none of those sites throw up the DIY advice you're looking for, you could always try searching for the DIY activity you want to do through search engines or on video sharing websites. Try searching for 'putting up shelves' in or in , and you'll soon see a range of useful pages or videos, depending on what you'd prefer.

Hopefully these links will help you create the DIY projects of your dreams. Remember to keep safe, and if you're finding a task tricky, or if there's any risk or danger at all, contact a professional for their experienced advice, but if you can, have a go and see how you get on.

Good luck!

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Charlie is a journalist and scriptwriter specialising in articles and films featuring deaf culture and sign language. He has written for The Guardian online and has contributed to programmes for Radio 4, while his films have won international awards. He also works in the arts, helping to make theatre accessible for deaf people.