5 Tips for Choosing the Right Work Gloves for the Job at Hand

Whether you work on a farm or just in the garage of your home, work gloves are an important safety accessory to keep your hands from damage. However, just as there is a wide variety of tasks wherein a pair of gloves come in handy to use, so there is a variety of work gloves. Here are some tips to help you select the right kind of work gloves so they’re the best for the job at hand.

1. Assess what you’ll be doing. Are you going to be hauling buckets of water, digging in the dirt, stacking firewood into a pile, handling broken glass, painting something, tweaking an engine, working with chemicals, repairing fences…the list goes on.
2. Decide which materials would match the task. Once you know what you’ll be doing during your task, it’s time to determine what material (or materials) the work gloves should be made of. Some features to contemplate when deciding a material include durability, waterproofness (yes, that’s a word, I googled it), and comfort.
3. Consider the season. Will you be working in the brutal heat of the summer, the bitter cold of the winter, or somewhere in between? This will help you determine the weight of the work gloves. Obviously, in the winter, you’ll need heavier-duty gloves than you would in the summer.
4. Choose the right size. A glove should neither be too tight nor too loose. Too tight and you risk losing circulation to your hands, making them incredibly uncomfortable and possibly causing damage. Too loose and you won’t be able to work as efficiently because some effort is going into keeping the gloves on.
5. Inspect for quality. Be sure the work gloves you select are high-quality so they’ll last beyond just one instance of the job. Make sure the seems are securely sewn and the material is durable and well-made.

Here’s how the Mister and I put these tips to action. We live in the country on our own decent-sized chunk of land. We have fencing (including barbed wire) to upkeep, animals (including hauling water) to care for, and firewood to stack. These tasks require durable, waterproof gloves. The time of year is winter, so we also need heavy-duty material. Thus, the work gloves we determined to be the best are the Waterproof Winter Lined with Kevlar gloves made by Youngstown. These are the perfect wintertime match for our small farming needs. They’re insulated, so they keep our hands warm. They’re waterproof (not perfectly, mind you–I wouldn’t recommend taking a swim while wearing them, but for hauling water, they’re perfect) which makes them handy when we accidentally splash ourselves with water. And they’re durable, making fence repairs and stacking firewood very safe activities. Other gloves that we need for our tasks include similar gloves to these Youngstown ones only lighter weight for summer and soft cotton gloves for gardening.

Thank you to Youngstown Gloves for sponsoring this post! Be sure to visit their website and assess their high-quality work gloves for the tasks you have at hand.

Website: YTGloves.com
Facebook: Youngstown Gloves