If you are planning to do some DIY work like renting an excavator (from a company such as Independent Lift Truck Of Alaska) to tear up part of your yard, you need to get safety supplies. However, don't limit yourself to garden gloves and other basic apparel. If you're doing work that would be considered industrial, you will benefit from having the same safety gear as those doing the same type of work on a professional basis. Gloves, for example, are available with several features that make them a lot safer to use and that help prevent injury to you and damage to the objects you're working with.
Palm Dots
At the very least, you need to find gloves that have a rough palm surface. Canvas garden gloves are not enough; the material can become very slippery when you handle heavy cardboard boxes, for example. A better surface is one covered with palm dots, rows of plastic dots that provide a lot of friction, allowing you to get a better grip on whatever you're holding.
Thicker Palms and Fingertips
You also need to ensure the gloves have a thicker palm area, if not a hardened palm area. Despite what that sounds like, those gloves are not rock hard and inflexible; you can bend them, but the palm and finger surfaces are much more resistant to objects tearing and puncturing them. Note that these are not the same as cut-resistant gloves, which you should have anyway if you're using sharp objects.
Longer Wrist Coverage
Many gloves cover to just the start of your wrist or maybe a little bit below that. That leaves your forearms and shirt sleeves unprotected against dust and scratches. Try to find gloves that have longer wrists so that you can tuck your shirt sleeves in under the gloves if needed, and so that you can protect your forearms against scrapes, scratches, dirt, and more. The longer wrists also keep the edges of the gloves out of the way of tools and machinery that are in or near your hands.
Adjustable Wrists
You may also want to look for gloves that have a way to adjust the wrists. Many gloves don't have any closures on the wrists; you pull the gloves on and that's it. Some, however, have hook-and-loop straps or buckles to help keep the gloves on and prevent excess wrist material from flapping around and slouching down toward the base of the hand.
Hardware stores sometimes have these. However, a warehouse supply dealer may have a wider selection that gives you a better chance of finding the exact style that suits you best.
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