How to Organize Small Tools and Hardware

Do you ever have one of those weeks that are so busy and exhausting, and you’ve done so much but feel like you have NOTHING to show for it?! That was me last week! I feel like all I did was cook, clean, start a million different little things but not finish one and I just needed to unplug from the world for a bit to get my bearings. It’s good to do that every now and then, don’t you think? 🙂 But I’m back now, and while I won’t bore you with those million unfinished projects that I’m drowning in, I can show you a little something, something that I just HAD to do, and that was to organize our small tools and hardware…

Along, with getting my home office organized and decorated, one of my goals for 2014 was to work on our garage. In all honesty our garage is not terribly cluttered, but it definitely has some pockets of chaos that if left alone will definitely get worse and out of control! Since the garage is such a hod-podge of random items and mostly storage for stuff you don’t want to keep in the house, I’ve decided to break it up into a 10 week series 🙂 One day every week, I’ll be tackling a section…Here’s what you can expect…

1. Small tools/hardware

2. Larger tools

3. Yard tools

4. Car washing station

5. Outdoor toys

6. Beach/Pool Gear/Camping

7.  Sports Equipment/ Gym Items

8. Bulk Item Storage

9. Hurricane/ Natural Disaster Emergency Prep

10. Misc. Storage (Holiday decorations)

Not necessarily in that order, but at least we have a plan 🙂 Is there anything you’d add to the list?

But for now, back to the job at hand…

My husband is one of those types that just throws things into an area and “knows” where he put it. That’s probably why this tool bag didn’t seem like a big issue to him, because he could find what he needed after 20 minutes of digging around.

Problem? I use the tools too, and when I’m afraid to stick my hand into something for fear of being stabbed and needing a tetanus shot after…It’s time for an overhaul 😉

My new favorite store to find organizational items is a place called Garden Ridge! The place can be a bit overwhelming with aisles and aisles of home decor items, but if you go in there looking for a specific thing you’re less likely to get sucked into the black hole 🙂 I’ve had great luck finding the exact same items that The Container Store carries so now I go to Garden Ridge first before anywhere else, and that’s where I found this large, mini drawer compartment organizer!

 

I literally dumped the entire bag of tools, nails, screws, etc…onto the garage floor and began to make piles of like items. There was tons of little things in there so the process took me a good 4-5 hours spaced out. I know it may seem tedious to think about doing it, but just think…ONCE IT’S DONE, IT’S DONE!

And once I had everything separated, I used my label maker to name the drawers so everything would be easy to locate. No more digging in the toolbag of doom for me! The drawer organizer has 24 drawers and I have about 9 leftover! Not bad if you ask me, and whether hubs wants to admit or not I was right about needing to organizing this. 🙂

 

So…Are you in with me?! One day a week, for 10 weeks to have an organized garage/carport/shed! I think we can do it, don’t you? 🙂

Talk to you soon friends, take care!

XO

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