Store More, Search Less

For many families, the garage is not only the place where the car occasionally gets parked. It's the place where everything from tools to toys gets thrown, often just to get them out of the house. And then there's the workshop, which was supposed to be your husband's "fix-it" shop but eventually became buried in masses of piled castaways from every other room in your home.

Alas, both the garage and the workshop in many homes have become completely and utterly disorganized. Here are some ideas for solving the problem:

Use baby food jars.
No, you don't have to have babies in your house. You can actually purchase empty jars at almost any home center. These compact containers are ideal for storing nails, screws, hooks, nuts, bolts and other small fasteners.

Store paperwork in binders.
In the workshop, instruction manuals for power tools can be 3-hole punched and put into ring binders for referencing whenever needed. Or, use sheet protectors...just put the instructions into the sheet protectors (which are pre-punched for use with 3-ring binders) and place into binders. Here's another suggestion you probably never considered: store sandpaper in binders! Simply punch holes in the sandpaper and insert into a ring binder. 

Put up pegboards.
They've been around forever and that's because they work! You can purchase a pegboard (which has holes already in it and allows for hanging various items on hooks placed into the holes) at any hardware store. Hammers, pliers and wrenches can be hung for easy finding of these handy tools whenever you need them. In addition to pegboards for handtools, use the walls in your garage to hang up shovels, garden implements and other larger tools as well as bicycles keeping them off the floor where they can be tripped upon. 

Identify cans of paint.
Did you just finish a painting project but didn't use all the paint? Keep it for another project. Before storing, put some paint from the inside of the can on the top lid. Youll always know what color the paint is without having to remove the lid. 

Utilize old cabinetry.
Have you recently replaced those old cabinets in your kitchen, or are you putting a new medicine cabinet in your bathroom? Don't throw away the old cabinets, instead, put them on the wall in your garage or workshop. They'll provide a perfect, quick-find place for storing cans of automotive fluid, repair manuals, garden nozzles, hoses, work gloves, and many other things.