Spent the morning cleaning out my primary pouch and found a treasure trove

I used to carry an Occidental Leather 5080 set, and by the end of a siding job, my left bag felt like it was filled with lead. I would have 7d galvies mixed in with 12-gauge staples and those little plastic spacers for windows. My hips would be bruised by Friday afternoon, and I just figured that was the cost of being in the trade for twenty years. I finally switched to using smaller, dedicated clip-on pouches for specific tasks instead of one giant catch-all. Now, if I am doing framing, I only carry the 16d sinkers. If I am doing trim, I swap it for a smaller pouch with 2-inch brads. It stops that hardware store buildup becuase there literally isn't enought room for random masonry anchors or heavy lag bolts to hide at the bottom. It is a habit that is hard to break, especially when you are in a rush to get a header up or finish a railing. But dumping the bag every Sunday night while I am loading the truck for Monday has saved my sciatica more than any fancy padded belt ever coud.

I actually went the opposite direction and gave up on the 'everything in the pouch' method entirely about five years ago. I realized that even a relatively light bag was still pulling on my lumbar becuase of how I stand when I'm reaching for joist hangers or shim packs. Now, I keep my primary belt strictly for hand tools—my Tajima tape, a Speed Square, and my favorite Japanese pull saw—and nothing else.

Instead of diferent pouches, I keep my fasteners in a 5-gallon bucket with a pocket liner that stays on the floor or the staging. If I’m working on a ladder, I just pull out a small magnetic tray or a plastic yogurt container with exactly what I need for that section. It forced me to be more intentional about my workflow, but my chiropractor is definatly seeing me less often. I’d rather take two extra trips to the truck than feel that lopsided drag on my right hip for eight hours a day.

Reminds me of the old canvas aprons the lumber yards used to hand out for free. No padding, just a thin string that'd saw you in half if you got greedy with the 16d commons. I finally started keeping a wooden tote—built it out of scrap 1x12—and left it on the staging or the ladder. I'd only keep a small handful of fasteners in the pocket at a time. If you carry the whole hardware store on your hip, you’ll be walking sideways by fifty. I still find square-cut masonry nails in the bottom of my old bags from jobs I finished back in the 90s.