OK...I needed a small nut with a bolt that fit 'cause the self-tapping screw needed to fix the final thing on the washer stripped. Hubby is at work. I went down to the scary and mysterious place called his workshop and started looking.
Just one question .....sort of a poll.
Do you keep a coffee can of nuts (of all sizes and types), and one of bolts (same combination) ? The cans started being filled by his grandfather, and I added my Dad's collection when he passed.
or
Do you keep them all together in one huge can
or
do you SORT them and PAIR them up and store them in smaller containers by size ranges??
Please separate your votes by male and female.
I want to know if asking hubby to assign some sort of order to the lair is asking too much.
One big can and alongside it is an empty, large tin basin for dumping and sorting. Keeps me in the shop in the shade on a hot day vice in and right back out to bend over a hot engine.
You are braver than my wife. BIG coffee cans. The only time things are sorted is when there is a large quantity of one thing. Usually whats in the cans are the various odd and ends. Sometimes I find what I want, often I cant. Sometimes I go the hardware store thinking I need say a
10-24x1" machine screw. When I am there I often second guess myself. Is
1" really long enough? crap, maybe its not 10-24, better get 1/4-20 and
8-32 while I'm at it in 1", 3/4", 1-1/4" etc. Extra nut or two for each, a few washers. When I'm done I have spent $2.00 when I could have spent $.37.
I do this because I measure job complexity in number of trips to the store. I look at a job and say ah - thats a 2 trip job, or a 1 trip job or a zero trip job. I like zero trip jobs. The worst are 1 trip jobs that end up being 5 trip jobs.
I have a little bit of everything. I have new boxes of the stuff I use a lot. Sometimes when I am really bored I will dump out some of my coffee cans and sort them into labelled drawers but I also have a roto bin rack that is just roughly sorted by which pocket I am dumping and what most of the screws are in that pocket. That's the one I use most for those "I just need a couple screws" projects. I always whine that I need to do a little more sorting but I never seem to find the time.
I have several plastic (and metal) drawer bins, in these I have most of my hardware sorted. Next to them I have a large plastic pretzel container that I throw bit and pieces into, when I have no projects on hand I still have something to keep me occupied and SWMBO thinks I'm hard at work in my shop and thus stays out of my hair!
Thanks for all the interesting replies. There's a lot of diversity out there. We never throw any spare parts away - thats why we have Grandpa's and Dads nuts. Don't even go there:)
I can't stay out of "his" shop. You might have noticed that it was me putting the washer back together after removing the clutch assembly, having it rebuilt, and putting it back in.
Hubby has macular degeneration and will likely lose the rest of his sight in a couple years. He is only 55, and lost his driving priveledges this year. I'm doing work I never thought I could do, but have been learning a lot.
He can't see well enough to put a screw in the hole. Don't go there either:))
I was a chemist in industry for 26 years, and always was a bit obsessive about keeping an organized workspace. Dad taught me to clean my tools when I was done with them and put them back where I got them. I will not be using his favorite concept though, rest his soul...the pegboard with the outlines painted of what hangs there. Too much like chalk lines around a body (LOL)
I guess I will not whine about it, and work on it when I have "spare time". I like the concept of a "Hell Box". No matter how organized you get, there has to be one place to throw the things that just don't fit any category.
My "miscellaneous" stuff ends up in the bottom of a large tool tote for a few months at a time. Then, I start having nightmares about it and I sort it into one of those cabinets with little drawers. It still doesn't help - half the time I don't have exactly the hardware I need.
Debi Call you hubbys eye doc. My aunt is legally blind in one eye and they have a brand new treatment that MAY help your hubby. The perodic injection can help or may in some cases restore sight.
No, it's a basket on the shelf in the laundry room. No basement or garage. Gorgeous wicker trunk in dining room is for the really big stuff - wrenches, pry bars, etc. Front closet for the average stuff, including duplicate power tools.
Those I inherited from my mother were, of course, sorted, put in jars, and arranged according to size. Almost time to dust them :o) Women, I am convinced, find things visually or by ESP. Men have a magnet that pulls them toward the needed item, as they NEVER know where they left it or where I put it when I put it away.
About as much chance as getting his approval to clean off the top of his dresser. Just did it recently, and filled a plastic storage bin with the refuse/tools/sales slips/ rusted Leathermans, etc.
The cold solderer he accused me of losing was on the back seat of my car. It either walked out there to go for a ride with me, or HE LEFT IT THERE!
Then don't stir up old enmity :o) Only cussing is when I ask "Where did you f------ leave it!!!!?!!??? :o)
MY tools are in bins under the bed in the guest bedroom, camouflaged with a dainty dust ruffle. He wouldn't go near them :o) My mom had her own workshop, until she died at age 82. Who has time to dig through hubby's pile of stuff to find a tool?
1/2 pint and 1-pint square freezer containers. ( ten for a buck ??? )
I bought a bunch, built a wall-shelf to hold 'em. They're PERFECT !
They hold a fair amount of hardware, you can write on the front with a marker, they won't break if you drop 'em.
I've never understood why a guy'll spend hundreds of dollars for tools, but they'll dick around with jars, cans, and cardboard boxes to hold hardware.
BTW; I waited way too long, but I finally threw out all of my slotted wood screws.
The nut and bold I found sort of worked. It threaded nicely just in my hand, but when put under tension to hold the clamp tight, it didn't tighten down. One trip to home despot. I think I will try to sort them this summer when I am sitting outside on the porch...good light and a nice breeze. I have been feeding babyfood meat to the old cat (recovering from dental work) and have lots of babyfood jars.
Dad had a bunch of lids screwed to a 2x4 hanging in the shop, and just took down a jar when he needed what he could see what was in it, got out what he needed,and then screwed the jar bAck on the lid. He had big and little jars. The plastic boxes sound great for things too big to fit in the little jars. I guess seeing the jars put up like that brings back fond memories.
I'm gonna paint my 2x4 pink..LOL And a matching "hell box". :)
Hallerbe...he has the "dry" form of mac degeneration. They can't do anything about it yet, but Cornell is working on a computer chip eye implant that actually hooks into the optic nerve. I hope your aunt does well! Debi
I have a couple coffee cans, and a baking soda can, and a Hershey's Cocoa plastic box as sold today and some other things.
But mostly I use plastic 8oz margarine containers, and some 16 oz.
I have an 8 oz for little or tiny screws with nuts. an 8 oz for nuts alone. a 16 oz for common sizes of screw with nuts. a 16 oz for screws without nuts. an 8 oz for speed nuts an 8 oz for cap nuts an 8 oz for wire nuts.
And I have loads of stuff that isn't sorted yet.
I know what is in the unsorted stuff too.
Leave the man alone.
It's very satisfying and convenient that I almost always have the stuff I need without going to the store, especially when the store is closed.
I have separate containers for AC plugs, audio plugs and sockets, strain reliefs, grommets, nails, brads, keys, tubes (anything more tubular than anything else), gears, non-metal washers, big metal washers, small metal washers, lock washers, and about 25 more.
I have separate boxes for clocks and motors, relays, wall warts, bigger transformers, lamp parts including sockets and harps, 110 volt parts including switches and receptacles, and about 8 other boxes.
4 cartons of receiving tubes, with about 12 total trays, almost all sorted and tested and marked on the side what the reading was. Almost all used but used tubes but most test well and all will fill an empty space. The first 500 came from the city incinerator in Queens NY. Apparently someone cleaned out a tv repair store. Most were in the small boxes the size of one tube, lying on the ground, not in any bigger box. My roommate whent there to dump something and told me about them, so Sunday night at 10 or 11, that's where I was.
5 egg-crate sized cartons of camping equipment, with contents as marked.
Lots more stuff, but there is always lots of stuff unsorted.
Absolutely.
I had a first date once and for some reason we stopped by my house before dinner. She had a good job at Social Security and she expected her next job to be regional administrator, chief of one the 10 areas in the country. And she was quite young to be so high up.
And I showed her around the house and she looked at the boxes of stuff on the shelves I had built, and said "No wife is going to let you keep all this stuff." I said "We'll just have to get a bigger house" meaning one room bigger for my storage. And I could afford that, even without her presumably large income. But I already knew we wouldn't ever go out again.
It doesn't matter if my stuff is more organized than maybe your husband's is. It's the arrogance of her to assume she has the right to set the level of organization or amount for me. If his stuff isn't in the dining, living, bedroom, kitchen, laundry room, and you have space to relax like in the living room, leave him alone.
Are these baby food jars glass or plastic? (not having kids, I honestly don't know what standard issue is these days) IMHO, and others will disagree with me, glass is a bad idea for parts storage. When one breaks, and they WILL, those glass crumbs get in everything. And when you are pushing screws around on the bench with your fingers, looking for just the right one, a glass sliver is a very unpleasant suprise.
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