NUTS

[nospambob]

[JoeMorgan]

Debi,

Use glass jars for storage. Yeah you might break one every 5 years or so but you can see thru them and that is worth it. Bigger stuff goes in coffee cans. Take a 9 by 12 baking pan and cut out one corner with a pair of tin snips. This pan acts as a sorting container. Dump the contents of a jar into the pan, shake it around till you find what you want, then tilt the pan until the contents slide right back in the jar. Works wonders. Sort stuff when you have time, keep everything and try to remember when you put stuff, cause you will need it eventually. If you throw something away, you will need it next week. I promise. Really.

I>OK...I needed a small nut with a bolt that fit 'cause the self-tapping

[gfretwell]

I agree. I found a bunch of big plastic tumblers in a garage sale that nest about 16 at a time in those square milk boxes. That is great for nails and such that you can't get many of in a small jar. It is very portable.

[Goedjn]

A lot of food now comes in clear plastic jars, so there's no real need to use glass. I not only use peanut butter jars for nuts and smaller bolts, I also re-package wood-glue, machine-oil, rubbing alcohol, distilled water, and anything else that doesn't attack polystyrene or LDPE in used soda-bottles, just because having a uniform size container means I can put shelves closer together. Easier to store, easier to pour, and less leaking.

-Goedjn

[Colbyt]

The peanut butter jar has become my favorite. I just wish the wife would eat more of it.

I was going to Wally*World and paying almost a $ for a storage container that I could haul on the truck. On average they lasted about a year. Now I get a $ discount on the peanut butter and the jar is clear so the contents are visible.

[Debi]

mm... Thanks for the effort, sir. I don't mind a little cussing, but have seen posts on here where folks really get attacked.

I am not a nagger. We both overlook a lot the other does, and that helps us get along just dandy.

I want to explain to you that it isn't arrogance on my part that makes me ask for some help and direction in organizing what is his work area right now. I'ts a need to know...what is this, where do I find it, how is it used if I don't know... kind of a map to the dungeon. He knows , just like you, where most of the stuff it. And why.

In a few years he will lose his remaining sight, and I will be the one using most of the stuff there as I learn how to use it and what for. I'm not nagging him, or forcing him into something he dosen't want to do. He has most things nominally assigned to a toolbox...electric, plumbing, electronics, ....like things in like places. I need to separate out the huge boxes of "Thingies" we have gathered over the years, and NUTS was just one symptom of the disorganization.

I know workspaces have been a great place to go and get away from the wife and have some quiet time, but we have never been like that. We usually work together on things. If I was losing my sight, he would need to know where I keep sewing things and how to hem a pair of pants. ( although duct tape comes in colors, now, and makes great patches for holes and holds a hem 'till you dry it) :).

I asked the question in kind of a fit after searching around for a long time, and wondered how other folks solve this storage problem. I guess DIY always takes longer than we think it will when we figure the job.

We went into this marriage thing as a team 30 years ago...some of the roles are changing as we age, but we are still the team. It's a good thing you didn't marry the social security worker (LOL)

When we got married, we decided a 3 bedroom house would be best for us, an we did not plan on having children. One for him, one for me, and one for US. It has worked out really well.

Thanks for your comments, mm. Debi

[Debi]

mm... Thanks for the effort, sir. I don't mind a little cussing, but have seen posts on here where folks really get attacked.

I am not a nagger. We both overlook a lot the other does, and that helps us get along just dandy.

I want to explain to you that it isn't arrogance on my part that makes me ask for some help and direction in organizing what is his work area right now. I'ts a need to know...what is this, where do I find it, how is it used if I don't know... kind of a map to the dungeon. He knows , just like you, where most of the stuff it. And why.

In a few years he will lose his remaining sight, and I will be the one using most of the stuff there as I learn how to use it and what for. I'm not nagging him, or forcing him into something he dosen't want to do. He has most things nominally assigned to a toolbox...electric, plumbing, electronics, ....like things in like places. I need to separate out the huge boxes of "Thingies" we have gathered over the years, and NUTS was just one symptom of the disorganization.

I know workspaces have been a great place to go and get away from the wife and have some quiet time, but we have never been like that. We usually work together on things. If I was losing my sight, he would need to know where I keep sewing things and how to hem a pair of pants. ( although duct tape comes in colors, now, and makes great patches for holes and holds a hem 'till you dry it) :).

I asked the question in kind of a fit after searching around for a long time, and wondered how other folks solve this storage problem. I guess DIY always takes longer than we think it will when we figure the job.

We went into this marriage thing as a team 30 years ago...some of the roles are changing as we age, but we are still the team. It's a good thing you didn't marry the social security worker (LOL)

When we got married, we decided a 3 bedroom house would be best for us, an we did not plan on having children. One for him, one for me, and one for US. It has worked out really well.

Thanks for your comments, mm. Debi

[mm]

I appreciate your reply. I read the start of some of your other replies, and learned that your husband had vision problems, but frankly, I haven't finished those posts yet, because my tolerance for bad news has diminished a lot in the last few years. So maybe that's why I didn't post again until now.

I understand your situation much better now. One of the reasons I know what I have, and this may apply to your husband too, is that I got it little by little, usually by stripping some device that I was throwing away. Or by finding something. There are now too many things to remember in detail, but there are still hundreds of things that I can look at and remember a whole story. I also pride myself on being able to find some little scrap of something on the street and know what it comes from.

I;m sure you'll do a good job.

My last year of high school, instead of taking an acadmic course, I took a year of auto-repair. We were in teams of three and somehow ours turned out to be the best. One of the other guys had worked for years in a garage, or something, and when we took apart the engine, as assigned, he just threw everything in big coffee can. When it was time to reassemble, he would figure out which bolt it was. My mother had taught me to arrange the screws etc. in a pattern like they were in when part of the device. So that's how I was in the habit of putting things back togehter. But both systems work, is my point. It will be good if things are organized, but like us and your husband, there will be times when you'll search the unsorted pile on the hopes that something is there.

A lot of my unsorted stuff is either repititions of what I have a lot of already, sorted, or it's stuff that is big, and would take up a whole third of the margarine container. In a way I should throw it away, because I'm not likely to ever need it, but the stuff that I'm likely to need, I can also buy at the store. It's these wierdly shaped things that they don't sell anywhere, and when I need one of them, I'm really glad I didn't throw it away. Now this might be only once a year, or once every 5 years, but it is so satisfying to have a suitable part, knowing I couldn't buy it anywhere.

But in most cases, if I don't have a screw or something, they do sell them.

Of course.

I've tried that double stick iron on tape to do pants leg hems. It doesn't work that well if there is more to catch my foot on, and if I don't go all the way around, but maybe next time it will do better. Or I could grow taller.

====

Team is exactly the word I've used many times in the past, and she didn't seem like a team player. If I remembered her name, I could probably find her on the social security website, to see if she did get promoted, but I don't. I'm always curious about what happened to people I've known.

Good.

Best wishes.

[No]

I save them for the other junk. Have about 6 or 7.