Tool Time!

With a weekend spent working on painting projects, I happened upon my less than organized tool cabinet.

Since our garage is not easily accessible, we keep our tools in the kitchen for easy access during household projects. They’re in a 3-drawer system that’s housed in a deep cabinet next to the fridge.

Since I just spent time organizing my refrigerator the week before, it was unsettling to have such a disorganized tool cabinet right next to it. Organizing is contagious, I love it!

The drawers desperately needed some attention. Look at this middle drawer! No wonder I was so exasperated trying to find supplies during my weekend projects.

I collected some containers and started the timer with high hopes I’d be able to finish the bottom two drawers in just 10 minutes. With such a lofty goal, I knew I’d need to concentrate on the lesser of the 3 evils and save the most disheveled top drawer for another day.

Within just five minutes, I began to realize how many tools we have collected over time. My automatic reaction to duplicates is to donate those you don’t need/use, but tools can be tricky. It is hard to be sure you won’t need something again, so therefore all of our tools stayed. (I’m much more ruthless with other clutter, so you won’t hear me saying that often).

I used two abandoned plastic lids to help the middle drawer take shape. Even these simple lids helped lay out clearly defined sections.

After 5 more minutes the bottom drawer was looking clean and contained.

Light bulbs are in the back of the drawer, with a box of adhesives (mostly tape!) in front. I usually don’t like to pile things on top of each other, but since we only use our drill twice a year, if that, I placed the screwdriver set on top since it is used more often.The middle drawer also separates out most used (hammers) and those items used less often. In this picture it looks like a pile of miscellaneous stuff, but trust me when I say it’s a huge difference. Also we use some of these items infrequently enough that even just sorting the items into a container will allow us to find what we need when we need it.

I’ll save the upper drawer for another Tuesday, (similar to my top bathroom drawer).  Sometimes you have to take organizing one or two drawers at a time. *Here is my second go at the tool drawer.

10 minutes is all it takes! What are you going to tackle?