Strategy for hardware...........how to organize

[Alaric]

t4d said:

---

I guess it boils down to this: how much time and effort to organize? The time spent to sort thousands of old nails, screws, washers, etc. would be considerable, and would also require constant maintenance! On the other hand, the time spent digging through large containers of assorted stuff is frustrating! So..........where is the "sweet spot"??

---

Welcome to the forum.

Let me assure you that you are hardly unique. Organizing this kind of hardware is a project that has exponentially diminishing returns.

Let me suggest that first you dump the unorganized stuff into a coffee can or bucket, write today's date on it (more on that in a minute). Now leave the junk bucket be for now.

Start by organizing from now forward. You need a shelf that you can organize screw boxes on. I have a small metal organizer with plastic trays (small unique stuff) and then I have a bunch of stacking plastic bins. All sit on the same shelf. I stack screw and nail boxes so I can see the label, screws go left, nails right, with no more effort expended on type or size since I can see the labels. The bins are for loose stuff. I don't bother to organize loose parts past the level of big screw/little screw/nut/washer/big nail/little nail. So I trade future searching time for present organizing time without spending too much time on something that I may or may not ever use, while at the same time making sure I can at least search in the right bin. If a bin gets full (rarely) I dump half in the trash and put it back on the shelf. Its just not worth the sort time. If that just bothers the OCD person inside of you too much then you have to decide how much time are you going to waste so that the OCD part of you doesn't have any anxiety over something you will forget about by tomorrow. Find the tradeoff you are happy with. So organize from today forward.

Now back to the junk bucket. When you do find you need dig into the coffee can full of assorted junk, you sort the easy stuff as it comes out. Don't let this turn into a dedicated sorting session, you have something you are on the hunt for, but if you have a lag bolt in the handful of junk you grabbed then toss it in the lag bolt bin, but don't pick through the little nails or bits of string. If you don't have a bin for it then put it back in the junk bucket after you find whatever you are looking for. 18 months from now (that's why you wrote a date on the junk bucket) spill that junk bucket into a cake pan, look for anything that you know you need and then throw the rest away. This is were you will be tempted to do some sorting. Its OK to cave to that temptation, but if you spend more than ten minutes hovering over that cake pan then you are being counter productive. Tell the OCD you to get bent because tomorrow it won't care.

Will you make a trip to the hardware store to replace something you threw away? Probably. But there is a good chance you would make that trip anyways because you couldn't find it. The key is to keep organized going forward, not to organize the past.

[daveferg]

I found something similar to this at Costco a few years ago. It's my main parts storage. Cool because the top shelf is great for storing bench top tools.

Now, for sorting machine screws, nuts and washers, Harbor Freight has a great case---black body with yellow insides that goes on sale every so often. I have mine loaded with no problems.

[scottstef]

I use this, quick, cheap, and easy: http://www.harborfreight.com/hand-tools/...95551.html

[Rick LoDico]

Don't forget the ceiling. Mason jars are cheap and work well.
DSC00272 by RickLoDico, on Flickr

[lilrichard2]

I'm in the process of reorganizing my shop, so I'll share with you some of the things I'm doing.

First, make provisions for small stuff. I have large hands and have a lot of difficulty retrieving small nails, screws, etc. from containers, so I like to have a small container that I can pour from - any small available container will work - I chose old prescription medicine bottles as I had a number of them.





Make them easy to put back:





Of course, labels are always helpful:





For items of hardware larger than those shown above, where you don't have large quantities, something like the bins below help. My SIL gave these to me, but anything of similar size will work.





Again, labels help:





And if you want to get serious about organizing both hardware and tools, nothing beats an old computer card cabinet from the 1960's or 1970's. They're 24" deep and each handled drawer slides off the pull-out tray for use elsewhere. Computer programmers would carry these drawers full of cards which held their program for entry into a computer terminal - we've come a long way baby!

My tray of small containers shown above fits into one of the drawers.





And since library card catalogs were mentioned earlier. I'll show another version of library storage which can be repurposed for tool storage. The drawer of this set are 1 1/2" deep inside so they lend themselves to small tools. Don't try to use these for hardware!










Richard

[Rap4Trains]

this is what I came up with.

web page

web page again

[oarlock]

Lots of good ideas and strategies have been listed above, but you must realize that the following is true: Crap expands to fill the available space. You will never have all that "stuff" under control, never, never. DAMHIKT!!!!!!!!

[daveferg]

oarlock said:

---

Lots of good ideas and strategies have been listed above, but you must realize that the following is true: Crap expands to fill the available space. You will never have all that "stuff" under control, never, never. DAMHIKT!!!!!!!!

---

Look at it another way----how many of us have accumulated so much junk that we could never possibly use it up in what's left of our lives. I'm as guilty as anyone else in either over-buying quantity or if I buy the wrong thing--not taking it back because "I'll likely need it someday".

Yet, why is it that with all the crapola I'lm saving two times out of five I still have to go to the hardware store.

[cputnam]

I like!

[Del Hilburn]

I to use prescription bottles to store my hardware
I found that after everything is sorted it is much easier to maintain