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Storage Question

Very poorly! I store them in jars, boxes, drawers of little cabinets, in cans with poly caps, in the original packaging and in lots of other places. Looking for the right screw at my house is like someone hunting for Waldo.

Once I was going around with my wife to yard sales and we happened upon a man who had 12 pounds of screws, nuts, bolts and washers in a bucket. Immediately my eyes lit up. I was sure there was at least one screw in there that I needed. Asked him how much and he said I could just have them. Hurriedly I loaded my newest treasure into the car.

Well, it turned out that all of these nuts and bolts were metric and most of them were really small. I could see why he wanted to give them away. I cannot even imagine what all these mismatched pieces of hardware came from. As it turned out I had a use for them anyway. I had bought a plastic mushroom shaped anchor for my boat. It was on sale and you could fill it with sand, concrete or anything else you wanted as it had a screw on cap on the bottom. I filled it with all those left over metric screws, nuts and bolts..

For years that anchor sat on a shelf in the garage and never made it to the boat. I never even tied a line to it. Long after I sold my boat that anchor still sat there hiding its secret stash. There came a day when we decided to have a yard sale and that anchor was put out for sale. I saw a man looking at the anchor. At first he just assessed its weight; then he shook it and heard the clink of metal upon metal.. Then he turned it upside down and unscrewed the cap. His eyes lit up. Here was a man who recognized the value of all those nuts, bolts and screws. Without even a haggle he plopped down $15 and walked off with his anchor full of fastener treasure. I often wondered when he discovered that all those bits were metric did he cuss me? :p

I have to ditto what Vaughn said. I have so many bags and boxes of screws, nuts and bolts that came into my possession because I could not find the previous bag or box of that screw, nut or bolt. :rolleyes:
 
I have a bunch of narrow 6”x18” approximately slide out shelves (basically a narrow shelf with a piece of plywood resting on top small lip screwed to the back of the top piece). Boxes and cans of screws and nails live in those roughly sorted by class. I also have a couple of shallow plywood bins on similar shelves with longer loose bolts and their accompanying hardware in them.

I liberated a bunch of little square coffee cans made by illy for espresso pods from work a few years ago. Most of my large stray screws and nails without original boxes or cans moved into those. I regret not managing to get more of these as some also found their way into lomls sewing room for sorting sundries.

Smaller stuff like tacks and little bolts I have in three of the little pull out plastic bin assemblies which are again sorted by type with a couple of loose “misc” bins (small bolts, really small bolts, really really small bolts, actually tiny bolts…).
 
I moved all of mine into the HF storage boxes I got on sale, then made some racks for. Easy to grab a few of the size(s) I need or take the whole box to the bench. This was in my old shop, but have them in my current garage.
20200829_212019_Original.jpeg

As I collect loose hardware it goes into a small bin and I eventually sort that back into the bins.

I’ve started buying the large versions on top and am sorting larger hardware into those that I frequently use and want to keep stocked. Prior to this I had hundreds of partially used bags and boxes just stuffed in a box. More often than not I was just buying new ones for each project as it was faster than searching through the box.

Edit: more pics… https://photos.app.goo.gl/n7ij5ChCj2h2FtKD8
 
When I lived in NY State, I was almost 1/2 hour drive one way to a hardware store or lumber yard, so I always bought more of whatever I needed. A neighbor farmer was sometimes a source when stores weren't open. I had quite an inventory in my shop by the time that I moved here. The company that I worked for paid the moving bill to bring me and possessions here to North Carolina, so everything came with me. About 10 years after moving here, Lowes built a new store adjacent to the other side of my development. Unfortunately, the only way in and out of my development is on my side, but from my home out and then on the roads all the way around to Lowes is only about 2 1/2 miles. Since Lowes opened, it's been more convenient for me to go to Lowes to get exactly what I need, so I've been gradually depleting my hardware storage ever since. I still keep most everything that I have in the 4 X 4 X 4 and 6 X 6 X 6 tilt-out plastic bin/drawers on the back wall of my shop that I bought when in NY, and they survived the move. They aren't well organized or labeled, but I know generally where everything is and if not there, Lowes isn't far away. Most times now I only buy what I need.

Charley
 
Darren Wright said:
I moved all of mine into the HF storage boxes I got on sale, then made some racks for. Easy to grab a few of the size(s) I need or take the whole box to the bench. This was in my old shop, but have them in my current garage.
View attachment 129668

As I collect loose hardware it goes into a small bin and I eventually sort that back into the bins.

I’ve started buying the large versions on top and am sorting larger hardware into those that I frequently use and want to keep stocked. Prior to this I had hundreds of partially used bags and boxes just stuffed in a box. More often than not I was just buying new ones for each project as it was faster than searching through the box.

Edit: more pics… https://photos.app.goo.gl/n7ij5ChCj2h2FtKD8
Click to expand...
I would just like to say that this level of organization is the sign of a namby pamby mind. :p:ROFLMAO: How anyone could possibly think of doing something so sensible is beyond me. It is far beyond me. If there is anything I hate is everything in its place and a place for everything. :LOL:
 
Mike Stafford said:
I would just like to say that this level of organization is the sign of a namby pamby mind. :p:ROFLMAO: How anyone could possibly think of doing something so sensible is beyond me. It is far beyond me. If there is anything I hate is everything in its place and a place for everything. :LOL:
Click to expand...
Looking everything else in my shop, and life, you certainly wouldn’t think my mind could manage this little part so well. :)
 
After years of cans ,jars,tins,etc I finally got the HF boxes as Darren has and filled them up pretty quick. Now I have the Hf boxes filled up and cans,,jars,tins full. It never ends. But I will say I can find stuff in the HF boxes. Don't have the collection Darren has. Also not going to sort through my collection and sort out by size, shape', color or what ever. Just dump in tray and root through to figure out I don't have what I need. Then make a trip to big blue store.
David
 
Mike Stafford said:
I would just like to say that this level of organization is the sign of a namby pamby mind. :p:ROFLMAO: How anyone could possibly think of doing something so sensible is beyond me. It is far beyond me. If there is anything I hate is everything in its place and a place for everything. :LOL:
Click to expand...
Mike, I used to feel the same way as you about Darren, but then I got to meet him in person a couple of times. I can safely say I was shocked - SHOCKED, I say - that he's pretty much just like the rest of us. Well, everyone except Glenn, of course. As we all know, Glenn's not a real person...he's just a holographic AI bot that posts artificial pictures of incredibly organized projects in an incredibly organized shop. :rofl:
 
When I was a kid, my grandpa kept his little screws, nuts and bolts in glass baby food jars. The lids were screwed to a board and the board nailed on the ceiling. Now at my age, I am sorting and keeping those little items in my empty pill bottles. Thankfully CVS has labels on them that peel off very nicely. A 2x4 with the appropriate sized hole drilled half way through keeps them from falling over and somewhat in a semblance of order.
 
I think you will find some threads on this. I'm just an enthusiastic hobbyist so rarely store more than a hundred of anything (except when I get a good deal on a McFeely's clearance or the like). I have standardized over the years on four main storage sizes. When it comes to screws, washers, spacers, bolts, z-clips, space balls, etc. I use tackle boxes. The Plano Stowaway 3700 series got clearanced by Lowe's back in the day and I bought them all on the cheap. The current version is still good but the price is an order of magnitude higher than I paid. I also use the similar form factor Prolatch (goes on sale at Walmart now and again) but it is a little less versatile.

New Tackle Box Cubbies(3).jpg . New Tackle Box Cubbies(4).jpg

I have a few of the Harbor Freight versions left. Although they are cheaper initially, the latches fail (90 day warranty) and you are out that money. I think I bought twelve when I couldn't find anymore 3700 series at a reasonable price. Turned out I spent that money in vain . . . just sayin' ;).

I have shoe boxes (picked up at Home Depot for under a buck apiece during sales) and bins (Costco) that fit on the same depth shelf for larger items. I keep things like my jigsaw, router edge guides and dust collection and all sorts of things in the larger bins. Back to hardware. The Plano fishing tackle boxes have been in use for nearly 20 years and still work fine.

Blue Cabinet Retrofit (4).jpg

There are all sorts of ways to do this. Find the one that works for you and standardize on it. You will be glad you did many, many, years later. :)
 
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I do also buy the plastic shoe boxes (after seeing Glenn's use of them) and store many on metal shelving, labeled with what project they are for, or in cases of supplies, safety equipment, glasses, tapes, etc. At least keeps all the like items together and stackable. Also portable to where ever I'm working on things at.
 
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