My father rigged up an ingenious storage system in his garage involving baby food jars with the lids screwed to the underside of shelving. Nuts, bolts, screws, washers, nails. He had 4 kids and plenty of jars. He later went to sliding drawer hobby cabinets - which I inherited. I’ll never use any of it but I cherish every bolt.

I started with coffee cans. They were plastic even then, 1 pound and of uniform size. I probably had 50 of them, all labeled as to content. I built shelves to store them all.

I later went to plastic pick-bins, the system I use to this day. Rectangular shape is more efficient, easy to label. They’re readily available on line but I have all I’ll ever need.

Now that I’ve retired though, I find I need to up my game. I’ve started doing craft stuff like restoring furniture. I need things like wood bleach, baking soda, and touch up paint. I’ve settled on glass jars - specifically olive jars. I like the occasional martini and find that olive jars are both readily available and of a convenient size. Wood bleach, axle grease, bicarb, leftover stripper all seem to fit nicely. Jack eats a lot of peanut butter and those jars work well for larger quantities. I’ll have to move a bunch of them to the basement so they don’t freeze but that’s easy enough.

But I wonder - what’s your system? Not just hardware but craft supplies and/or kitchen back stock? Jars, drawers, boxes?

Extra points for pictures.

Omg, this will take me awhile.

My dad did the same thing. It was good idea.

Anybody else remember this version of the baby food jar storage gizmo? You could rotate the jars around.

For yarn, this IKEA Expedit shelf system with cubbies that slide in and out. Knitting books on the shelf in the corner (top 3 shelves, other stuff below). Boots have now moved into the closet.

Bulk food items go in mason jars (various sizes) in the cupboard. This would be lentils, popcorn, pistachios. Sometimes I come back and I’m not sure what that stuff is (mystery lentils etc).

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
Anybody else remember this version of the baby food jar storage gizmo? You could rotate the jars around.

I’ve never seen one. Very clever!

I wonder which jars it was made for. As I recall, Beech-nut and Gerber jars used different threads.

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
Anybody else remember this version of the baby food jar storage gizmo? You could rotate the jars around.

But they’re at an angle, so whatever is in the jar spills out when you are screwing or unscrewing it from the wheel o’ lids.

quote:

Originally posted by pianojuggler:

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
Anybody else remember this version of the baby food jar storage gizmo? You could rotate the jars around.

But they’re at an angle, so whatever is in the jar spills out when you are screwing or unscrewing it from the wheel o’ lids.

Don’t overfill!

I'm pleased with how this storage area came out. The containers were on sale:

Man after my own heart; I have all my spices labeled that way.

Nice containers. Where did you buy them?

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
Man after my own heart; I have all my spices labeled that way.

Nice containers. Where did you buy them?

Home Goods/TJ Maxx. Much better pricing than I was able to find on Amazon. Only downside was that removing the labels was a hassle - peel, Goof Off, Windex.

Should keep the bugs out and stabilize the moisture content.

system?

i go for bins, baskets, and bankers' boxes.in the garage we have jars of many different shapes and sizes, trays, and a peg board for tools. camping gear is in plastic storage bins by category: sleeping bags, stuff sacks, kitchen supplies, horse camping supplies, dog stuff, and river trips.

in the barn i use lots of clear plastic tubs of varying sizes. first aid, hoof related, fencing materials, and another peg board for tools.

the garden shed has lots of trays on the shelves for gloves, seeds, hand tools...

i like the portable cabinets with dozens of drawers for small hardware. they work well for medicines too.

my missoula house had baby food jar organization for nails and other hardware out in the workshop shed. i brought some of the jars to our current house but left the homemade shelves and cabinets.

I have a organizer for my nuts, bolts, screws, etc, but it's more like this.