Self-identification:
Here’s an easy way to label boxes of nails, screws, and other fasteners: just attach a sample of each item to the outside of its box with some glue. You’ll be able to see at a glance what you have in stock and where it is.

Recycled labels:
If you store screws or other fasteners in small glass jars, cut the label from the package the item was purchased in and push the label inside the jar before filling it. Hold the label face out against the inside of the jar as you pour in the fasteners. The label will remain visible through the g]ass.

Great cheap parts bins:
Use clean plastic oil containers to make bins for screws, bolts, nuts and many other small hardware items. Cut each container as shown with scissors or a utility knife; make a simple wooden frame to hold the bins.

Spill preventer:
Put a magnet in a container of small items such as screws or panel pins. This way, the metal pieces will bind together in a ball around the magnet and won’t spill out if you accidentally knock over the container. If a few items do scatter, use the magnet to pick them up. For inexpensive magnets, buy a roll oi magnetic edging at a hardware store and cut it into whatever lengths you need.

Nut rings:
Store nuts and washers on metal shower curtain rings hung from pegboard hooks. (The ring’s pear shape and latching action allow for secure storage.) Hang nuts and washers of similar size on their own ring, so that you can find the right size quickly.

Ready-made storage modules:
Plastic electrical boxes, either single or double size, are just right for storing small items like fasteners. The boxes are inexpensive and they stack or fit neatly side by side. Just make sure to remove any flanges or ‘wings’ meant for attaching the boxes to studs.

Neat nail organisers:
Large plastic bottles with a section of their tops cut out make great nail bins. When the bottles are stored on their sides, the weight of the nails keeps them from rolling. Off the shelves, the bottles can stand upright, and their handles make for easy carrying to a job site.

Workbench catchall:
Don’t let nuts and bolts and other leftovers clutter your workbench. Bolt a cake tin or baking tray under a shelf. Swing it out and drop your odds and ends into it as you work. Occasionally pick over the pan’s contents to separate the useful from the useless.

Under-shelf storage:
Make the most of your workshop shelf space by storing nails, nuts and other fasteners in jars attached to the underside of a shelf. To mount the jars, simply screw their lids to the bottom of the shelf (place a washer under each screw head for better security).

Storing timber and long items

Gutter shelving:
lnexpensive vinyl gutters provide convenient, surprisingly strong storage for mouldings, lightweight timber, pipes and other long thin items. To install them, just screw the mounting brackets to studs and snap in the gutters. Use the brackets alone as hooks for garden hoses, extension cords and wire coils.

Stand-up storage:
Fit a sturdy cardboard box with sawn-off mailing tubes (or scraps of large-diameter PVC pipe) and use it to organise all those short pieces of moulding, pipe and dowels.

Retreads:
Tie a series of old car tyres to overhead joists and use taem to hold long pieces of lumber and pipe. You can also lay old tyres flat on the floor or ground to provide a pallet that will keep timber and plywood sheets high and dry.

Timber overhead:
Keep lumber out of the way, yet handy with ‘inverted T’ racks. Bolt two to the bottom of your garage roof trusses: spaced about 5′ (1500 mm) apart to support 8′ (2400 mm) lengths of timber. To avoid straining the trusses, limit stored pieces to the equivalent of twenty 2″ x 1″ (50 mm x 25 mm) timbers and distribute the load evenly.

Easy-reach timber:
Store timber vertically between studs. Hold it in place with a 4″ x 1″ (100 x 25 mm) swing arm, fastened to one stud with a 2″ (50 mm) woodscrew. Make a catch with a piece of 2″ x 2″ (50 mm x 50 mm) timber, notched and attached with 3″ (75 mm) woodscrews.