I labeled my drawers too.
Of course I remember where my stuff is.
I do projects with my daughter and sometimes my wife. They need to know which drawer to find stuff in. I label things to make it as clear as possible.
When I’m not there, sometimes my dad, or my brother need to use a tool.
This is my socket drawer. I also labeled the rails, with drive size and color coded between SAE and metric.
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My very first post on GJ --- pure-d envy at this socket drawer! Love it. I may take the picture out and look at it when I'm feeling anxious. Ha!
Now I have a goal other than "multi-terraced decorative garage-scaping with sockets and assorted tools," which was not a decor goal as much as the result of too many breakages at once coinciding with too much other work at once followed by a massive absence of energy at the end of it all (although it really hasn't ended, I'm just on light-duty regular job-work, and not sure where the energy is to do everything I wanted to do when it was whack-a-mole speed).
Gummi Bear - your mention of having other people work with your tools gave me the vapors a moment -- immediately imagined my friends rounding off bolts and ripping gears from socket wrenches and... (perhaps a little dramatic?). On the other hand, I thought about how many concussions I got last weekend popping up from under the car to grab a tool, and hmmm. Reliable help that respected your tools might be nice.
Also, kudos on having your daughter help! That's partly how I turned into a too-frequent mechanic (well, not totally - I don't roll/tow down to the stealership because I am not a millionaire, for crying out loud...). Anyway, I probably became much more self-sufficient than my dad ever imagined when he taught me things in the garage/workshop years ago.
Hopefully your daughter will come home some day and tell you about how the repair dudes tried to pull one over on her and she set them straight because she learned it all early at home. It's a great father-daughter moment!
I used to know where everything was - even when it wasn't where it was supposed to be - but this last year has been absolute hell on my memory (because the pandemic required me to increase my intake of Tito's medicinal magic clear corn potion? Maaaybe. Or maybe just age? Or not enough Dr. Pepper? Or the fact I can't see half as well as I used to, so all my mental images look like they were taken with a 110 camera...? I dunno).
Thinking labels like y'all have done will be the way to go!
To OP, Mr. Gigem, good progress on your project! That will give you more free time this fall to properly welcome UT to the SEC (I'm a Razorback but I absolutely root for A&M unless we're playing you - also excited to see who's going to take over Mond's position as Jimbo's surrogate son/whipping boy...it's
affection when he whacks him on the helmet! ;-) ).
I'm with you on multiple tool inheritances, which is nice, especially times like now when my ride's up on blocks, the fridge is on the fritz, and there's some fine-tuning to be done to the HVAC -- and none of those projects have immediately available parts, so they're multi-day projects. Thanks to the motherlodes, can leave a small collection of proper sockets, etc, in a "job box" at each site.
Downside - there have been a lot of ongoing projects and job boxes, so there's "socket migration" going on around here.
Does anyone have any ideas for "Satellite Tool Boxes"?
(or should I keep up the search function on old threads - I'm working through those! I can keep reading!)
My dad used to have his regular tools in the big garage, a small "roamer" toolbox that came out every time he fixed anything around the house (appliance, etc), the smallish toolbox behind the seat in every vehicle that always seemed to have what he needed for almost any breakdown up until 1999 or so, a carpentry/wood project tool box and then tons of bins/shelves with the specialty stuff. We used to go to flea markets, garage sales, etc, more back then, so he had cool containers to stash it all in, too. Will have to post some of the neater stuff one of these days.
When I get caught up with rectifying the massive disintegration of apparently all working machinery in or about my home and/or driveway and/or hire a machinery exorcist, will definitely keep combing the GJ archives.
There are so many cool projects on here! I actually stumbled across this site a few years back looking for tool sorting ideas, and then stumbled across it again looking for some Ford 4.6 engine intel and decided it was time to join.
Howdy everyone! Love all your great ideas here and especially love the friendly atmosphere - thanks!
