Handy Tricks Six

Step 23 Hanging Jar Parts Bins

Here's a handy way to organize small parts without using up shelf space. Just screw a bunch of lids to your ceiling and put the parts in the jars.
Spotted at TEP, Boston MA.

Comments

[mjustin1]

you could attach the lids to a lazy susan of some sort them mount it to the ceiling or wherever

[sierrabravo]

my father uses those orange pill containers pharmacies give you (non-childproof or de-childproofed) since he worked at a hospital. my grandfather used to use baby food jars from when the neighbors were raising their kids aeons ago. jars are still there to this day! recycling heh

[Kuru Valthaliondil]

People have been doing this back where I'm from since the 1800s. They will even put them on all four sides of a board (usually a 2x2 or 3x3) mounted so that it can rotate. I have seen multiple sizes ranging from 10 large mason jars per side to the average of four baby food jars per side.

[johnny q]

Kuru - I like the idea you listed about mounting a group of jars on a 4 x 4 so that they could rotate, but how exactly would you mount the 4 x 4 ? What would it rotate on ?

[Kuru Valthaliondil]

Often, to attach the main piece with the jars they would use a 2x4 on each end somehow affixed to the wall/ceiling/workbench long enough so that the spinning jars wouldn't hit when they rotated. They were also usually tight against the center piece so that they didn't exactly spin freely. Some are so old that they no longer spin due to the wood swelling over time in a damp basement. The axles were sometimes as simple and cheap as a 16 penny nail in each side, sometimes a 1" or 1/2" dowel glued or nailed into the center board and sticking through each side, or even bolts/screws with washers. These were old farmers and woodsmen crafting these things. They used whatever they had available or could readily make. Function over form. We are still a bit "Hickish" where I'm from. (My mom, born in 1957, didn't live in a house with running water or electricity until she was 9)