This is a very cheap and easy way to get organized not only when carrying fasteners and the like when working around the house but in your shop as well. I've been doing this for years and it works like a charm. Forget paying for the organizers and bucket bags and the home improvement stores.

This type of organization is superior to the store bought bucket organizers as one has screw on lids so if you drop them, your nails, screw, etc will not go flying everywhere.

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

Materials are pretty easy and cheap. Get yourself a good 5 gallon bucket. Restaurants usually are a good place to get them or just pilfer one off of a job site. Peanut butter jars are next. Save them from your own home or, again, pilfer them from a recycling yard. Be sure to keep extra lids on hard (this is important). Optional: either good, study carboard or plywood of your choice. Make sure both the bucket, jars and lids are clean.

Step 2: Assembly: Shop

Find a good place to hang the jars. Under a shelf or cabinet is ideal or if the ceiling is low enough, you can it from there. Screw the extra lids to the underside of the shelf, cabinet or ceiling. Be sure to use two screw since using only one tends to make the lids just spin in place. Leave some space between them so your hand can move freely when screwing the jars in place.

Fill your jars with your screws, nails, nuts, bolt, connecters, etc. If there are coming straight out of a new box from the store, tear off the label and put it inside the jar facing out so it is easy to read. This is better than writing on the jar, it makes it harder to re-use the jar for something different later on down the road.

Step 3: Assembly: Bucket Carrier

When you have a project where you need several of the items you have stored in the jars, pull out your bucket. Un-screw the jars you need from where you have them stored. Screw on one of your extra lids and place the jar in the bucket. Using the one's I have, I could fit five in the bucket (see below). If you need more, just stack them on top. An option is to cut a piece of study cardboard or plywood to use as a separator in the bucket between the different stacks of jars.

8 Comments

gems21

7 years ago on Introduction

This is a great idea! Especially when there always seems to be wasted space under cabinets - perfect for a craft room, garage or workshop. Plus - I need to see what's in my containers - so this is perfect! Thanks for sharing!

MattVerlinich

11 years ago on Introduction

Nice job! This is how much of my grand-father's workshop was organized, and I thought about writing an instructable one it too.

ukphoneguy

12 years ago on Introduction

GR8 idea been doing it for some years but I changed to plastic jars after breaking several of the them. Shops get sweets in them and throw them away when MT.

brodiemac

12 years ago on Introduction

I am working on making an IT version of this for cabling purposes. A spool of cable in the bottom with a separator, then jars on top with items like RJ-45 connectors, network jacks, etc., and then tools on top. Probably won't make any real progress until spring when it's a bit warmer.

manderw

12 years ago on Introduction

How about if you made either a keyhole slot in the lid (like you get on the back of things like fire alarms, etc.) so that you can just grab the whole jar, rather than messing around with extra lids? Or put a loop of some kind on the top of the lid and use hooks instead?

I think I might try something like this with my tool cabinet from hell...