We’re excited to be part of Mrs. Limestone’s “Junk Drawer Overhaul” series, where a handful of bloggers are sharing how they’re starting the new year by organizing their messy kitchen junk drawers. We bent the theme slightly and showed how we organized our tool drawers, which happen to live in the kitchen. Truthfully, it wasn’t a drawer re-organization so much as rescuing tools that had been piled in the corner of our office after we moved. Charming, right?
You can read more about how our screwdrivers and hammers graduated from “yikes” to “that works” over on A Brooklyn Limestone In Progress. While sorting our tools we naturally spread everything out on the floor to take inventory. The result was a gratifying grid of our DIY arsenal:
Because that full-tool spread was unlikely to happen again soon, we took the chance to photograph our collection. It’s a mix of go-to tools for everyday projects and quick fixes, plus a few miscellaneous supplies we’ve unintentionally accumulated over the years (I still don’t know why we have two spare toilet supply lines).
Here’s a closer look at each quadrant of our tool-covered rug. The first quadrant shows the basics: hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers, a crowbar, and a few saws. After taking the picture I realized our old scratched-up yellow Stanley tape measure was hiding in Sherry’s purse.
Next up is our ever-growing and diverse assortment of nails and screws, along with putty and spackle knives.
Another quadrant contains painting supplies: brushes, rollers, paint trays, stir sticks, can openers, drop cloths, and painter’s tape. And no, that bundle of rope wasn’t for painting — it just fit on that part of the rug.
The last section holds tapes, glues, putties, caulks, and some 3M Command hooks. We also keep craft paints, brushes, Mod Podge and even a tiny tube of glitter left over from making Christmas ornaments a couple of years ago. And yes, those mysterious toilet supply lines made an appearance too.
These photos don’t include our larger power tools like the mouse sander, drill/driver, saws, Kreg Jig, Dremel, or the garden equipment stashed elsewhere. We weren’t about to lay those on the rug, but they round out our toolkit when bigger jobs come up.
Our personal collection isn’t meant to be the ultimate toolset. Since taking these pictures I’ve already bought a $4 hex wrench set after a towel-bar removal needed a size we didn’t have. We also ran out of sandpaper and had to restock. There are items we could probably toss because they’ve sat unused for years (looking at you, glitter tube), but sometimes those oddball things come in handy down the road.
You can read more about how our tools went from the rug to the kitchen drawers in a semi-organized system over on A Brooklyn Limestone. We’d love to hear about your tool collection: what essentials do you rely on, and what oddball items have you accumulated after one-off projects? Do you keep tools in the kitchen? Any stray glitter tubes or mysterious toilet supply lines in your drawers? Let’s chat.
Psst — it had to happen sometime. Last night, on autopilot after a hardware store run, we accidentally drove to our old house. It was fun and a little strange to be back in our old stomping grounds.