Organization is the tool

Steve Martin, of Steve Martin Construction, and David McCoury, a shade tree mechanic, have this in common: when they were boys, they took things apart just to put them together again. They were always tinkering.

“When I was 7, I put wheels from a Red Flyer wagon on a board and hooked up a sort-of-steering with rope,” said McCoury. “At 11, I built a homemade go-cart out of a lawn mower and parts. It did about 12-mph and I’d drive it down the sidewalk.”

Martin recalls a similar childhood.

“I don’t know, probably by the time I was 8, my brother and I were modifying tricycles and go-carts,” he said.

Both men have their own style when it comes to organizing their tools today, but they have several techniques in common. Martin is currently finishing an addition on his garage, while McCoury’s work space is already completed. Both men say that no matter what stage of the tool-organization process a person is in, for them, it’s all about storage.

“I guess it’s a lot like an organized kitchen,” said Martin. “If you don’t know right where stuff is, it takes much longer to complete a process.”

Martin offers a few tips. First, start simple, and be creative.

“For a lot of people who don’t use many (tools), they could use a little organizer box for nails and screws and that might be enough,” said Martin. “I picked up some old surplus wallpaper storage containers from Sherwin-Williams, because they are deep and work great for storing things.” McCoury is equally imaginative when it comes to storing his tinkering tools and materials. In fact, he’s so creative that his wife Ren McCoury said, “Everything with a rod on it is fair game. He even took my little wall shelf.”

Today the shelf is mounted high on the wall in a corner in the McCoury’s garage.

“I use it to hang our Christmas candy canes,” laughed McCoury.

McCoury also found a use for a rod leftover from a wire shelving kit. He attached it about waist high on his shop wall and uses it to hang bungee cords. “That way it’s easy to see how long they are. It’s a lot easier than going through a box looking for the right one. This way they aren’t tangled.”

Martin uses Lazy-Susans to store small items. When he needs something, he just gives it a spin rather than spend time searching behind things in a cabinet.

McCoury said the No. 1 priority for him when deciding how to organize his shop was to keep as much as possible off the floor.

“I want to be able to hose out my shop quickly whenever I need to,” he said. “I don’t want a lot of stuff on the floor that I can’t move fast.”

One of his tricks is to create storage spots out of the space he has. He utilized ceiling space by enclosing it and creating an attic for storage.

“I put snow tires up there, some miscellaneous car parts, and in the winter we use it to store garden tools, too,” he said.

Martin has also used this space in his garage for storage, but his is not completely enclosed. “I just put down some plywood and we have room to put boxes on top of it,” he said.

McCoury added that even the underside of a deck can be turned into storage.

“I put 1-by-4 across the joists underneath the deck,” he said. “Now we just slide the garden tools underneath. You can’t even tell they’re there and they’re out of the way.”

Both men stress the importance of a work bench in any shop. McCoury believes that a clear work space allows for a more pleasant working environment. He has mounted small-part bins with see-through front panels above his work bench.

“You can see what you are looking for right away,” he said. “It’s important to keep part bins on the wall and not on the bench so that all your surface space is available.”

McCoury built his work bench so that storage underneath is convenient.

“The supports are built at a 45-degree angle and not straight toward the floor,” he said. “Instead they attach to the wall and it’s easy to see what’s stored below.”

If space is at a premium, Martin suggests making a work space out of an old door and “leaving the hinges on so you can fold it back toward the wall to store it when you are done working.”

Each shop owner felt peg boards were great for hand-tool storage, and inexpensive cabinets as well as stackable Rubbermaid containers, offered simple solutions to common storage problems. Plastic tabletop drawers stored warrantee information in McCoury’s shop and “freed up the junk drawer space in the house.”

Perhaps most importantly, each named a radio as one of their favorite tools.

“Music is important to all of us,” added McCoury. “It’s fun to work while listening.” The oldies channel is his favorite.

“It changes your mood,” said Martin. “A lot of people forget that.”