Transform Old Jars Into A Thrifty Genius Workshop Storage Hack

There are an endless list of home hobbies that let you make something with your hands, requiring plenty of space and tools: sculpting, gardening, carpentry, jewelry fabrication, and so on =. Some folks keep their makerspaces contained to one craft room, whereas others are able to expand their workshops into their garage or a nearby shed. Having a home makerspace is also beneficial for children to not only be entertained, but also inspired toward more creative pursuits. However, many such creative spaces share a similar problem with storage, especially as the number of tiny pieces — nails, beads, or spools of twine and the like — expands alongside your growing expertise.

Tools and equipment should be stored properly, cleaned after they're used (especially for hobbies like gardening) and placed in a dry place to last longer, further justifying the long-term financial investment in your collection. Smaller baubles and one-off pieces of equipment can be harder to organize without them getting lost in a sea of accumulated junk drawers or opaque containers, especially when the pieces in question are various sizes of similar nuts and bolts. 

That's where old glass jars can come to the rescue with a thrifty DIY hack to create transparent, hanging, resealable storage containers for your workshop. We're long past the days of just using Mason jars to store and pour foodstuffs; these containers can be just as useful for storing your craft materials, and in effect double your storage space by utilizing both sides of your shelving.

To get started with this thrifty workshop jar storage solution, an idea shared on Instagram by user @tip_centric, take the screw-top lids off of your jars and lay them flat side down across a block of wood. The length of this wood block and the number of lids you set across it can easily expand based on the amount of storage you want to create, or how many empty pickle jars you have lying around — just try to find something as flat on top as possible, because the next step will be attaching those lids with as many screws as it takes to keep them steady. Two should be enough, but since the items they'll be holding are glass, do whatever makes you feel most confident in their ability to hang independently.

Once the lids are set, you can attach the block of wood to your wall, a utility cork board, or really any surface using L-shaped corner plates screwed into the top. In practice, this leveled stretch of wood should act as an extra shelf for workshop goodies like WD-40 or glue bottles, all the while you can fill the empty glass jars associated with each lid and then screw them on like hanging light bulbs. 

The simplicity of this DIY idea means you don't even have to create your own shelving; if something pre-made has enough width to hold a screw, you can hang jars off of more places in your workshop, compounding the available storage space in a way that lets you constantly see what small pieces are left.