Spring Keeping…no typo here!

This post brought to you by Gladiator GarageWorks. The content and opinions expressed below are that of Lovely Crafty Home.

Yes, you read that right! While I'm all for purging items when necessary, sometimes you just need a better way to organize the things you have to create order from chaos. For anyone who is crafty or handy, it can be hard to get rid of potentially useful items like craft supplies, construction materials, even tools. But once you've whittled down your collection – then what?

For the past few months we have been working on tackling our basement (a.k.a. the man cave, dungeon, brewery, catch all storage, bike shop, workshop, etc). This has been a challenge for us because we both are on the side of hoarding. You just never know when you might need that scrap piece of wood or stack of half used sandpaper, mmmk?

Once we started going through box after box, it got kind of addicting to toss the things we didn't need while clarifying the purpose/usefulness of other items. We grouped like items together, creating new boxes for our “Spring Keeping” must haves like bike parts, hardware, paint supplies, and regularly used tools. I was pleasantly surprised by how many total boxes we were able to get rid of by consolidating in this way.

The next step was to find new homes for all of our new found goodies. Some were obvious, like sorting out the random hardware and putting it back in the little wall drawers. But one thing I really wanted to force help Mike with was getting a better sense of his tool collection and what he uses most. My goal was to be able to keep his go-to items close at hand, while storing some of the lesser used ones out of the way.

At this point in time I became absolutely fixated on creating more floor space, which required the installation of shelves to get cardboard boxes, buckets, etc, off the floor. I'm definitely more into this idea than Mike, who prefers function over aesthetics any day.

Fortunately we can have both! When we got the highly rated Gladiator GarageWorks Premier Series Modular Gearbox, I was super excited about 1) how durable it looked and felt, and 2) how much storage it had inside! I'm definitely one of those people that prefers to store things out of sight. So having the sleek exterior to hide whatever chaos Mike wanted to put inside made me happy – see, compromise can happen people!

Ok, so now for the before photo…try to reserve judgement, I know it's bad.

We decided to put the GearBox next to his workshop bench in place of the red cart, so it could be helpful in keeping his tools handy but all enclosed in one neat tidy package. It would also keep the tools away from dust and dirt, which is always a good idea to prolong the life of them.

After a bit more sorting and deciding which tools to keep handy, we came up with a much more clean and organized space!

So far we are loving the sleek new look – now to keep it this clean, right?! The new space on the bottom shelves of the work bench is perfect for keeping projects in process, instead of taking up space on the actual workbench. Plus there is additional workspace on top of the Gearbox, which has a nice wipe-able liner. 

I personally love the pull out shelf which makes it easy to see what you have and grab it with ease.

The GearBox also has a locking feature, great for security or keeping little hands away from the grownup tools!

I kinda wish we could get more of these modular units and deck out our whole basement…check out this sweet set up:

The options are really endless as their product line is huge! You can see the complete line of Gladiator GarageWorks HERE. I feel like the style of these units is really quite a universal industrial chic. Though mainly used in garages, these would also work in basements (obviously), laundry rooms, mudrooms, etc. There are some really neat inspiration pictures from real homes through an Instagram feed on their website. For more ideas on how to incorporate Gladiator GarageWorks into your home (and get the latest news on sales and coupons!) check out Gladiator GarageWorks Facebook Mike already has his eye on the highly rated GearDrawer