Clear skies. Low 37F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Clear skies. Low 37F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.

I like a clean workspace. I arrange things around and on top of my desk so that I waste a minimal amount of time when I’m working on a project or task. Printer/scanner at my left elbow. Spare ink and printer paper, bottom left drawer nearest the printer/scanner. Pens/pencils/permanent markers, desk caddy, right side of this keyboard. Paper clips, rubber bands, scissors, same desk caddy. Three-hole punch, tape dispenser, stapler, directly in front of me, under the monitor stand. I’ve had this desk and this “setting” for about 11 years now. Yes, a place for everything and everything in its place.

The Army helped me hone my organizational skills, though being ADHD, a dash of low-level OCD, and a touch anal-retentive are proficiencies I ended up having an abundance of to begin with. During the same 11 years in which I refined my home office environment, I also conceived my garage/workshop area. My semi-outdoor venue was to be as efficient as my indoor setting. Here, I would recycle as many former household containers as possible in order to create a low-cost multi-level storage with immediate display capabilities. Garage/workshop storage bins and pegboard walls were all the rage and still are. However, I wanted to pay homage to my Grandpa and my Dad. Their ingenuity and practicality would inspire me.

First, storage solutions. If you thought it was hard to let go of a perfectly good 19-inch section of 2x4, imagine how wasteful it would be to toss out seven 5/16 inch, galvanized, flat washers. Baby food jars to the rescue (one-third of a twist, presto, it’s open). Screw the lids to a board or existing wood shelf. Fill glass jars with the various different items. Screw jars into place. No need to label anything, the items are enclosed in clear glass. Load up one jar too full? Weight of the contents tear the screw through the tin lid? Providing the jar didn’t break, quick repair, add a large washer to the screw, replace it into the board, in a slightly different area of the board. Done! Back in the day no one tossed out jelly jars (extra-points for the crystal cut-glass look or bonus points for the ones with mug-like handles). Yeah, you could purchase an entire case of Ball or Mason jars, but that would be like cheating would it not?

Kitchen items used to be the most plentiful and inexpensive storage solutions. There were Cool Whip tubs, Country Crock Shedd’s Spread tubs, Charles Chips (potato chips) in a round tin tub or Nabisco Premium Saltine crackers in a tall, square, tin box. With these storage solution gems, you had to make labels. Your penmanship skills came into play, always printed, not cursive words, always in all caps.

Never overlooked were gallon tubs of Neapolitan ice cream (I grew up with the round ones, but I’ve come to accept the rectangular ones). If you are a teensy bit older than me, you’ll remember butter and cheese came in a little wooden box with dovetailed end panels. Produce like apples and tomatoes used to come in wooden crates (so did many fine hard liquors). These items are a rarity these days, preferring to loiter on websites like Etsy and Poshmark. Sigh, a place for everything and everything in its place.

George Keck is an Army retiree, a drummer, and Lawton resident, off and on, since 1964.

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