Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Tool Storage Locations Made Obvious

pegboard with tool outlines

To prevent misplaced tools, paint a silhouette of each tool on the pegboard, so it's obvious where it goes. I've read this suggestion many times: here and here and here, for example.

Domino magazine even shows doing the same thing with pegboard used for pots and pans. Update on May 10, 2010: Domino Magazine has folded, and its web site is gone.

(Of course, not everyone agrees - here's one who doesn't use tool outlines.)

But if you do want to use tool outlines on a pegboard, here's another alternative: use tool outline decals.

9 comments:

Michele said...

That outline-less, pegboard-less toolboard is beautiful! I don't know if I want to be that committed to where my tools are though - I like the flexibility and availability of accessories for pegboard. It's amazing someone actually makes tool decals - nice find!

Anonymous said...

All those tools scratch the painted peg board. I hate that.

- John

Allison Spitzer Carter said...

Outline means I can't change my mind later and makes it hard for me to add more. I'm a big re-arranger.
Best used for people who let others borrow their tools and want to keep track of what is "out".
I like my peg board too so we can move things around as we add and subtract from our stuff.
-- Allison

Jeri Dansky said...

Michele, John, and Allison: Thank you all for your comments and added perspectives.

I too am a re-arranger and wouldn't want the outlines myself - but as Allison points out, they have their place.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't resist chiming in here on a somewhat related topic.

Not too long ago, while in DC, museum hopping, I stood mesmerized for an hour in front of Julia Child's kitchen. She had the pegboard-pots-n-pans thing down to a science.

You can take a look here:
http://www.current.org/people/peop0216child.html

Jeri Dansky said...

Geralin, thanks for commenting! I've read about that display - I should have mentioned this related post - but I've never seen it in person. I can only imagine how spectacular it must be

Anonymous said...

Jeri,

That is a much better photo!

My memory may be playing tricks on me however, long ago, I remember seeing Julia Child's kitchen on TV and she didn't have all the nice, shiny copper pots and pans. Instead, she had a more "random" looking assortment.

In addition, I don't remember the pegboard being blue & everything coordinating.

Finally, I could have sworn she had drawn outlines around every single pot,pan, colander, kitchen scissors, etc. on her pegboard.

It was nothing short of amazing to me as a young girl;organized-chaos at it's best. LOVED it!

Did I imagine all that or did the museum give Child's kitchen a "makeover?"

My apologies in advance for getting off topic; we were talking about tools...sigh

Jeri Dansky said...

Geralin, in a more general sense we were talking about pegboards and outlines - so we're really still on topic. And besides, diversions are interesting!

You got me curious, so I went looking to see what else I could find about Julia's kitchen.

First, I found more pictures of her kitchen from her actual home. There were multiple pegboards, and they weren't all blue.

And then I found the picture here - scroll down a bit - which does show outlines of the pans!

Anonymous said...

Not that I'm surprised but, once again, outstanding research Jeri!

My middle-aged mind is not failing me after all. Grin!

While reviewing the photos, I couldn't help notice Julia's utensil containers, knife storage and the fact that she moved things around on the pegboard and left the original outline.

As you know I love your blog but I especially enjoyed this post; a delicious trip down memory lane.

~~~
Both Julia's kitchen and your blog are soul food for me!