Take out the inside spindle, turn them upside down and fasten to an upper shelf and you have storage in the workshop for bolts, nails and all sorts of accessories. You can even glue the bottom, place magnets and have a removable storage container for your craft room or man cave!

Everyone has shelves, and I bet most of those shelves even when full, have some gaps.  My grandfather would screw the lid to an old mason jar to the bottom of the shelf, and then put screws, or washers or whatever bit’s and pieces into a jar and screw it onto the lid.  Then he had a long line, out of the way, of well organized bits and pieces.  I always loved this idea, and I did use glass jars on a shelf in my backroom for a while until I broke one.  I realized as great as the idea was, glass just wasn’t the ideal material to use for this application.   Well, at work I get blank CD’s and DVD’s by the 25 and 50 pack.  They come on these spindals.  Well, I decided about 8 years ago to re-purpose them for this kind of storage.  I have a workbench that has overhanging cabinets.  There are some gaps where nothing sits.    So since I had a couple of these spindals, I put them to use.  I now have adozen spindals waiting for the time I have a large enough work room/garage at home to put up shelving.  Until then, these two work great.

You can certainly use old glass jars to this same purpose but, simply said, glass breaks! Using these CD cases, made of plastic, is much safer and you can see through them too! It’s a perfect solution to a fairly crucial problem!

To read more, including where this idea came from, go to Average Guy Reviews.

It’s simple hacks like this that make the life of a homesteader and/or survivalist worth the effort!