Garage Locker Power Tool Organizer - Fits Between Garage Doors!

Lately our garage has been kind of a mess - my husband has been rebuilding our rotting deck and the power tools he has have multiplied with no good place to store them. I was getting tired of tripping over sanders and planers so I thought I’d come up with a way to get all the small power tools easily accessible and organized for his project. In my search I came across the perfect locker solution! | This post contains affiliate links |

I realized the space between our garage doors was vastly underutilized. It’s a skinny spot but tall - with a lot of potential for easily-accessible storage. I thought about building shelves there but then it would be open and kind of messy. I tried finding a cabinet that would fit but they were all too wide. Then I realized a locker would fit!

I searched for single-width lockers and found many options and considered doing a single tall locker or a double locker. But then I came across this amazing single-width locker with six doors/tiers! It was perfect for my needs - it fit right in between the garage doors and each tool could have it’s own cubby. This locker fit perfectly in our garage but make sure to measure your space first as you may have a narrower (or wider) space to work with. There was assembly required for the locker but it went together easily and then it was ready to use!

One important thing to consider before you put a locker in your garage is how you will contend with wet floors. We live in New England and in the winters especially our garage floors get quite wet when the snow melts off our cars… in order to protect the bottom of your locker from rusting you probably want to raise it up off the floor. For us we used a thick paving stone that fit well under the locker - though we did have to level it some with composite shims (similar ones linked) because our garage floors are slightly uneven. (Just slide the shim under the paver and break off when it's the right height - so easy!) You may also want to consider attaching your locker to the wall in some way if you’re concerned about it tipping.

| 6 Door Metal Locker |

Once we had our locker level and secured I labeled each cubby with what it contained (“Drills & Bits”, “Orbital Sander”, etc). To make the labels I just typed them up on my computer, printed them out on a sheet of cardstock, and cut them out.

This was an awesome and very easy project to do in our garage. We love how organized and accessible the tools are while still keeping them out of sight.

Why We Love Fryeburg Fair

The Fryeburg Fair in Fryeburg, Maine has been around since 1851 and while our family hasn't been going quite that long, it is long-standing tradition to go every year and we love it.  Why is it so great?  Well let me share why we love it so much.  

History

In our technology-driven world today, it's easy to take for granted things like power tools, heavy machinery, grocery stores, and easily accessible information.  But back in the day, everything you owned and everything you ate came from your own two hands.  If you couldn't build it, grow it, or fix it you weren't going to make it.  Ingenuity and hard work is what you survived on.  

At Fryeburg, they do a wonderful job showcasing and honoring the past with great museums full of old tools, working "one-lunger" engines that can run anything from an apple sauce maker to a wood splitter, Loretta's Kitchen (a working old-fashioned kitchen), blacksmiths, and more.  

In the event you see kids carrying around a length of heavy chain at the fair, don't worry - they didn't break out of jail. The blacksmiths have a great tradition of making a chain link for kids when they come to the fair and every year they can add another link to their chain.

Livestock

What's a fair without animals?  Well you're in luck, because Fryeburg has lots.  Horses, oxen, dairy and meat cows, chickens of all kinds, goats, pigs, rabbits, and more.  It's always fun to see all the different types of animals and watch the competitions.  

This horse has a better hair than me. So not fair.

Entertainment

Throughout the week, there is always awesome live entertainment scattered throughout the grounds but a great perk of the fair is the headliner shows put on almost every evening.  These shows are often big names and admission is included with your entry fee to the fair that day (just get to the show early to claim a good seat).  

This year we saw Brothers Osborne play and it was a lot of fun to see a band you hear on the radio in person, just wish my cell phone took better photos from a distance ;)  

Brothers Osborne warming up.

Family (of course!)

The biggest thing we love about the fair is spending time with loved ones and seeing our little one enjoy and appreciate the animals, the fun, and the history (even if she might not understand it all just yet).  Both of our families come from a long line of farmers and woodsmen and that's a heritage we don't want to forget about.  

Shop Fair Fashion

Our 4th Pampers Rewards: Melissa and Doug Tool Kit

If you're not familiar with Pampers Rewards, you can check my previous post here for all the details - but essentially it's a program to earn free gifts for buying Pampers diapers!  Our little girl has been really into "helping" Daddy build things lately, so we decided to get a tool kit just for her.  | This post contains affiliate links |

The tool kit is by Melissa and Doug and we were pleased with how sturdy it is. Our daughter really put it to the test, whacking the whole thing all over with the wooden hammer but it still survived.

The kit contains a wooden wrench, screw driver, hammer, bolts/screws, nuts, "nails", and some pieces of wood with holes in it that you can screw or nail together or attach to the side of the tool box.  

Miss M and Daddy have really been enjoying building with this set and we've even caught her "working" on her trains with the wrench - this Reward has definitely been a big hit!  

Want to see what else we got from Pampers Rewards?  Check out our other posts:  

• Our First Pampers Rewards - Free Gifts for Buying Diapers!  
• Our 2nd Pampers Rewards:  Little Tikes Shopping Cart
• Our 3rd Pampers Rewards:  Potty Training Chart

Please note, items available from Pampers Rewards are subject to change.  

Favorite Finds: Creative Market

Whether you're a just a crafter or a serious designer, Creative Market has a huge variety of typefaces, graphics, patterns, and more - think of it as Etsy for digital elements and tools.  

Creative Market is an incredibly useful resource whether your Illustrator skills aren't quite where you want them yet (shamefully raises hand) or if you just don't have the time to make all these elements yourself.  Some files are free, but most are for purchase-only.  Once you've downloaded the files, you can use them in your personal and commercial projects (just make sure you understand the limitations of their Simple License).  

Rustic, hand-drawn elements are huge right now and Creative Market has so many to choose from, like this one:  

There are also TONS of hand-crafted fonts which are also very on-trend, like this one:  

UPDATE 03/23/15:  For a limited time, if you purchase the "Northern Passage" font you'll also get the "Hand-Drawn Rustic Nature Elements"  set (pictured above) as a free bonus - great deal!