As the maintenance manager in a large Victorian house, I spend a lot of time on stepladders replacing lights, smoke-alarm batteries, Venetian blinds and so forth. Needless to say, these tasks require a lot of small screws that are easily lost in pockets or drop off the ladder’s top rung. My solution isn’t earthshaking, but it sure makes life easier when I’m using small fasteners.
As shown in the drawing, I applied a strip of hook-and-loop touch fastener (hook side) to the top rung of the ladder. Then I stuck a piece of the loop portion of the fastener to the top of a spray-can lid. This little bin holds plenty of small screws, nuts, nails and washers when need be I’ve even applied the loop stuff to hand tools such as screwdrivers and pliers to keep them in their proper place.
—Becky Blanton, Charlottesville, VA
Edited and illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #122
