Spring Cleaning for my Dysfunctional Garden Cabinet

I wish I had this garden shed. I wish I had the type of yard that could handle it. Maybe. Probably not, really. Most likely that much yard would overwhelm me with the to-do list.

What I have instead is a garden closet, custom made for me by my brother when he was learning woodworking. He did an excellent job creating an outdoor cabinet that would fit onto a small space available on my deck. At the time he made the cabinet, I wasn’t doing extensive gardening and didn’t have many tools other than the basics.

As I’ve begun gardening in a big way over the past two years, I’ve accumulated many more tools. With each addition, I just crammed it in as I could, and the cabinet became as dysfunctional as Ally McBeal.

So after digging out lawn grass for an hour in the slowly expanding sun-bed in the front yard and planting some roses, I decided that the gorgeous weather today warranted a spring cleaning. While the tile was being grouted on my new kitchen backsplash, I spent the day outdoors.

First, I pulled everything out of the cabinet, and cleaned it all with the water hose.

The small tools and junk that filled the shelves on the left side of the cabinet.

The larger tools and more junk that filled the right side of the cabinet to overflowing.

Then I took the water hose to the inside of the cabinet, mainly to get rid of all the dirt dobber nests inside (hate those things, especially after getting bitten so many times last year).

See those mud-nests inside there? How much fun was it to get attacked by stinging terrorists everytime I opened that d**m cabinet!

I sorted through the junk, threw away what needed to be tossed, added some things to my quickly growing garage sale pile, and determined what needed to happen for the remainder to be functional again.

Bizarre pieces of junk were found

Pulling out my wonderful pink power tools, I added hooks for many of the tools to hang off the floor and stay in place. Then I reorganized the entire cabinet, moving a shelf, and making it functional once again (my favorite word…functional). It holds a lot to be less than 3′ wide!

I can actually find things now. And I don't get stung. Much less cussing occurs.

I realized that I needed a small tool bucket to carry my most used favorites around with me in the yard, instead of losing them, leaving them somewhere, and walking all over the garden and house to find something else that I need. I found the perfect container in the kitchen; a housecleaning caddy! It fits into the narrow shelves in the cabinet perfectly, and is nice and lightweight. And best of all, it was free.

My favorite gloves, my knee pad, my favorite trowel and my Leatherman MultiTool get the most use, but I've also thrown in tape for wandering vines, yard scissors, a screwdriver and there's room for my water bottle, too.

I even found a string of wonderful outdoor lights that I had forgotten about. Now to figure out where to put them in the yard.

love the silver with the Texas star

The cabinet is now organized, clean and a wasp-free zone. I love spring cleaning!

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New Tools – Oh Yeah!

My SO is excellent at keeping the electronics of the home in fine, updated and efficient order. My computer is fast, fast, fast, and my software is the latest and greatest. But when it comes to repair and maintenance of household things, well, let’s just say that I’m the handyperson of the house. So if you find yourself in a similar position, I know you will rejoice with me when you see my new tools!

The first one is a belated (backordered) Christmas gift. It’s a wonderful, swiss-army-type of Garden tool from Leatherman for walking around the yard. It comes with a pouch and belt clip that I forgot to take a photo of.

First, it’s tucked away nice and neatly.

Leatherman Tool

Then the first thing you have as you open it up is a pruning tool for those quick cleanups as I stroll around and see a flower to bring indoors or deadhead.

Leatherman snips

Continuing to open it, you can see the best part…a sprinkler head tool! I am forever walking around and looking at the spray on my heads in my efforts not to waste water, and never have the right tool at the right time to adjust it. This will be a major frustration saver. This side of the handle also has a small saw blade for those tougher twigs and a bottle opener for that refreshing pause with a tasty beverage.

Leatherman sprinkler tool and saw

The other side of the handle contains a Phillips head screwdriver (for those stupid screws that are constantly backing themselves out of my deck and then I trip on them and stub my toe and cuss a lot), a tiny weed puller with a ruler on the other side of the blade, and a knife edge for opening bags of mulch and stabbing mosquitos that attack.

Leatherman knife edge and weed puller

Here it is in all its glory!

Leatherman MultiTool

Last weekend, I went to the Austin Home and Garden Show at the convention center. I normally don’t bother going, because as much as I love my home town, this has always been the lamest Home and Garden show I’ve ever seen in my life. I grew up in the DFW area, and I suppose I got spoiled attending the Dallas Home shows, which are fabulous and huge. However, I’m about to embark on a kitchen remodel (don’t worry, you’ll see pics soon), and I thought I might learn one small thing at the show that could help.

I didn’t learn anything about my kitchen, but I did find….PINK POWER TOOLS! Here’s what I especially love about them, besides the great pink color. They are sized for smaller hands, and weigh less than manly tools. Oh yes, there is a Goddess!

The stand-out of the bunch is this light weight, yet very powerful, impact drill/driver. For those of you that aren’t familiar with them, let me tell you, it puts you right up there on the same level as those hairy men when it comes to screwing things into wood. Here’s a description from the Tomboy website: “It works just like a drill/driver – until it encounters resistance. At that point the “impact” feature kicks in. In other words, a spring in the impact driver starts “bumping” the bit rather than continuously turning it. It would be similar to taking a hammer and repeatedly tapping the side of a tight nut. Note that the driver doesn’t tap the screw into the work. It taps the screw to the side, for tightening or loosening. This lessens the chance of it splitting the wood, and the tool does the hard work for you so you just hold it. I love my impact driver because (1) it is smaller and lighter than ordinary drills, (2) it has far more torque, so the driver does the work without your having to push it, (3) because of the spring-based operation, it is easier on batteries and they last longer.”

Tomboy Tools impact driver

When the saleslady asked me “Do you ever find yourself, when measuring something, having to count those little tiny lines to figure out if it’s an eighth, a sixteenth, or whatever?” Oh my god, Yes, and it’s so annoying! Well, obviously I’m not alone. Here’s their solution, that I snapped up instantly.

Tomboy tape measure

And if I want to have just one tool in my pouch as I walk around the yard, or one tool in the kitchen for quick repairs, here’s an excellent, lightweight but powerful ratchet with 10 different heads for small repairs. All the heads store inside the handle of the tool so I won’t lose them.

Pink Ratchet

Then, lastly, I picked up this sweet little apron for wearing in the garden or in the house when working on repairs; lightweight with tons of pockets, and short enough not to get in the way when I bend over. Unfortunately, she didn’t have it in pink except in a gardening kit (which I didn’t need the tools in it), so I had to get blue.

And because every girl likes to have a nice bag, the drill/driver comes with this cute case. There were other carrying cases I could have purchased, but I had already spent my budget and then some, so I had to stop. Next Christmas, maybe?

Storage Bag

Tomboy Tools is a company I was previously unfamiliar with, but it is apparently sold through home parties, kinda like Tupperware, Mary Kay Cosmetics, or Avon. I love how we’ve progressed, ladies!

You know, I neglect to mention, that my MOST favorite tool is a strong man who loves lifting things, but I digress. What are your favorite tools?