I finally started sorting my screws by length in old baby food jars, and it cut my build time by almost an hour

Jessica Dixon · 2026-10-14T11:45:04.757259+00:00

I was at my buddy Dale's garage in Toledo helping him hang some upper cabinets when I watched him grab the right screw on the first try, every single time. He keeps his whole collection in clear baby food jars sorted by length, and he labels the lids with a sharpie so you can read them from the top of the shelf. I went home and did the same thing with about 40 jars I got free from a mom group on Facebook, and now I don't dig through a coffee can for 5 minutes hunting a 1 1/4 inch screw. On the last pantry job it probably saved me close to an hour across the whole build, which matters when you're billing flat rate. The labels wear off after a while though, so I've started putting a piece of clear tape over the sharpie. How do you all store your fasteners so you're not dumping a whole bin out on the bench?

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I finally started sorting my screws by length in old baby food jars, and it cut my build time by almost an hour | Cabinetmakers - Rigidtalk