Our poor tools. Remember when they used to live in our kitchen? For a while they were tucked into a cabinet and shoved into a junk drawer, but that arrangement didn’t survive the changes we made to our kitchen layout.
When we replaced part of the kitchen with a large peninsula a few months ago, the cabinet that once held those tool drawers had to move. It didn’t break so much as get relocated to what I like to call cabinet purgatory: the sunroom. For three months the drawers and their contents were scattered across our daybed while we juggled book photoshoots, lighting, and a million other things. In short: we were living out of boxes and piles and calling it organized chaos.
With so much photo equipment crowding the house—giant backdrops, lights, tripods, reflectors—it became clear the temporary solution had to end. The cabinet that once stored our tools was taking up valuable space, and pushing it around to get it out of the way wasn’t a long-term plan. Instead of buying a new storage unit, we decided to retrofit the existing cabinet and turn it into a functional tool storage solution. It was free since we already owned it, and retrofitting cabinets is a great way to reuse and save money.
Our first step was to remove the upper section that had housed a wall oven and extra cabinets. We tipped the cabinet over, used a straight edge to mark the cut lines, and then I grabbed a jigsaw and made the slices where the top drawer ended. That left us with two separate pieces. The top piece came apart easily once I finished cutting; I broke it down further with a hammer and added the clean wood scraps to the recycle pile. We’ll check with our local recycling center to see if they take clean wood, since donation centers usually won’t accept pieces like that.
The remaining base, the part that contained the drawers, found a temporary home in a corner of the sunroom. It’s functional but cosmetically rough—these cabinets have the old eyesore drawers that all our original kitchen cabinets had. There’s definitely room for improvement with primer, paint, and updated hardware when we have the time. For now, though, it does the job: the tool drawers are back in functioning, pull-out drawers for the first time in over three months. Simple, sensible tool storage makes life feel normal again.
I won’t show the inside of the drawers in detail because they still need organizing—there’s a clear opportunity to implement a drawer organization system that separates screwdrivers, pliers, measurement tools, and small parts into labeled compartments. But the important part is done: we reclaimed floor space and converted an awkward cabinet into useful tool storage without buying anything new. It feels like a small victory in the ongoing effort to get our house back in order after months of photo shoots and projects.
This little retrofit should probably be filed under “Dude, get on that already,” since having drawers of tools scattered across a daybed for more than 100 days definitely earned that scolding. Guilty as charged. The cabinet purge reminded us that many households struggle with where to store tools—some people use the garage, a basement, a shed, an attic, a spare room, or even the kitchen. Tool storage can vary widely depending on space and lifestyle, but converting existing cabinets into organized tool drawers is an easy, budget-friendly option for many homes.
So what have you been retrofitting or hoarding for too long? Do you have a cabinet purgatory in your home where things go to wait for a final decision? Share your tool storage solutions: where do you keep the tools, and what systems have you used to keep them organized and easy to access? We’d love to hear practical ideas for efficient tool organization, whether that means retrofitting cabinets, building a wall-mounted pegboard, installing labeled drawers, or creating a mobile tool cart.
Psst—We announced this week’s giveaway winner and enjoyed all the creative poetry entries. Check the giveaway post to see if you’re the winner of the hundred-dollar flower prize.