I was cleaning by basement up over the weekend and found I have a crap load of miscellaneous hardware sitting around. Screws, nuts, hinges, brackets, picture hooks etc.

 

So the question is:

How do you store this kind of stuff?

Depends.  Some use coffee cans, some use baby food jars.  I went to akro type bins though I still have a dishpan full of odd bolts and nuts that I usually start my "wtf is a bolt to fit this" search.

 

I have a coffee can for hose clamps despite having the akro bins.

I use coffee cans, misc cans, and plastic bins. No matter how many contains I have, there is always more stuff than contains! Then the labels fall off the containers and I don't even know what is in them. And of course I can't throw anything out.

Define crapload! lol. Being in the construction/handyman trades my whole life the stuff adds up. The see thu akra drawers are great for the little stuff but i also use jars, cans  boxes etc whatever...I have an assortment of shallow boxes/crates to hold all the bigger hardware and wtf stuff easy to rummage thru but anything sturdy like cat litter boxes work too. One thng i try to maintain is keep everything visable/accessable, out of sight is out of mind. And thats just the garage. Now the basement......

if you've got an unfinished basement, use various glass jars......nail the lids to the joists above your head, then screw the jars to the lids. outta the way, easily accessed.

Take Out Chinese food containers work pretty good. The pint and quart ones that you get soup in.

old cigar boxes

My grandfather had the ultimate system.  Baby food jars filled with odds and ends, then the jars in shoe boxes and the shoe boxes in a closet with a shelf system he set up just for the shoe boxes.  I swear, if I needed a rabbit, he'd probably could have produced one.  Really his trick was organization.  You can use just about any cabinet or bunch of  storage containers, but ya gotta be able to create a system you can stick to.

Take Out Chinese food containers work pretty good. The pint and quart ones that you get soup in.

 

But don't you just hate it when you reach for a bolt and it has lo mein on it 

Small hardware, I use the little plastic containers with dividers....like you would find in a fishing tackle box. I use a label maker to mark the contents of the compartment.

Larger stuff, I use coffee cans, or even old mason jars.

I use these Stanley boxes - they can be reconfigured to suit different sizes:

Depends upon the size of the screws/bolts/nuts.... For smaller items I'll use bigger baby jar types and drill a hole in their lids and mount them to the overhead beam with wood screw. For bigger items or when I have a sh*tload of them I'll use old plastic coffee containers. They won't rust and they hold large amounts just fine.

Bought two of those metal 3' wide x 6' high storage cabinets they use in offices.  Got them cheap at an auction.   For fasteners that aren't in the original box, I use the cheap, single-use Tupperware type storage containers from the grocery store.  Everything labeled and in it's place.

I use these Stanley boxes - they can be reconfigured to suit different sizes:

 

I have one of these to hold all of my picture hangers. You can carry it around with mixing up the contents.

But don't you just hate it when you reach for a bolt and it has lo mein on it 

Funniest thing so far this year here or IRL!!!

 

I've got a few bins: screws, nails, nuts, bolts, miscellaneous and mountain lion. Guess which one is empty.

Dumped in a spackel bucket and scraped!

What good is one hinge?

 

 

 

I have some kits, plumbing/ electrical.

But most 1 off floaters are scrapped.

Nail boxes opened I'll keep.

I have accumulated Rubbermaid shelving units that I stack the stuff on.