How This Brilliant Idea Made Life Easier in the Good Old Days!
August 23, 2024
Source: FB / Heather Barnett
As a child, I used to while away my time in my father’s garage, a place which was filled with the pungent odour of engine oil, wooden shavings and the rusty iron of old implements. It was a place from which every day was a new discovery, where every drawer or shelf contained a new secret. However, there was always one thing that caught my attention and that was the mason jars. These weren’t simply used for putting up pickles or jelly; no, they hung from the ceiling, filled with screws, nails, washers and other bits and bobs. He had screwed the lids to the ceiling beams and the jars into the lids so that they were readily available, sorted, and above all not cluttering up the workbench. It was a clever ploy though, something that I can now acknowledge as a fine example of practical thinking from an era that was so much less complicated.
As it happens, my dad was not the only one who utilized this space-saving trick. For many people with garages, basements, or sheds, mason jars or baby food jars as makeshift storage containers was as common as ABC. It was one of those hacks that made you scratch your head as to why it wasn’t standard practice. Still, with a few twists, one could have an entire hardware store’s worth of doodads and whatchamacallits right there in the palm of one’s hand.
This trick is as old as the jars, themselves. They were first introduced in the middle of the nineteenth century and they were used mainly for food preserving purposes. However, by the early part of the twentieth century when garages and home workshops started to be constructed, they were to serve another purpose – that of being a handy storage container. They were made of thick glass so they were quite sturdy yet as most of us came to know they were not completely unbreakable and the wide mouth was ideal for storing and categorizing small components. This was a time where people had to make the most out of the little they had and using item for a different purpose was a way of life.
What made this idea so beautiful was that it not only served a purpose but was reminiscent of a time when people did not have compartments and plastic bins in which to store their things. That is why they used what they could find, and more often than not, this was a set of mason jars in the pantry. This is also cultural in some way; it can be linked to the culture of the twentieth century, which was marked by frugal living and people having to depend on themselves. After the depression and the war people had to make do with what they had, and learning how to reuse everyday objects was a common practice.
While today we have plastic bins, tool chests and other modern storage solutions there is something highly appealing about the mason jar storage systems. It speaks of a time when life was a bit simpler, and folks had to get by with what they had, rather than running to the nearest mass merchandiser. This is a good a wake-up call that sometimes the most basic ideas are the most effective.
However, there was a catch as everything that was this good had to have something not so good about it. Glass jars particularly when they contained heavy material like steel nails or screws had a high tendency of getting crushed. My dad who always a careful man did not get into such accidents, but many people did. The only thing that was holding those pieces of glass and nails together was a thin layer of skin and one wrong move and you were left with a floor full of glass and nails. Nevertheless, the trick was not lost; it was inherited from one generation of tinkerers to the next.
Today, such a storage concept with mason jars suspended from the garage ceiling is not very common, but its idea is still popular. It is a testimony that as much as the world has been met with various technological advancements, there is still some unique aspect of traditionalism. Therefore, the next time you will be rearranging your work environment or searching for appropriate storage, do not forget about the mason jars. They may just be the most fantastic combination of functionality and the ability to take you back in time and make your day better.
When you are in your workshop, garage, or basement, you should be grateful for the small and simple inventions that have been useful to this date. It is really fascinating that it is often the most simple concepts – such as screwing a mason jar onto the ceiling – which we remember for the longest time. Who knows, may be you will use this tip one day to keep things organized, but mostly you will use it to remind yourself of how life used to be more direct and people had to rely on their wit.