Hello everyone. Up in our Canadian office we decided to hold a “garage makeover” contest. We asked employees to send in pictures of their “messy” garage and tell us why they needed a makeover with the Rubbermaid FastTrack® product line. The winner would receive free; design consultation, product and installation from their friendly Canadian marketing department.
We received a lot of creative and compelling entries but after careful deliberations we finally settled on one of our workers from the Mississauga manufacturing plant. As you can see from the picture….her garage was quite a mess.
It had stuff everywhere which made it difficult to find things and prevented her from parking her car inside. She had a lot of tools, paint supplies and a variety of other items that made the room scream ‘chaos.’
After a quick consultation we knew right away that she needed to take advantage of the new FastTrack® Cabinet line. Against her back wall we set up the tall unit, three top cabinets and then two base units with pull-out shelves. This way she got to hide all kinds of objects in the cabinets and still keep some frequently-used ones accessible in the cubbies.
In addition to those benefits, the cabinets hang on the FastTrack® rail which made it easy to level despite her non-level floor (as is the case in most garages) and will allow her to sweep underneath to keep things tidy.
Needless to say she was very excited about our progress. She loved fact that the cabinets both organized and hid everything giving a clean look and a sense of calm to the formally hectic garage. In the next installment I’m going to take everyone through what we did on the adjacent wall with the FastTrack® rail and other accessories….you won’t recognize the finished product.
What do you think of the makeover so far? Would that be a contest you’d be interested in entering?
I have received a few questions lately on how to correctly use Produce Saver so I thought I would put together a handy “how to” guide based on my own experiences to help answer any questions that may be out there.
First, purchase Produce Saver in the size that will best fit what you are intending to store. For a traditional pack of strawberries, the 5 cup Produce Saver should work nicely. For a large bunch of grapes or a small head of lettuce the 14 cup would be better suited. Finally, for a small container of raspberries or blueberries, the 2 cup should be just about right.
Once you bring produce home from the grocery store or farmer’s market don’t wash it before storing. Moisture will only increase the risk of decay.
Make sure the Crisp Tray™ is in the bottom of the container. Place the produce in the container taking care to not pack the produce in too tightly so it doesn’t get bruised or damaged.
Place the lid on the container and store in the refrigerator. Produce Saver containers easily stack on top of one another or with other Rubbermaid food storage containers.
You’ll see that excess moisture will settle in the bottom of the container beneath the tray. The vents in the side of the lid will allow produce to breath even with the lid on to protect the produce.
When you are ready to consume the produce, take out what you need and wash it before consuming or preparing. Now you’re ready to enjoy fresh produce!
A couple of other tips: if you purchase produce that is already packaged in a pre-sealed bag such as bagged lettuce, it’s best to keep the lettuce in the pre-sealed bag until you are ready to use it. The pre-sealed bag is really the best environment for the lettuce because it has been infused with special gases designed for preserving the lettuce for as long as possible. Also, Produce Saver is best for un-cut produce that is still in the same form as when you purchased it.
When storing Produce Saver, you can save space and keep organized by snapping the lids and trays together and then snapping them to the bases of the nested containers. It’s a great way for finding your lids and trays with ease!
This is my first post on the Rubbermaid.com blog. I should probably write a great piece about how great our trash cans are, seeing as I am the Product Manager for what we call Home Waste. But, I have to be honest – up until recently I have hated trash cans, and here is why:
When I bought my first house back in Portland, OR close to 6 years ago I had a lot of yard work to catch up on. The sellers had really let it go. When they moved away they left two 32 Gallon Wheeled cans by the side of the house. I decided to put them to work, carting yard debris from the back of the house to the front where the city’s yard debris container was located.
I spent a good two hours in the hot summer sun edging the lawn in the back, cutting it back 2-3 inches, 6 inches deep. The trimmings were thick and dense, so once I filled the can up with them it probably weighed a good 80 pounds (which you should never do). I started pulling the can across the grass, but with that much weight in the can it was slow going and the wheels started cutting into the grass. Not half-away across the yard the can tipped over and spilled out. I was not happy.
I got down on my hands and knees, scooped all the trimmings back into the trash can, and then fought with it to get it standing upright again. Another 20 feet, another tip, and I was back down trying to get the spill cleaned up and the can standing up. I finally made it across the lawn and to the side of the house, and things got worse. Instead of bark dust or just dirt between the deck and fence, the side of the house was covered in medium sized river rock. This proved to be an even more unstable surface to “roll” the trash can over, so again it tipped twice more. And river rock is much less fun to kneel on, let me tell you.
By this point I was furious and my wife can attest to the fact that I left that trash can, tipped over and spilling with lawn trimmings, for another two days before I finally cooled off enough to clean it up and finish the job.
From that experience forward I hated trash cans. Now I work for Rubbermaid and manage the creation of new trash cans. Everyday I sift through product design reviews, customer service reports, and work with engineers to optimize our plans moving forward. The whole time I focus on how to make trash cans that really do make life a little easier. I know a good trash can will never change the world or go so far as to make people truly happy, but at the very least a trash can shouldn’t ruin your day. That’s my goal, anyway.
I'd like to welcome our newest Rubbermaid blogger, Jamie Baker.
Jamie is a consumer services representative for Rubbermaid. She's the one who tells me about all the errors I make on the website as you, our customer, find them :)
Let's make Jamie feel at home. Leave her a comment or two.
With working in Consumer Services for a few years, summertime is peak season for technical questions with our outdoor product line. There is one scenario that plays over and over throughout the department on the average work day: "My deck box falls apart every time I open it". From a consumer perspective, it can be very aggravating that such a simple assembly can result in such a frustrating situation. The answer to the problem, in most cases, is that the floor is upside down.
I understand that this does not seem possible as the deck box looks exactly like the photo on the carton. No worries, let me explain.
To verify correct assembly, you will need to open the deck box and look down at the floor. If you can see a part number molded into the plastic or there are deep dents and "valleys" visible, your floor is upside down. Disassemble the unit and flip the floor over so that the "smooth" side is facing up and the sloped lip of the floor is in the front; reassemble.
The deck box should now function as intended and open without falling apart. Mission accomplished!
If you need further assistance, our Consumer Service Department can be reached by calling 1-888-895-2110 Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm ET.
I love my garage! I never expected it to turn out this good.
I'll be honest. When I started this project I had a few preconceived ideas about how it would turn out. I figured my garage would look better than it was prior to the project but I wasn't expecting miracles. I had also anticipated the cleaning, assembly and organizing to be fairly difficult and time consuming.
I was wrong. My garage IS better than before, and the makeover/transformation DID perform miracles. I had no idea how nice my garage would become. It's clean, organized, great looking and most importantly extremely user friendly.
The wall with the FastTrack rails and hooks is great. Hanging and organizing the infrequently used bikes, ladders and tools opened up so much floor space. The new steel-reinforced resin shelves allows my family to keep often used items nearby and accessible. The rail-mounted FastTrack cabinets are great for storing tools, chemicals and other random items that don't need to be in plain view. My garage now seems twice the size. I actually enjoy being in it. But before I go on too long about the completed makeover, let me tell you about the final weekend of the project.
The Final Weekend
Coming home from work on Friday evening I knew that by end of this weekend I was going to be done with the garage makeover project (what am I going to blog about now, suggestions welcome). With the experience of prior weekends under my belt I was fully aware that breaking the remaining tasks into easily manageable chunks was the best way to approach the final leg.
So before I went into the house I decided to assemble the corner tool caddy my wife had picked up at Ace Hardware during the day. I wasn't sure how much time it would take but I knew it couldn't take too long. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box to find only five parts. Assembly only took a few seconds. It actually took longer to open the box than to build it. One task complete only a few more to go.
The Cabinet Build
Waking up early Saturday morning (trying to avoid the heat of a North Carolina July) I made a pot of coffee and headed to the garage. In tow was my trusty, but sleepy, helper Shannon. The task today was to assembly all of the wall cabinets. Having plenty of experience building 'ready-to-assemble' furniture I had a good idea what to expect. Read the directions first, gather the required tools, review the directions one more time, then start. (NOTE: Follow the directions for each and every cabinet. After assembling three cabinets I figured I didn't need the instructions anymore. Of course I missed a step on the fourth one and had to undo some of my work.)
The assembly was rather straight-forward. Take part A, insert screw B, you now have part C. Again, I must give credit to the Rubbermaid engineering, product and graphics teams for creating a very easy to understand instruction manual. You guys rock! A few hours later I had all of the cabinets assembled sitting neatly in my very clean garage.
The Final Day
The final day of my garage makeover project consisted of a few tasks. I needed to remove my two old shelves along with all of the stuff on them. Six new FastTrack rails had to be mounted to the wall. And I had to hang the cabinets onto the rails. Oh, and I had to move all of the stuff from the old shelves back into the new cabinets while sorting and purging during the process.
Taking down the old shelves and moving everything on them into the driveway was as expected. I actually felt like a treasure hunter. Who knew I had a robin nest on the top shelf. Once everything was moved into the driveway and the old shelves dismantled I was able to begin mounting the FastTrack rails.
As I described in my previous post the mounting / installation of the FastTrack rails is a fairly easy process. I did run into a little snag as the only outlet in my entire garage ended up being exactly where I wanted to install one of my bottom rails. I ended up mounting the rails a few inches lower than I had initially planned (which actually turned out to be a good thing).
With the rails mounted on the wall I was ready to hang the cabinets. This step required two people so I had to go get my wife, Susanne, to help. Hanging the cabinets was very simple. Pick up the cabinet, hang/clip it to the rail, tighten a couple screws and you're done. The process of hanging the cabinets only took 15-30 minutes.
The final step of the entire garage makeover project was to move the rest of "my stuff" back into the garage. This was time consuming as I tried to be very strategic about what went where. Shannon kept asking, "why do you keep putting stuff in and taking it back out?" I told him he should go play basketball :)
I'm Astonished
Standing in my super wonderful, awesomely organized, and just plain great garage I was somewhat astonished. My new garage exceeded all expectations. Everything about it was perfect. There's really not much more I can say... aside from the fact that I've had two neighbors and one friend who now want to do the same thing. They are a little shocked when I tell them I used only Rubbermaid products. They had no idea.
Best of luck to you in your garage makeover.
Be sure to take some photos or video so you can share your project.
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- Flickr Photo Gallery
With one corner of my garage organized, a feeling of accomplishment under my belt, and a good nights sleep behind me, it was now time to install the FastTrack garage organization system on one of the two walls remaining to be organized. Referring back to the plan I had sketched earlier I decided to work on the wall I wanted to utilize to hang bikes, ladders, sports items, tools and other miscellaneous items.
The first step in this project was to move all of the junk and clutter away from the wall and into the driveway. This allowed me to "find & discover" an amazing array of garbage, lost toys and a few pennies. With the area clean and free of clutter I was able to move forward with the installation of the FastTrack rails.
My plan was to hang two rows of rails, three rails in each row. This configuration, per my sketch, allowed me to utilize an entire wall in my garage to hang and organize my stuff.
To ensure the rails got installed properly I decided to read the instructions before beginning to drill any holes (plus my friends in the Rubbermaid graphics departments spent so much time putting them together I thought I'd read them). I found this to be a very important step as the instructions gave me information on what height the rails should be mounted as well as details regarding stud location and drywall anchors.
Armed with a significant amount of dangerous knowledge Shannon and I began the installation of the rails. To begin this process we measured and marked the height at which the rails would be installed followed by drawing a straight horizontal line, using a standard level, across the wall with a pencil. I would have preferred to use my Strait-line laser level but I didn't have any batteries and I wasn't going to make a special trip to the store.
Next in line was to mark the stud locations. I used an electronic stud finder to make this task easy and accurate. With the studs located and marked it was time to begin mounting the rails.
Mounting the rails was a relatively simple task. I held the rail against the level line marked on the wall while matching up the pre-drilled holes in the rail to the stud locations. Shannon then marked the locations to be drilled with a pencil. We continued that process for the remaining rails.
The next step was to drill the holes (NOTE: I referred back to the instruction manual prior to drilling just to confirm I had done everything correctly so far) and install the necessary drywall anchors. With the holes drilled it was time to attach the rail to the wall. Attaching the rails to the wall was also very simple. It was just a matter of screwing the screws into wall. This only took a few moments since I utilized a drill to set the screws.
I was now 95% done. All that was remaining was to snap the FastTrack accessories onto the rail and hang my stuff on the accessories. Snapping the accessories to the rails was VERY simple. It only take 5 seconds to attach to a rail. Moving or rearranging the accessories was just a matter of un-snapping them and moving them to a new location. This came in very handy as I arranged and rearrange the wall a few times to get it organized the way I wanted it.
Voila, one wall done and it looks great! Total time spent on this wall was about 2 1/2 hours start to finish. Only one more wall to go. That's a project for next weekend.
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From my previous posts you've learned that my garage was a complete disaster AND I've committed to getting it cleaned up and organized.
The first step I took was to make a plan. Once I had a plan, which resulted in a shopping list, I went to the store, purchased the products needed, brought them home and unloaded them into my still very messy garage. I now stood in my garage staring at this new pile of 'mess' and became a little overwhelmed.
I just didn't know where to go from here. There was an entire garage that needed cleaned, shelving that needed built, FastTrack rails that had to be hung and a bunch of organizing to do.
My solution.... go water the tomato plants. After about 15 minutes of therapeutic watering I had solved my problem. I was going to take it one step at a time. Instead of thinking of the project as a single task that had to be completed immediately I decided to break it into smaller tasks and do one thing at a time.
Walking back to the garage I made the decision that I'd do the easy things first. The easiest task on the list was to put together the new steel-reinforced resin shelves. That seemed to be very doable. I had no idea how long it would take but I estimated about 30 minutes. 15 minutes later I had finished building two 5-shelf units. They were extremely easy to build. I even let my Shannon, 8 year old son, do much of the work.
Spurred on by a great sense of accomplishment (and a son who wanted to do more work) I decided I could move on to the next most logical task... organizing the corner where these new shelves would sit.
Again, with the "one step at a time" mind set, I proceeded to move all of the junk and clutter from the corner to the middle of the garage. Then I began to dismantle a few old wire shelves that were not helping to keep the garage organized.
TIP: When removing the wire shelving back clips, remove the nail from the clip prior to removing the clip from the wall. This will allow the clip to slide cleanly from the drywall. Otherwise you'll end up pulling the anchored clip from the drywall and leaving a large hole. Trust me on this;)
With the wire shelving dismantled, the clutter removed from the corner and the dirt and dust swept, I had a fresh canvas to work with. Next step... move the new shelving into place and begin organizing and moving items back onto the shelves.
This was a very important step. I first had to keep in mind that two new shelves didn't mean I should put everything and anything onto them. I took a look at how we use that area of the garage (near the stairs/entry to the laundry room, store shoes, easy access to items needed in the home, etc.) and determined what I needed to move into that area. This was a very critical step as it allowed me to purge items that we don't use frequently, prioritize the items that we use often and determine just what got added to these new shelves.
The outcome was a fairly organized set of shelves that are not cluttered, allow for easy visual scanning of items and extremely convenient. A nice addition to my new shelves were 6 new small and mid-size clear Rubbermaid totes to hold miscellaneous small items. All-in-all, a small project that will make a big impact on my families life. (See the before photo at Flickr)
With one area of the garage makeover project complete, I choose to savor the feeling of pride and accomplishment and opted to work on the other areas of the garage at a later date.
One step at a time and soon I'll have walked a mile. I'm now looking forward to the next task and ultimately the finished project.
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Here are 4 SIMPLE Organization rules that I like to think about before I begin organizing an area of my home.
1. Store things close to where they are first used.
I always wait until I jump in the shower to realize that I'm out of shampoo. Now, I store extra bottles in a shower caddy INSIDE the shower. I'm never caught unprepared!
2. Store like things together.
My outdoor candles, grill lighters, bug spray and small lanterns are all in one place - right by the deck door. Sometimes I just take the whole clear container outside with me and pack it up when we're ready to come inside again.
3. Keep frequently used items close by.
I always cook in one corner of my kitchen. I have a "catch all" drawer organizer that's perfect for my spatulas, drainers, whisks and tongs. I don't use my blender very much. So it's in an over-head cabinet.
4. Store with Safety in mind.
Keep flammable substances away from heat sources and use safety locks on cabinets accessible to children.
What about you? Do you have any simple rules to add to the list? Just leave a comment below.
Planning is half the battle (or at least some of the battle).
If you read my previous post you know that I’m in the process of a garage makeover. My garage was a total disaster (see photos on Flickr). I needed to do something to get it clean, organized and usable.
The first step I decided to take was to sketch up a layout of what I envisioned my new garage to look like. I already knew that I was going to utilize the Rubbermaid FastTrack garage organization system, new steel-reinforced 1,000 lbs shelves and a variety of totes and storage bins. (Some of you may suggest cleaning and purging first. I however plan on doing the cleaning and purging throughout the process. I’m already aware of what needs to be tossed, recycled, stored in the attic or given to Goodwill.)
To begin the sketching process I first had to take measurements of my garage. I measured the two walls that I planned to hang the FastTrack rails and I measured the small inset area by the steps leading into my laundry room.
Next I went to the Rubbermaid.com website to get dimensions for the various products. I was most interested in the length of the FastTrack rails (48” or 84”) and the width and height dimensions for the FastTrack base and top cabinets. These dimensions allowed me to calculate the number of rails I could use (6-48” rails on each wall, 3 on top, 3 on bottom) as well as determine how many cabinets and accessories could be placed on each rail.
After gathering the dimension information needed, I started to put pencil to paper (graph paper). However before beginning to sketch I had to ask my son Shannon to find the graph paper and ruler which he had appropriately stored under his bed. Each grid on the graph paper ended up representing 5”.
Sketching the layout was fairly easy and quick (view larger images at Flickr). I first drew the walls and then added lines for the rails. Since one of my walls is going to be cabinets I needed to accurately layout the cabinets. I decided to go with three base cabinets, two top cabinets, and potentially one large tall cabinet.
On the wall that utilized the standard FastTrack accessories, I started by laying out the large objects. Bikes and ladders were sketched first followed by the remaining items that need to be added. NOTE: I did take an inventory of the items that I planned on keeping prior to doing the sketch.
Once I was satisfied with the design and layout I made a little shopping list, gathered my kids and keys and headed off to the store. Being an employee of Rubbermaid I knew that my shopping trip was going to consist of visiting The Home Depot, Lowe’s Home Improvements and Walmart. The shopping trip ended up being very successful as I was able to purchase all of the items I needed.
That’s all for now, look for my upcoming post where I begin to tackle the assembly and installation.
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- Flickr Photo Gallery
Hello everyone. Up in our Canadian office we decided to hold a “garage makeover” contest. We asked employees to send in pictures of their “messy” garage and tell us why they needed a makeover with the Rubbermaid FastTrack® product line. The winner would receive free; design consultation, product and installation from their friendly Canadian marketing department.
After a quick consultation we knew right away that she needed to take advantage of the new FastTrack® Cabinet line. Against her back wall we set up the tall unit, three top cabinets and then two base units with pull-out shelves. This way she got to hide all kinds of objects in the cabinets and still keep some frequently-used ones accessible in the cubbies. 
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