Work Kit

Kit Your shit

Imagine you go to work in the garden and want to take a strong pair of pliers and a strong pair of wire cutters. These things weigh your pockets down. Then you need to carry a heavy mallet, some gloves. You start work and see something that needs a spanner. Time to go back to the workshop. You leave things in a place you can find them again but not in direct sun. You go back to where you thought you left things and spend 10 minutes looking for your stuff. What was the thing you needed the spanner for again?

List of grievances

Long grass hides tools
Sun damages tools
A nail punctured my boots
Thorns in hands and feet
When screws lost in long grass
I forget tools

A tool kit

The solution is a tool kit. It must be small enough that I can carry it everywhere comfortably. Several items should be able to stay in it permanently i.e. the wire cutters and pliers (as well as some more). It must be easily visible from across the garden. It must be strong enough to hold the tools. It must be closable so that screws can be dropped in and it can be thrown over a fence if needed. It must be big enough to hold additional items such as gloves.

it's never as easy as I imagine

I hunted around the market here in Greece for something that would do the job I asked. There were a few good toolkits with nice bright trims. I was reluctant to use 'tactical' style items for their earthy/ camo colours. Unfortunately none of the standard toolkits I could find really fit all the criteria; whereas the tactical pouches were large, closable, adaptable, and strong.

I chose to opt for this option and then adapt it.

Make it my own

The tactical style pouch came in a nice tan colour, which did not meet the criteria one bit.

A trip to a shop that sells frills, string and webbing and for 5 euros I bought a meter of dayglow yellow chord, dayglow orange chord, as well as yellow and orange webbing. Also dayglow.

I then looked over the pouch and attached the chord and webbing where possible with the idea that however I leave the pouch on the grass it should be visible.

Naturally now I have a pouch, the tendency to leave it on the grass will be lower as I will be more likely to carry it back to shade.

What should go in the pouch

Naturally the pliers and the wire cutters were the primary tools that I wanted the pouch for. Pliers do so much from bending wire to pulling out that nail that went in my boot that time. Had I had pliers that nasty day I would not have hobbled with a shoe off through my thorny garden.

The list includes

Tweezers - for thorns, splinters and nails

Antiseptic

Plasters

Screwdriver + selection of bits

Knife

Pen

tape measure

bic lighter in ziplock bag

work gloves

Other tools?

Ultimately the toolkit should not be every tool I own in a bag, but the most typical tools I carry when working in and outside the garden. These are the little ones I easily forget, put down and misplace momentarily. The aim is to reduce the time wasted walking backwards and forwards.

Typical tools that I will often but not always add to this kit will be the fishing magnet and the mallet. The fishing magnet is to retrieve screws lost in the grass. As it is big and annoying I don't think it is necessary for every occasion. I think the mallet is much too heavy for this pouch and I will instead try to make it brighter and more visible so I can more easily carry it around the garden.