If any projects involve screws, nuts, bolts, fasteners and tiny metal pieces, it's important to keep organized—especially in the midst of appliance repairs. When you’re breaking down an appliance, you’re bound to have a plethora of screws and hardware hanging around, waiting to get lost. Where do you put ‘em anyways? On a forward-leaning counter, ultimately rolling off into the abyss of missing screws? Next to a rug that decides to be a black hole when you go to grab a bolt? This is crazy talk going on. Let’s solve this problem once and for all.

Engineer of None over at Instructables shows you how simple it is to create a magnetic tray—a bowl, rather— with common household items.

Do you have a magnet? Cool. Have a plastic bowl? Even better. You can make a DIY magnetic tray to secure your small metal parts during your repairs and projects. No more missing screws. Hooray. The tray can also stick onto the side of a refrigerator or washing machine while the screws are in it, never falling out. Hello convenience to the max.

Engineer of None uses hot glue to adhere a speaker magnetic to the bottom of a silicone bowl. You can get away with any strong magnet though—such as hard drive magnet or anything heavy duty.

He then applies duct tape to the back of the magnet to prevent scratches or damage when sticking it to a metal surface. If you were to use this DIY magnetic tray in a customer’s home or appliance, pop on some felt or padded material to the back of the magnet to stay on the safe side.

It’s less sweat off your back when you have one less thing to worry about during a repair. Plus, the tray’s perfect for any spare and odd metal parts you may have lying around.

Toss that tray in your toolbox, and you’re well on your way to conquer that repair.

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Photo by: Engineer of None | Instructables

Stop Losing Screws During Repairs with a DIY Magnetic Tray