To admire DD's creative solution to stopping screwdriver theft?

[TheMadGardener]

Background: DH has lots of tools in his man cave in the garage, including numerous screwdrivers. I own 2 screwdrivers, one flathead, one crosshead. I keep my screwdrivers in a kitchen drawer so that they are handy if there is a small job to be done, e.g. tightening a handle, unscrewing a battery compartment, changing a plug, etc. If it's cold or wet I don't want to have to go out to the garage to find a screwdriver. So far, so reasonable, right?

DH (although a lovely person) has a bad habit of nicking my screwdrivers when he also can't be bothered to go out to the garage. This would be fine but often they t hen seem to end up in the garage mixed up with his tools instead of back in the kit chen drawer. His excuse is that they're the same make as some of his tools so he just gets confused.

DD1 (13) has heard me grumbling about screwdriver theft several times. She has now "customised" them in such a way that she says DH will never again be able to confuse them with his tools. (See picture). In return I am giving both DDs full use of all my tools for any DIY jobs they have in mind... What do you think of her handiwork?

Some MN jobsworth will moan, but I love the idea of girlie tools. Get DH to keep his mitts off my socket wrench!!

I bought pink flowery ones for the same reason

My tools live in my late dad's tool box. DH thinks they're all old and rusty so he doesn't bugger about with them.

I used to have one of those, Betty. In fact, when DH and I got together, we both had one.

I haven't seen either of them for years.

Mad

DD1 is now wondering if she could start a stall in our local pannier market and make her fortune selling customised tools!

Even though I have my pink tool kit, I would definitely buy more like yours if I saw them at my local market.

Pylones do a really good hammer with screwdrivers and bits which all fit inside, they're really pretty. I got one for my DM, hasn't stopped her partner from nicking them though.

Washi tape is also a good way to personalise phone chargers/cables to stop others nicking them getting them confused with their own! (Especially good for holidays with a big group)

Hate to burst your bubbly but like you my DH steels my tools and I customised them in pink didn't stop him or my sons now 14

Not quite the same, but on the construction sites where DH works there's always someone who forgets his hard hat. They have a spare pink one that you can borrow. No one ever accidentally takes it home.

I remember posting on a thread where the OP was monumentally pissed off at a pink tool kit and massively missing the point.

It wasnt "pink for girls" it was "pink to stop the thieving shits nicking our tools"! We dont care what colour they are, but the bollock owners would rather walk 100 ft in the driving snow than be seen with a pink screwdriver.

I think she is a bloody genius and
I would like to place an order please!

Sorry, but to me pinkified tools (or pens or anything else where some bright spark has decided to make a pink or flowery 'ladies' version) are really offensive. I do the DIY and so the tools are mine really. I quite like the idea of them looking fun and making them harder to lose (I'm also the loser of stuff) but I'd be really disappointed if any of the males in my household felt they couldn't possibly be seen with something pink. I'd also expect the pinkified tools to be more expensive and lower quality than the standard sets as they are essentially a gimmick.

I agree that I don't like flowery/pink "ladies"versions of tools generally. I am a serious gardener (as seen in my username!) and have quality gardening tools. Occasionally some elderly relative will give me a Christmas present of, e.g., a "ladies' gardening set"with a frail flowery trowel which bends as soon as you use it.

However, in this case I think DD could have used any colour from her extensive tape collection. I don't think the screwdrivers being pink/red will put DH off borrowing them occasionally. My hope (and DDs) is that now they look different to his tools he will put them back and not claim that he confused them with his own lookalike screwdrivers of the same make and put them away in the cold, dank man cave!

A woman I work with bought the most feminine umbrellas she could find to stop her husband and sons nicking them. It worked.

This sort of ruse does not always work.

When my three dses were at secondary school, I lost count of the number of pens they nicked, and the number of times I had to scour the whole house, to find a pen when I needed one, so I started buying myself pink ones - either pens that wrote in pink or ones that were pink but wrote in blue or black - and the buggers still nicked them!!

I was close to getting myself one of those pens they have in banks, that is chained down!

I have a pink hammer. It is not a euphemism.

It's the same principle as I had a really, really, seriously weird looking fake wood calculator at work, back before phones did sums. Even if someone else wanted to use it, I could always recognise it and retrieve it.

Reinforce it with hard stares and the occasional bitch fit and you get to keep your stationery, or tools in this case.

We're renovating our cottage and also installing new sheds etc. I'm having my own shed, for my own stuff, and DP will NOT have a key!!! I can't tell you how frustrated I've been at not being able to find anything when I need it. This will solve that problem

Yes, I have a small shed for my gardening stuff which is just mine and DH is not allowed to use it. He has his man cave in the garage so it's fair.