Garage gear.

• Position: What's New? - From Rubbermaid Home Products

* Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines the noun "garage" as "a shelter or repair shop for automotive vehicles," which may have been the original purpose, but it's one that has changed considerably over the decades. The dictionary's definition of the word as a verb--"to keep or put in a garage"--is much more accurate nowadays. Homeowners have been cramming so much into their garages that, in some cases, the vehicle winds up in the driveway or at the curb, looking longingly at what once sheltered it from the elements. Shelves and other storage aids, lawn and garden equipment, tools, freezers, washers and dryers, and a myriad of other items deemed not suitable for display in the house proper have been relegated to the garage, rapidly supplanting the basement and attic as a storeroom, especially for heavy goods and/or those designed for messy cleanups.

This is not to say that what is encroaching into the garage environs is not useful. A number of new products are designed to make the homeowner's life easier and have earned a place therein. For example, the heavy-duty cabinets from Rubbermaid Home Products, Wooster, Ohio, are a marvel of efficiency, offering extensive storage space for cleaning goods, paint cans, car polish, etc. that otherwise would wind up helter-skelter eyesores stuffed wherever there might be unoccupied space. With rugged, modular construction from durable resin, these combinations of shelves and doors assemble without tools (although a rubber mallet proved extremely handy when it came time for us to get the parts to nest solidly). The Full Double Door Cabinet ($99.99) measures 72" high x 36" wide x 18" deep and has four shelf layers with a total capacity of 690 pounds--for instance, more than 50 one-gallon paint cans-tucked neatly behind battleship-gray doors, out of sight, but readily available. Meanwhile, the matching 5-Shelf Modular Unit ($69.99), with the same overall dimensions, consists of two open shelves and two others behind doors (the fifth being the roof of the unit), each capable of holding at least 75 pounds. These utilitarian, yet attractive storage modules can be found in mass merchandisers, "big box" home equipment depots, or online at www.rubbermaid.com.

For a wide assortment of household projects that require sawing, planing, and any other tasks that are too messy for doing indoors, the Black & Decker Workmate 375 Portable Project Center & Vise ($59.99) is a handyman's delight. Constructed from...