How the Rubbermaid FastTrack Rail Kit Cleared Out My Garage

The rake handle that put me in the ER was the one I'd been meaning to hang up for two years. I stepped on it wrong backing out of the garage, my wrist came down on the concrete, and that was that. Sprained, wrapped, and suddenly very aware that every long-handled tool I owned was still lying on the floor. I'm Walt Hensley, I'm 61, and I've spent my whole career in building maintenance. I know how to hang a tool on a wall. I just hadn't bothered. The Rubbermaid FastTrack Garage Organization System All-in-One Rail & Hook Kit changed that in one afternoon.

My garage is a standard two-car attached unit outside Omaha. I park one car in it. The other bay is my workshop side, which means it's also where the rakes, shovels, hoes, and the push broom all live. Or they did, until the pile got tall enough to be a hazard. My wife Carol had been telling me for months that we were going to lose a good set of tools to a cracked handle, and she was right. I just didn't want to admit it.

I looked at pegboard first. I've hung pegboard in a dozen buildings over the years, and it works fine for small hand tools. But for a 6-foot fiberglass rake and a 5-foot shovel, pegboard means a lot of little holes and a lot of little hooks, and the tools still end up leaning against the wall because nobody wants to fiddle with two hooks every time they put a shovel away. I wanted something I could slide a tool into without thinking.

That's what finally pushed me toward the Rubbermaid FastTrack system. The idea is simple: a steel rail mounts to the wall studs, and the hooks clip into the rail and slide along it. You position the hooks exactly where the tool needs to hang, and you can move them later without drilling new holes. For a guy who has patched more drywall than he cares to count, that was the selling point.

The kit arrived and I opened the box on the workbench. Inside were two 4-foot steel rails, a set of hooks in different sizes, and the mounting hardware. The instructions were clear enough that I didn't have to call my old apprentice to ask him what a stud finder was. I found the studs, marked the height, and mounted the first rail at about 54 inches off the floor. That put the tool handles at a comfortable reach for me, and the heads of the shovels and rakes high enough that I could walk under them without ducking.

The second rail went up about 12 inches above the first. I hung the long tools on the lower rail and the shorter stuff, like the pruners and the hedge shears, on the upper rail. The hooks slide along the rail, so I could nudge each tool into its own spot and still have room to grab it by the handle without knocking the neighbors off. That was the moment I realized why the Rubbermaid FastTrack system is so popular: it's not just storage, it's adjustable storage that doesn't fight you when you change your mind.

The hooks slide along the rail, so I could nudge each tool into its own spot and still have room to grab it by the handle without knocking the neighbors off.

I've had the Rubbermaid FastTrack system up for about four months now, through a Nebraska winter and into the first round of spring digging. The rails haven't sagged, the hooks haven't slipped, and the tools come off and go back on one-handed. The rubber coating on the hooks keeps the metal handles from clanking against each other, which matters more than you'd think when you're trying to grab a rake at 6 in the morning without waking the whole house.

There are a couple of things I'd tell anyone thinking about buying it. First, you need to hit the studs. The kit comes with drywall anchors, but for anything heavier than a broom, I'd use the studs. Second, the rails are 4 feet each, so measure your wall before you order. I used two kits to cover a 10-foot section of wall, and that gave me room for the garden tools plus the extension ladder. Third, the hooks that come in the kit are a good general set, but you can buy extra hooks separately if you have a lot of odd-shaped tools.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you came over to my house and we sat down at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee, here's what I'd say. You don't need a fancy workshop to get your tools off the floor. You need a rail, some hooks, and an afternoon. The Rubbermaid FastTrack kit did exactly what it promised, and it did it without me having to redesign my garage or call in a favor. The sprained wrist healed, but the habit of hanging the rake up every single time didn't go away, because now it's actually easier to hang it than to lean it against the wall.

I'm not going to tell you it turned my garage into a showroom. It didn't. The workbench is still cluttered, and there's still a box of old paint cans I keep meaning to sort through. But the floor is clear, and that was the whole point. I can walk from the car to the house without stepping over a single handle, and the next time Carol asks me where the shovel is, I can point to the wall and know it'll be there.