Garden to Garage: Tom Whitaker's Favorite CrateMate Uses
Tom Whitaker has been farming, building, and fixing things his whole life. Retired from manufacturing, he now spends his time on his hobby farm — growing tomatoes, selling at the weekend farmers market, and sharing plainspoken advice on tools and systems that actually work.
Tom doesn't endorse things lightly. When he says a tool earns its keep, he means it's been tested in real conditions — not a staged photo shoot.
Here's how Tom uses CrateMate from the garden to the garage.
Garden Harvest Storage
Harvest season means moving a lot of produce fast — tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash. A standard basket tips. A cardboard box gets soggy. A 5-gallon bucket bruises the bottom layer.
Tom uses CrateMate to sort harvests by type right in the garden row. One crate for tomatoes. One for peppers. One for anything going straight to the farmers market. HDPE doesn't absorb moisture, doesn't harbor bacteria, and rinses clean with a garden hose.
"I used to lose produce to bruising every single harvest. Now I sort it in the crate, carry it to the truck, and it arrives at the market the same way it left the garden." — Tom Whitaker
Potting Shed Organization
Tom's potting shed is where seeds get started and tools get used hard. Gloves, twine, hand trowels, seed packets, fertilizer scoops — all of it used to pile up on a single shelf.
Now a CrateMate sits on that shelf. Everything has a place. Tom grabs what he needs without digging, and puts it back without thinking. Simple system. Stays organized.
Propane Transport
Tom moves propane cylinders regularly — from the barn to the grill, from the farm store to the camper. A rolling propane tank in a truck bed is a hazard. CrateMate holds the cylinder upright and contained, and a single tie-down strap keeps it locked in place for the drive.
"It's one of those things where you wonder why you didn't do it sooner." — Tom
RV Basement Storage
Tom and his family use their RV for seasonal travel. The exterior storage bays are deep and dark — hoses, power cords, leveling blocks, and tools all end up in a pile that takes ten minutes to sort through every time you set up camp.
CrateMate organizes the bay by category. Electrical in one crate. Leveling gear in another. Tools in a third. Pull the crate, grab what you need, slide it back. Setup time cut in half.
HDPE handles the humidity and temperature swings that RV storage compartments see across seasons — no warping, no cracking, no rust.
Garage Shelving
Tom's garage shelves used to be a mix of paint cans, extension cords, garden chemicals, and miscellaneous hardware. Now each shelf section has a CrateMate. Paint supplies in one. Cords in another. Garden chemicals in a third — clearly separated, easy to find, safe to store.
No staged labels. No color coding system. Just crates that keep categories separated so you can find what you need without pulling everything off the shelf.
Tom's Bottom Line
"I'll never make storage sound harder than it is. CrateMate is a crate insert that keeps things where you put them. That's the whole thing. And that's enough."
