From The Archive: A Hardware Store In Ireland

Editor’s Note: This blog post about what hardware stores in Ireland are like was previously published under our “Living In Ireland” series. We moved to Ireland for a work opportunity and lived there, south of Dublin, for two years between 2016 and 2018. I thought this would be a fun post to revisit on St. Patrick’s Day. I hope you enjoy it!

A warning for all of you organized types – the pictures in this post may be disturbing.

Now, for the rest of you, let’s head to the hardware store!

My little village in Ireland has a small hardware store. It shares space with the post office.

I’ll let that sink in.

I can buy stamps and then walk three steps over and buy caulk for my shower.

I can’t buy the caulk gun, though, because they are out of those.

And have been for MONTHS.

Details, details.

As a side note, it’s not unusual for post offices to share space with other businesses in Ireland. I have a friend whose local post office is inside a sweets shop. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I guess it depends on whether you are dieting.

My hardware store guy is super nice. Sometimes, when I’m paying in cash, he just says, “Ah, that’s close enough, love.” Who does that?

On further reflection, it is possible that watching me count euro change is just too slow and painful, and he has better things to do. In my defense, some of the coins look awfully similar.

He also never even blinks when I tell him things like, “I don’t know what kind of lightbulb I need because I can’t get the lightbulb out of the socket, but I took a picture of it for you.”

That actually happened.

We have some WEIRD lightbulbs that don’t twist in. When you’re standing on tiptoes trying to figure out why the lightbulb won’t come out, and you hear your kid downstairs say, “OOPS!” you know whatever caused that oops is a more important disaster than the lightbulb.

Don’t worry. I’ve got the lightbulb situation all figured out now. I’m a bright one, after all.

The hardware store in my village is pretty well-organized. As I look at the picture below, the “electrical” sign cracks me up though. Because this is a picture of the ENTIRE store. If you don’t see what you need, all you need to do is take one step to the left. Ah, there it is!

Now, let’s get to the disturbing part of this post. I did promise you some graphic images.

There’s a slightly larger hardware store near my children’s school, which has been a more reliable source of home improvement supplies.

For instance, there’s a nice selection of varnish. I made the mistake of asking for stain once.

By a slightly larger store, I mean approximately the size of a 7-11 convenience store.

There’s no slushie machine, but there is a nice, spacious path down the aisle.

Aside from lumber and power tools, I can find pretty much any hardware item I really need here.

Assuming I can actually “find” it.

Maybe there are power tools and lumber behind some of this stuff. Or better yet, a slushie machine, but I’ll never know.

I’m fairly certain there’s a method to this hardware store’s madness.

I just haven’t figured out what it is yet.

It also makes me wonder if there is such a thing as a fire marshal in Ireland.

There are some big box hardware stores in Ireland. One of them is called Woodie’s. I’ll just let that hang there…

I haven’t visited one of these larger stores – yet. It could be my new happy place though. Projects and possibilities galore!

Have you lived abroad? Have you visited any hardware stores while traveling? Let me know! You can always comment on this blog post, email me here, or reach out via Instagram or Facebook.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

If you want to know more about our experience of moving to and living in Ireland, check out these posts:

Living in Ireland: Surviving a Snowstorm

Living in Ireland: Life Without a Car

Living in Ireland: Inside My Kitchen

Living in Ireland: Christmas in Retail 2017

Living in Ireland: Storm Ophelia

Living in Ireland: That Time a Tree Came Down

Living in Ireland: Pediatric Emergency Medicine

Living in Ireland: Back After A Month in the United States

Living in Ireland: As Seen On My Commute

Living in Ireland: A Trip to the Hardware Store