My favorite gifts are tools. Buy me a nice new router bit for Valentine's Day, for example, and you'll have bought my heart for the rest of the year. Buy me chocolates, and the effect fades much quicker.

By "tools," though, I mean those used in the kitchen as well as those in the garage or basement workshop. Good tools make our lives and jobs easier, and the best ones last a long time. My kitchen-loving kids always know they will get something good, and likely something they hadn't thought about, when they say they'd like a new cooking or food prep tool.

I've prepared a list of great gift ideas for the workshop that falls into that category. The kinds of things that don't often show up on wish lists, but that are nonetheless gratefully received and regularly used. Let me know if you find any useful ideas on the list.

The U.S. Fire Administration reports that there were 403,000 residential fires in 2008, resulting in 2,780 deaths and 13,560 injuries. The direct cost of those fires was $8.55 million.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 40 percent of fire deaths occur in homes without smoke alarms, and most of them occur during the winter. Smoking is the main cause of fire deaths, while cooking is the leading cause of fires and fire injuries.

I can't find statistics on how many fires begin in garages, but I know that a lot of them do. Garages typically contain a lot of combustible materials, and they are frequently used for tasks that require some type of incendiary device. Often, when a fire starts in the garage, it can develop into a major fire before anyone even knows about it.

That's why it's so important to stick a smoke alarm in the garage, preferably an interconnected alarm. That way, if a fire starts in the garage at night, alarms near sleeping areas will be triggered.

There's a good chance that you don't have a smoke alarm in your garage, because it is often not required. And some sources discourage them because false alarms from the garage can be a nuisance. You can reduce that problem by avoiding carbon monoxide detectors in the garage. For more information, see Shopping for a Smoke Alarm and Carbon Monoxide Detector.

Here's a story that makes me feel like I haven't even begun to tap my garage's potential. The Wall Street Journal has a story about a fellow named Anthony Toth, who really likes airplanes. He likes them so much, in fact, that he's constructed a replica of a first-class Pan Am 747 cabin in his garage.

Toth, who works for United Airlines, has spent more than 20 years and about $50,000 on his project, where friends and airline enthusiasts now gather from time to time to watch movies and sip cocktails.

Pan Am, which declared bankruptcy in 1991, was the first American airline to fly internationally and the first to fly Boeing 747 jumbo jets. Toth began collecting Pan Am items in the 1970s, while he was just a kid. He built his first replica of a cabin when he was 12. When he bought his first home a few years ago, he made sure that it had a garage large enough to contain his airplane cabin configuration.

The garage/cabin is not open to the public, but Toth hopes someday to turn his collection and creation into a museum. Fortunately, he lives in a condo, so he probably doesn't have to worry about where to store the mower.

I'm a little late to this offer, but there's still time to enter the Unveil Your Garage sweepstakes sponsored by Gladiator GarageWorks. The marketing pitch to the sweepstakes revolves around appealing to homeowners at various stages in their lives making the best use of their garages.

Three levels of prizes are awarded: Weekly, Life Phase and Grand. The later includes $2,000 in Gladiator merchandise and a phone consultation from TV host and DIY expert Karl Champley.

Even if you're not into entering contests, the Gladiator site is a useful spot to do some window shopping. They offer lots of ideas for making better use of your garage, and not coincidentally offer products (good quality!) to meet those needs. You might also want to take a look at 9 Steps to a Well-Organized Garage.