So the “organization” part of my shop build has taken way longer than I ever expected. Once the joint was up and pseudo operational, I had a bunch of projects to tend to before I could really get down to making a place for everything. Which, honestly, has turned out to be a good thing. Working on projects in the shop while it was an organizational mess gave me a better understanding of what should go where.
Anyway, when I last left you I had just finished up building my Lista “Scratch & Dent” work benches sourced from Motorhead Extraordinaire. In that post, I mentioned that I also picked up a Storage Wall system from Lista as well and like the benches and tool boxes, it was scratch & dent stuff that didn’t appear to be damaged or even used. Even so, I was skeptical about the Storage Wall and how usable it would actually be. Given that I had already effectively tripled my drawer storage capacity with the already assembled tool boxes, I couldn’t imagine what I would do with this system.
A few weeks ago, I started restoring a 1960’s era French Navy spotlight for use in our house. It was then that I realized that the Storage Wall would make a perfect storage system for consumables – things like hardware, wire ties, cotter pins, abrasives, etc… So, I broke from the spotlight project and started assembling the unit.
Essentially, my Storage Wall is three modular segments created with four posts, four stationary shelves, three roll out shelves, and eighteen drawers. The keyword here is “modular.” There are literally thousands of configurations that I could have created with these pieces, but I settled on something simple.
Everything you see here was originally flat boxed similar to something you would buy at Ikea. The big difference, however, is that this Lista unit is made with over the top quality and the thought that went into the engineering is second to none. At no point during the construction of the storage wall did I get frustrated due to quality or fitment. The damn thing just bolted together like it was meant too… and that’s pretty rare in this day and age.
The frame went together in less than an hour. Afterwards, I spent a lot of time figuring out the drawer configuration I wanted to go with and even went so far as to order a few brand new Lista drawers from Motorhead. I grew up around over-organized F1 shops and decided to use a color code (blue, red, green) system similar to what our race team had used in the 1990’s. This emphasized the three modular banks and helped me organize everything visually in my head. However, before I get to far ahead of myself here’s a quick video showing you just how modular these drawers are:
Rad, right? Essentially, every single drawer in my shop can be moved from one cabinet to another. So, if I want to move a drawer from one of my toolboxes into this Storage Wall, I can. And vice versa. The possibilities are literally endless. And because everything is color coded, I know what is where. Green drawers have hardware, red drawers have soft fasteners, blue have cleaning tools, grey have hand tools, etc…
It’s all proven to be really efficient in use as well. Depending on what I’m working on, I can completely set my shop up for the task. I really, really like it.
Even so, you know what has been the most beautiful part of all this? When my dad passed away, he left me about 500 pounds worth of unsorted grade-8 hardware. For a few weeks, I’d take an hour here or there, sit down, and just sort nuts and bolts by size and thread. It was a mind numbingly wonderful exercise. And once I was done, I put all of the sorted hardware in the Storage Wall using Lista drawer dividers as well as red plastic bins to keep it all seperated.
Now, when people come over to the shop I’m all like, “Hey man, you wanna see something beautiful?” And then I take them over to the hardware drawers, smile, and open them up. It’s a site to behold… as if I had my own hardware isle.
There has been a few surprises as well. I wasn’t sure what to do with the sliding shelves that Motorhead supplied, but realized a few days back that I could put them on the very bottom of the unit and use them for heavy storage. If there is a better way to store jack stands, I don’t know about it.
But yeah, that’s it… That’s the Lista Storage Wall. What started as an unknown and something I was actually kind of skeptical about turned out to be my favorite aspect of my new shop. And the space is just about done. All I’m waiting for now is my lift.
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You can comment on my review as well as read the rest of my shop build here.
