Ever open up the wrong drawer in your toolbox?

[Merkava_4]

I've got three thin drawers below the top thick drawer. The first thin drawer has pliers, the second thin drawer has screwdrivers, and the third thin drawer has wrenches. I'm always opening up the screwdriver drawer looking for a wrench and opening up the wrench drawer looking for a screwdriver. Even if I trade the contents between those two drawers, I still open the wrong drawer.

The first thin drawer with the pliers I always get right for some strange reason though.

 

[southpier]

no; but i've opened the wrong drawer in someone else's box before. can be a little embarassing . . .

 

[Danglerb]

You can get all sorts of magnetic labels, text or images.

 

[Kevin54]

All of the time and still doing it after 6 months. I swapped out boxes at work and used to have everything memorized. Now I am always one drawer off when looking for something. Same at home, my plier drawer and screwdriver drawer needs to be switched around as I always get the wrong one. I've even stood and thought about it and grab the wrong one.

 

[35mastr]

Screwdrivers

Wrenches

Pliers

In that order will only work for me.

Also set up box at home just like work box.

 

[Paladin]

Yeah, I screw up my screwdriver and plier drawers too! I don't use the box to earn a living, so it's easy to grab the wrong drawer. I need to get some of the magnetic drawer labels...

 

[paramudduck]

Merk you just don't use it enough. With your OCD you should be able to be blindfolded and find the right tool.

I know you have them laid out in order and so many mm apart.

 

[porschedude996TT]

Yes, all the time. I am about to purchase a P-Touch Label maker to make print-peel-stick custom labels.

 

[Fedwrench]

You must have slacked off polishing your tools. You need to be one with your box and be able not only to open the correct drawer but once open, reach into it in one fluid motion to get the tool you're looking for. Everything has its place. Labels are for community tool boxes or people that don't use their tools.

 

[Stuey]

Nope, it's not just you. It seems that everytime I get things memorized, it's time to reorganize and make room for new tools.

 

[wreckercologist]

I guess I'm lucky. My Grandfather had a photographic memory. My father, while not quite photographic, had an excellent memory. Me? I see "snapshots". I have mental pictures in my head that allow me to know where everything is at. I have every tool box in the shop memorized The only thing that throws me off is when some A$$clown borrows my stuff and puts it back in the wrong place!

I like being difficult. My drawers go: 1)pliers, 2)screwdrivers. Everyone else's boxes are the exact opposite!

 

[Moose-LandTran]

Very rarely, but yes, once in a while i'll open the wrong drawer. I'm sure i'll open the wrong drawer more often when i re-organise the box.

 

[Chris Adams]

If you never open the wrong drawer, you don't have enough tools or tool boxes.

 

[Art From De Leon]

Always getting the screwdriver and pliers drawers confused.

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

I have the top drawer, of my first Craftsman box that I miss. Between its height, and mine, and lighting I need to upgrade in the basement, it is always in a shadow, that I think is part of the case.

 

[old salvage]

Recently went from having most of my tools stuffed in one box to two boxes.
Now I'm always going to the wrong box.
Stuff I dont use often is scattered throughout a bunch of card files beneath my bench and I always open at least a couple of drawers before I find the right one.

 

[-B-]

I open up my file draw instead of my allens draw quite a bit it is a hold over from when I first got the box. the allens draw was in the middle of the thee small draws and the file on the bottom of the row. I changed it post the last severe concussion most of the time I can work blind out of my box.

 

[ZRX61]

Yes, all the time. I am about to purchase a P-Touch Label maker to make print-peel-stick custom labels.

I did that with mine, then peeled them all off again after a few months.

 

[nate379]

I do it often enough, big deal. Which 40 something drawers between 3 toolboxes plus the 4-5 toolboxes I work with at work I can't remember all of them!

I did label the light switches in my house though. Between several 3 way switches and a couple 4 switch plates I was tired of flipping on and off 1/2 the lights in the house because I got the right one

 

[BB26]

No; I know my boxes and tool inventory like the back of my hand.

 

[Monte]

magnetic pictograms

 

[stevejh82]

It seems like I rarely open the right one...

 

[arkangel06]

Only when im in a real hurry

 

[speed bump]

Not for commonly used stuff but I will mix up my electrical and drill bit drawers occasionally as well as my tap and die and 1/2" drive tool drawers.

Since you asked about order
Screwdrivers
Pliers
Sae wrenches
Metric wrenches

 

[Mike83]

Put some of each tool type in every drawer. You are bound to have at least something similar to what you were looking for!

 

[nate379]

You mean drawer? I never heard that called a "draw" before.

I open up my file draw instead of my allens draw quite a bit it is a hold over from when I first got the box. the allens draw was in the middle of the thee small draws and the file on the bottom of the row. I changed it post the last severe concussion most of the time I can work blind out of my box.

 

[Diesel-Mech]

You mean drawer? I never heard that called a "draw" before.

Hes typing it with a Boston accent.


And every now and then I'll reach for the wrong drawer but my accuracy rate is still pretty good.

 

[The Muffin Man]

I used to confuse several drawers when I first got my tool chest. I constantly rearranged them to figure out what layout worked best for me. I eventually got comfortable with the lay out until I bought two side cabinets. I must have rearranged them about a half a dozen more times.

 

[Joe Mamma]

No; I know my boxes and tool inventory like the back of my hand.

Same here. I never could understand why people label their drawers.

Joe Mamma

 

[Gary S]

Yes, all the time. I am about to purchase a P-Touch Label maker to make print-peel-stick custom labels.

That is exactly what I did. I labeled each drawer with my P Touch labeler. It saves wear and tear on my arm.

 

[79pacecar]

I have my Vise Grips in the drawer above my Crescent wrenches & for some reason I mix them up all the time...

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

Same here. I never could understand why people label their drawers.

Joe Mamma

labels are el geeko

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

the labels don't stick due to waxy buildup

 

[volvo420coupe]

I have had the same basic configuration in my box for over 7 years and still accidentally open the wrong drawer. (see the snap on doobage thread for more of an explanation). I don't ever let it bother me really.

But what I did find funny is:
I just recently lost my job, and so I now have both sets of my tools in my dinky home garage. While working the other day, no less than 3 times I walked right past my service cart and macsimizer over to my old craftsman box to get a tool, and then to top it off after wasting the time going to my box of seconds, I , instead of getting the tool from the box I was standing in front of would walk BACK over to my work box and get the better tool from there.

 

[mdoolittle]

I know exactly where everything is when it is put away. Now, when I get a handfull out and start wrenchin I can lay em down and search for hours to find em again.

 

[Merkava_4]

Since you asked about order
Screwdrivers
Pliers
Sae wrenches
Metric wrenches

I'd have to have 4 thin drawers for that; I only have 3.

I guess Snap-on, at the time they made that box, only intended for the owner to have 1 wrench drawer.

 

[Chris Adams]

For the people asking about why label, or saying you shouldn't need to label.
If you keep the same box for years, only have a few, say 25, drawers, sure, why label, unless more than one person may go to the box get something.

Example, I work with my nephews, who are here maybe twice a year.
They need to find tools especially when I am under something. I don't have time/inclination to say 'Third box on the left, over against the back wall, the intermediate box, third drawer down' which would find you dikes, by the way.

Or when your wife uses the tools, or brings them to you. I'm laying on the kitchen floor, elbows under a dishwasher. ‘Dear, fifth box, near the corner, you know, the one with the black paint (like 90% of my boxes), um, maybe the one closest to the vice, the top intermediate, the center drawer’. That's got wrenches for using under a sink.
Even a buddy who works with me in the garage a couple times a month complains he can’t find things without labels. On his box, an old 5 series SnapOn, he hasn’t changed anything in twenty years, so he can always find his stuff. But I have a LOT more tools than he does so he needs labels.


Gets worse when you move them around, like I tend to do.
Example;
All your metric, non-ratcheting wrenches are in one 41 inch drawer, then you get another set and they don't fit, so time to move five drawers of things till there is room in a bigger drawer, thus putting something else in each drawer in the cascade.

 

[Jokeman]

Yup many times since I have gotten my new box.

 

[r6_cannibal]

The small drawers on my top box I would always pull the wrong drawer for pens/scissors and hex driver bits drawer. every time I would pull the wrong drawer to get a pen. swapped the drawer and then I kept reaching for the OTHER drawer 100% of the time. now it's labelled "this one stupid". That's the only drawer with a label and surprisingly anyone that goes near my box opens that drawer to see what's in it. At some point i'm going to put one of those springy gag snakes in there

 

[jhn9840]

I know exactly where everything is when it is put away. Now, when I get a handfull out and start wrenchin I can lay em down and search for hours to find em again.

I know the feeling all to well. Now I learned to keep a tote tray from an old box with me. Seems to stop the looking all over for something I just used.

jhn9840
John