How do you keep/separate your tools?

[Backyard Imports]

This may seem like an odd question but I have been having some issues lately and I am curious as to how others handle it.

The backstory... I have two main buildings on my property. The "barn" and the "shop". The shop is an obvious one. It is my shop. My car shop, my fab shop, the main place where I do my man stuff. The other building, the "barn", is a multi purpose place. It houses a game room, a gym, and acts as storage for a myriad of things. (It is called the "barn" because it looks like an old barn.) The barn has an area on the lower level that i have filled with shelving (take outs from an old state liquor store). These shelves are storage for all kinds of things. Each of the kids has a couple of shelves that house bins of summer (or winter) clothes/shoes, toys, or random whatever. There is a kitchen area for random serving trays, extra pots/pans/plates/whatever that are used for parties and won't fit in our kitchen. There are different areas of shelving for decorations for the various holidays and there is one row that I use to store materials and tools for remodel projects. (This may seem strange but we have rental houses, recently built a house, and are always working on our current house/farm.) This area is where my problem originates.

So... in my shop I keep all of my automotive tools, toolbox, fab stuff, etc. Easy, no problem. But I also keep my table saw, router, jig saw, random hammers, etc. These things I use for my many car/fab projects. In the barn I keep house paint stuff, plumbing stuff, electrical stuff, levels, squares, nail guns, concrete tools, tile saw/tools, etc.

My problem is that some of the tools cross over and can be used for multiple things. And i find myself running all over trying to find certain things because they could be in either building. And while this may seem trivial, it is very time consuming going building to building trying to figure out where I put something last. I am considering keeping everything in the shop but then i run into a space issue. This is my current dilemma.

My question for all of you is... do you keep all of your tools in one building/area or do you separate/oranize them according to use? I know this is an issue than many would love to have (too much space/multiple buildings) but it really does become an issue.

I thank you all in advance for your input.

 

[southalabama]

I've got tools in the house, dad's shop, my shed, the lakehouse, our business and building.

What I've found works best is dedicated boxes for specialty things: data and telecommunications, plumbing, electronics, electrical.

I put duplicate multi use tools like pliers, hammers, screwdrivers, etc in the various locations. I keep the bulk of the mechanic tools in a roller chest in the shop but socket sets in cases I try to keep in different places.

When we go to the lake house to work we load a 16 foot cargo trailer with all the tools and hardware we think we may need.

And after all that, it's common to not have the right tool at a particular job.

 

[Benzlover]

While I'm a little envious of your storage barn (space is a premium here in the old world) I'll try to help out and show my organizing of tools. Those tools belonging to certain kinds of work are stored with the materials and everything that goes with the task, e.g. tiling, painting, plumbing, welding... Power tools get stored in one central place.
Tools that can be used on many things like pliers, wrenches, screwdrivers are stored in the shop, a second set in the basement shop and a third set in the toolbox for random work around the house.
These sets aren't exactly the same, but chosen according to the possible different tasks related to the space they are in and frequency of use. For example I don't need 3 sets of wrenches up to 32mm when I only need that size once a year. But the common sizes that get used the most are in every one of the 3 locations. The doubles or tripples save a lot of walking around looking for the right tool.

 

[crewchief888]

for the most part my tools are kept separated,
i'm a heavy eq mechanic, my everyday "working" tools are in my service truck. another "set" of tools in the garage, along with the welder, fab eq, supplies, ect.
woodworking type powertools are in the basement along with some various hand tools for everyday DIY and repairs.

i dont keep much stock on hand, i have multiple big box and auto parts stores within 10 minutes of the house.

 

[RWorth]

Sorry can't help you, I have the opposite problem, I have one shop and way to many tools. I had my own auto repair shop and a complete set at my home shop and now that I don't have the auto shop any more I have a boatload of duplicates. I'm working on a storage building for all the large tools to keep them out of my shop.