Storing Randomness

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I have several work benches I have built with storage space for clear plastic shoe boxes. Extra "stuff" gets tossed in these. Clamps, wire, screws, sand paper/ ScotchBrite, etc. Each box has it's own purpose. Having them right there at the bench is handy also. Saves a lot of running around...
This one is a repurposed bath vanity.

There are boxes on the back side also for the less used stuff. With the bench being a roller it is easy enough to get to these. This pic is during construction.

I built this one out of a Craftsman roller. It was too short and adding the 2 x 6's under the top made it perfect height for me.

After some black paint the "addition" disappears and you would think it came that way.

With those cubbies under the top I have found they are also excellent areas to keep drill drivers and often used tools while building stuff. I set the tools in the cubbies and that leaves the top that much clearer.
Mark

 

[Chukster]

Throw it in the junk drawer.
Alternatively, build a dome-top workbench so the junk just rolls off of it.
I have to admit, it is a challenge. ......

This ^^^^^

Once worked with a guy who had previously supervised a tool-makers shop. His cubicle in the shop had a large draftman's table what, 4x6 feet? His solution to people dropping stuff on the table was to leave it tilted up so far that anything placed on it would slide off. Melvin was a brilliant man!!

It's a constant battle of discipline; both my wife & I are afflicted with horizontal-suralosis; flat surfaces just attract ****, until we have to do a purge. And both sides of our families have it, too. And our kids. Poor babies.

Me, I had to reach the late 50's before I realized that work surfaces are for working on things, not storing **** that really belongs somewhere else. Sheesh, and I'm supposed to be Mensa material, too.

Keep plugging at it, OP; Rome wasn't built in a day, neither was it rebuilt in a day, too.

My boss who is a former EMT and 911 dispatcher told me a shockingly simple one the other day - Every time an apparatus (ambulance, fire engine, etc) comes back to the station, it's prepped for the next call; no delays, no excuses. Restock, put away, clean, whatever. It's not ready to roll out on the next call until it's READY to roll out on the next call. Stupidly brilliant.

 

[EOC_Jason]

I got these big bins at a recent estate sale, $2 each. They will eventually be full and my workbench will hopefully be clean & clear!

 

[Jon_E]

Every time an apparatus (ambulance, fire engine, etc) comes back to the station, it's prepped for the next call; no delays, no excuses. Restock, put away, clean, whatever. It's not ready to roll out on the next call until it's READY to roll out on the next call. Stupidly brilliant.

I spent ten years as a volunteer FF earlier in life, and this was our standard operating procedure. Nobody left the station until the truck was completely cleaned, all hose and equipment cleaned and put away, generators, pumps and the truck fueled up, and water tank topped off.

I have yet to apply it to my everyday personal life, or my job, however. I'm getting better though. A messy workspace is depressing to me and I often procrastinate working on a project because of the clutter I have to clean up first.