Tool chest reorganization

[engineer2]

Dragged my under-utilized 27" Craftsman tool chest out of the basement and made room in the garage. Time to reorg all tools in the garage. Automotive tools will fill my 32" Vulcan box for sure. Amazing how much junk made it into the drawers over the years.
Some Categories:
Wrenches
Sockets
Hammers/pry bars
Files, Punches
Air tools
Precision measuring tools/torque wrenches
Kent-Moore specialty tools
Brake tools, Tubing cutters, flaring tools
Drill bits (shitloads)
wood chisels
planes, Kreg kit, woodworking tools, clamps
Saw blades, utility knives
screwdriver bits
allen wrenches
Electronics tools (soldering equipment)
Electrical tools (household wiring)
Oxy/Acet. set I haven't used in years

How do you organize your ****? I love the pictures of the perfectly clean and organized tool box drawers, but that's not going to happen for me. I'll just be dumping similar tools in the same drawers.

 

[Al Borland]

First, sort the tools. Separate them by tool type.
Then look at/evaluate the tools, What is good, what is junk. What are duplicates. Duplicates of duplicates.
next, decide how you want the box. Put things in drawers in a logical, convenient order.
Try it out and change/improve as you feel the need.

 

[clutchee]

Just did this last week while off work....
I used to have all sockets divided by 1/4 one drawer, 3/8 one drawer, and half in another.
Finally outgrew this method, now one mega drawer is ALL sockets, rachets, and extensions.
Other mega drawer is all wrenches.
Funny now have lots drawers open....
more tools!!!

 

[gdpolk]

I prefer to organize by tool type within big drawers and then cram them in as densely as possible while maintaining fairly easy access within each drawer.

For example:

• Top drawer: sockets, ratchets, extensions, torque wrenches, and crows feed all go in there...if it takes a standard drive size it's a "socket drawer" tool and then metric on left, SAE on right, accessories and **** in the middle to separate.
• Second drawer: wrenches...Metric to left and SAE to right, generally speaking. Specialty wrenches and adjustables and pipe wrenches just get moved to the middle to separate
• Third drawer: screwdrivers, nut drivers, hex keys, torx...all the **** to turn a screw is a screwdriver to my mind
  • so on and so forth

 

[regguy1]

Here is my tool box organization video:

 

[texasprd]

I use some variations of the above for my "mechanicing" tools. All sockets, ratchets, extensions are in the big drawer, but grouped by drive size, depth, metric/SAE. SAE wrenches in one drawer, metric in another. All hand drivers (screwdrivers/torx-drivers/T-handle) together.

For drill bits, I keep them in organizers in my drill tote-bag.

 

[Ji m]

yep,
big box has
top drawer: ratchets sockets, extensions
2nd drawer: screwdrivers
3rd drawer: Std wrench sets
4th drawer: Metric wrench sets
5th drawer: pliers

mid sized box
top drawer: hammers pry bars, etc
electrial stuff in rest of mid box

there's other boxes and carts for other stuff,
& I try to keep "catch alls" & junk boxes to a minimum (not easy).

 

[BDT/NWMN]

That can be a daily or weekly job to a certain degree.

think about putting the dozen or so most used tools on the top level, so You don't have to do a twelve drawer ceremony every time You use those tools, and again when putting them back.

Keep the rest neat and organized in sets.
My Sockets are stored with ratchets by drive size in separate drawers.
Wrenches are stored metric in one drawer, and sae sizes in another.
Pliers have their own drawer.
Screwdrivers, nutdrivers, and allen wrenches are together.

I tried using matching tool boxes for metric and sae tools. That somewhat worked, but
resulted in too much of a tool box and drawer ceremony, especially with sae sockets, ratchets, and extensions in one box, and metric sockets in the other. It looked neat, but I never thought I would dislike it till I tried it.

Seems My tools have a habit of finding there own place after a while.

 

[M6erfan]

Some good advice so far. Also consider a tool cart as an addition, all of your most used tools in the cart and the boxes for storage.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Tool cart is an excellent suggestion. I didn't realize how handy having one in the home shop/garage was, until I got one.

 

[jgromada]

Been going through this same process since i got a 52" box for Christmas.

I got some new screwdrivers so I just ripped the back off them and used the clear plastic as a holder for the screwdrivers in the drawer.

I also got a plier rack to store all my pliers. I love the variety and utility of pliers so i would have to say it is my favorite type of tool

 

[crewchief888]

I keep mechanics type tools in the garage
Woodworking type stuff is kept in the basement.
Small assortment of hand tools stashed away in a drawer downstairs ss well.
Wife has a small toolbag upstairs for her stuff

Sawdust and welding/grinding sparks don't play well together

 

[engineer2]

Good advice here. Spent all day in the garage and it felt good to do a total reorganization. Still have a ways to go, but in the dead of winter there is nothing better to do than to sort sockets and screwdrivers.

I tried woodworking in the basement and that didn't work out too well. Dust got everywhere in the house and carrying lumber to the basement was a PITA. Now I do most woodworking on the patio as long as it's above freezing.

 

[crewchief888]

Good advice here. Spent all day in the garage and it felt good to do a total reorganization. Still have a ways to go, but in the dead of winter there is nothing better to do than to sort sockets and screwdrivers.

I tried woodworking in the basement and that didn't work out too well. Dust got everywhere in the house and carrying lumber to the basement was a PITA. Now I do most woodworking on the patio as long as it's above freezing.

the basement works out best for me, it's mostly unfinished, for the most part all the woodworking gets done over the winter, when i really dont want to be in an unheated garage working.
i have a 12x25 room that the previous owner had set aside as his woodshop i have more than enough storage shelving in there for my needs, and room to work on small projects.
i rarely cut any wood outside, and if i need to, my table saw and miter saw are portable enough to get them out to the driveway to work.
my garage is 19x22 and with all the mechanics type tools, welder/fab eq, i really dont have the room for a table saw and miter saw.
it's "inconvenient" enough sometimes to have to move stuff i'm not using out into the driveway to have room to work on a larger project, and i dont like anything sitting outside for very long anyway.

 

[fordkid88]

In for pictures

 

[JR7]

In my work box I try to organize by type such as:

Wrenches (held with plywood and pegs)

screwdrivers, picks, prybars, etc... (plywood and pegs mostly but needs more work)

sockets, extensions, ratchets, crow's feet etc... (mostly plastic socket rails)

pliers and wire strippers (Ernst pliers rack)

striking tools such as hammers, chisels, punches, ( just laying in the drawer)

drill bits, countersinks, rotary files, screw extractors, etc... (in a plano case)

and so on.... There will of course be some overlap such as wire strippers being in both the pliers drawer and in the plano case I use for electrical work (depending on their size).

For home.... that's still very much a work in progress and kind of a mess at the moment.

 

[engineer2]

Finally found a clean workbench surface under all the clutter! First time in a couple of years. Let's see how long it stays that way.