My tools are not organized at all and I am wondering what everyone does to keep them where they belong. I was thinking about getting a tool storage cabinet and get some foam to keep it organized since the only tools of mine that stay where they should are the ones that come in plastic cases with a space for each little piece. Anyone else do that? Ideas?
I use several tool bags sorted into: metric, standard, air tools, field bag, shop bag and oddball stuff like pickle fork and crows foot in a cupboard. I need a stand up cabinet badly
The tool cabinets only organize tools into drawers, one for sockets, one for screwdrivers, etc. Within the drawer, they are still all jumbled. I have outgrown my small cabinets, and really need a large one but cannot stomach the cost.
I also use toolboxes. The Sawzall is in a box, along with spare blades and the tool needed to change the blade. Same with the drill, jigsaw, etc.
in the car.. they are all thrown into a bag.
In the garage, I have all my wrenches, screw drivers, sockets, and other main-use handtools hung up on about 15 feet of pegboard.
I went to HF and got a pile of socket holders and wrench clips (like the ones that come with GearWrenches). When I go under the car or pack for the track - I can just grab the whole set of sockets with swivels all neatly clipped together.
Everything that isn't a socket, ratchet, wrench or similar goes on the peg board wall or in a shelved cabinet on the same wall. Screw drivers and punches, etc all poke thru a 1x2 I drilled a million differing sized holes in and screwed to the wall.
Welding tools go on the welding cart.
Lathe tooling & expensive measuring stuff goes in a set of drawers I installed in the stand (Home Depot sells roller bearing drawer slides... )
Everything car-wrenching related is in a Craftsman 9 dr roll-a-way, 3 dr mid-chest and 12 dr drop-front chest. I ran out of room some time ago, and most of the drawers are packed to over-flowing. Organization is a lot of everything being replaced consistently. I "lost" a screwdriver once for days solely because a well-meaning friend placed it in the drawer a few inches away from where I normally put it.
I have a single stall garage I throw them in.
Sometimes in drawers, bigger portable tools do have 2 large steel cabinets.
Yes. they're in the shop. Well, most of them are. 
The main reason I am starting to lock my tool box is because I can never get others to put stuff away, drives me nuts when I search for an hour to find a damn wrench.
Like ThePhranc, I use a few bags to organize and tote them around. I don't have a secure garage, so a tool drawer/cabinet is out. Would be nice, but my current system seems to work fine.
What bags do you guys use? Are the compartmental bags to keep things in the same place all the time?
I'm improving when things are normal, but during the garage construction, without access to normal organization, my girlfriend has noted that my current filing system is I threw it on the ground. (Not exactly NSFW, but music/video)
I organize my tools about once a month. Because after a month, they're all on the floor/in the cars.
jonnyd330 wrote: What bags do you guys use? Are the compartmental bags to keep things in the same place all the time?
Random HF bags. What ever is on sale or couponed. I have large handeld roller bag for the air tools that came with a smaller bag for my field bag. They have pockets inside and out so its easy to set up a system. Inside my field bag I have a Kobolt speed bit zippered pouch that gets all my bits, it also fits the older through ratchet set in the case from HF.
92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I organize my tools about once a month. Because after a month, they're all on the floor/in the cars.
I knew I couldn't be the only one.
Rusted_Busted_Spit wrote:92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I organize my tools about once a month. Because after a month, they're all on the floor/in the cars.I knew I couldn't be the only one.
It's usually only at the prodding of others, too...
I haven't been in my garage in 2 weeks. I can tell you that my 1/2 drive ratchet with a deep well 17mm socket is under the driver's rear corner of the car, along with my small prybar, a 19mm wrench, and a wire brush.
I don't really have a problem finding things.
I would organize them if I could ever find them all.....
Now where the heck did I put that......................
I can't sleep at night if my tools aren't back in the right place. I don't have a ton of them, but I have what I need to be fairly efficient at most jobs. Part of that efficiency is organization. If I'm in the middle of a job and I haven't used a tool in a while, I'll put it back in its spot in the box. I can't stand to work in a cluttered area. This probably comes from my time and training in professional kitchens - I'm a huge proponent of 'clean as you go.'
Not to mention, the act of cleaning up helps me reorganize my mind a bit. If I get stuck on something, I take a break to straighten up and shift the problem back into my subconscious while I 'concentrate' on cleaning. As I'm putting stuff away and not focusing on the problem, I'll usually come up with at least another way to tackle it as I sort of zone out.
The other thing is that having a place for everything in the box makes it easy to see what's missing. With a pile of sockets in a drawer, you can't very easily tell if your 10mm 1/4" is missing (it probably is, and it's probably still on the short extension in your back pocket, if you're anything like me).
But, there's no right way to organize. What works for me won't work for everybody. The downfall of my system of organization is that if something's not in its place, or in another typical hiding spot (1/4" flex head ratchet with short extension and 10mm socket hanging out of back pocket), I'm clueless, and I'm screwed until I turn everything upside down to find it. Most of the time, guys with jumbles of tools have a near-photographic memory about what tool is where in the jumble. They can reach in the haystack and pull out the needle just about blindfolded. But, move that needle a foot to the left before they have a chance to look again, and that thing is gone.
I wrenched at a motorcycle shop with a very good friend for a couple years, and at first, he and I would almost come to blows over tool organization if we were helping out on each others' lifts. He's a MESS while he's working, and it drove me up a wall. But my insistence on organization (and I'll concede that it's easy for me to take it too far) did the same to him. After a while we got over it and just learned to laugh at our habits.
As far as tool organization goes, I really only have a few specialized devices. I love these socket organizers, because the socket only fits on the correct-size post, and the size is easy to see at a glance.
I used this cheapo wrench organizer, which I cut up to better fit into my drawer:
Screwdrivers live in the tray in which they came:
Beyond that, everything just kind of has its own spot in a drawer. I'll post up some pictures later on if anybody really wants to see them, but I imagine my organizational habits aren't terribly enthralling to anyone who's got this far in a surprisingly in-depth reply to a rather innocent question.
What is this organized word? 
I LOVE those socket organizers. Have some for ALL my imperials, metrics, 1/2" 3/8" and 1/4" drive. Love 'em.
Going to the wreckers, I use a big version of these to keep wrenches together (I have a set of "wreckers" wrenches so I don't have to break up the set in the tool box:
Large multi-drawer toolbox, magentic socket trays, and combo wrench racks keep everything organized for me. My OCD keeps my garage in tip-top shape constantly.
92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I organize my tools about once a month. Because after a month, they're all on the floor/in the cars.
yeah... I can't deal with that... I put everything away at the end of a session - even if I'm not done and will be pulling most of the same tools out again the next day. The main reason is more than a few times, "the next day" turned out to be "next month" and tools scattered about for weeks on end is just asking for things to get lost... not to mention the headache if I needed one of them during that time.
Five minutes spent cleaning and putting things away will usually pay you back in hours of saved time searching for something.
I tried those Hansen trays. They take up too much space in the drawer, so I just keep sockets on H-F clip rails. Wrenches are seperated into metric and SAE drawers, but only some are on racks - again, because they take up too much room.
Ian F wrote:92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I organize my tools about once a month. Because after a month, they're all on the floor/in the cars.yeah... I can't deal with that... I put everything away at the end of a session - even if I'm not done and will be pulling most of the same tools out again the next day. The main reason is more than a few times, "the next day" turned out to be "next month" and tools scattered about for weeks on end is just asking for things to get lost... not to mention the headache if I needed one of them during that time. Five minutes spent cleaning and putting things away will usually pay you back in hours of saved time searching for something.
Trust me, when i get a bigger space, real organization is on the agenda.
Right now i'm just lucky that all i need is a 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, and 17mm 1/2" socket and wrenches to do anything on my car.
All my tools are wiped down and put away after every wrench session, and sometimes during wrench sessions if I am going from vastly different jobs like changing valve cover gaskets to changing brakes. When I am done for the day, cords get coiled up and hung in their place, workbenches and toolboxes get wiped down. Cordless batteries go on their chargers. Then I lock my toolboxes, turn off the lights, and lock the garage.
I have too much money invested in tools to not do this.
my tools are organized very well...once every 3 or 4 months...the rest of the time, they are strategically placed in a crazy pile in the middle of my workbench.
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