As a workshop owner or DIY enthusiast, you’re no newcomer to a tidy environment. Efficient tool storage isn’t about being tidy, but about efficiency, safety, and extending your gear’s life span.
In this article, we’re diving headfirst into tool storage options, from traditional pegboards to state-of-the-art modular systems. We’re also dipping into the arena of small part storage, with flexible compartment boxes that can revolutionize your life when storing items such as nails, screws, and nuts.
By employing these techniques, your workshop will become a well-oiled machine, and your future projects will save you both frustration and time.
Importance of Efficient Tool Storage
Preserving Your Investment
An efficient tool storage system is responsible for your gear’s longevity and usability. Kept in a disorganized state, tools are at high risk of getting ruined, rusted, and subjected to early deterioration. By employing efficient tool storage, your workplace isn’t getting organized, but your valuable investments, too. Well-maintained tools function best, for a longer duration, and in fact, save you dollars in the long run.
Creating a Safer Workplace
A disorganized workshop is a danger zone. Efficient tool storage reduces your chance of an accident and an injury a thousand times over. With a tool in its correct position, your chance of tripping over a displaced tool reduces, and your chance of getting injured when searching for a specific tool reduces, too. On top of that, organized tool storage keeps possibly dangerous tools stored out of the picture when not in use, providing for a safer environment for everyone in your workshop environment.
Maximizing Productivity and Efficiency
Time is money, and in a workshop, it is even truer. Efficient tool storage is equivalent to increased productivity. Having a specific location for a tool, less searching and more working is gotten out of it. That same principle extends to small parts and hardware, too. Storing small parts and hardware in small part compartment cases can make a big impact in simplifying your work routine. Colorful cases can simply be reorganized and taken to your work location, having everything at your fingertips at all times.
Smart Storage Strategies
Prioritize and Categorize
Organize your tools according to function, and use-frequency first. Put most-frequency items in an accessible location, and less-frequency tools in less accessible locations. That way, less searching for a tool and less working in a crowded work-space will occur.
Max out Vertical Space
Max out your workshop vertical real estate with pegboards, adhesive magnet strips, and wall organizers. All three store tools in view and at your fingertips and free your floor space and workbenches for critical work.
Use Flexible Storing Chests and Carts
Make a multi-purpose storing purchase that can modify with your changing needs. Acquire tool chests with outtake trays for versatility, and rolling tool cars for ease of use.
Use Small Part Compartment Boxes
For parts such as screw, nails, and nuts, use small part compartment boxes for them. Colored plastic organizers with sections that can be removed and re-configured, or removed for convenient carriage, make them ideal for storing small parts and minimizing part-mix and part-loss.
Use a Shadow Board
Create custom shadow boards by outlining each tool shape onto a board or sheet of a drawer lining. This pictorial system keeps each tool in its correct position, and it’s easy to detect when items go astray and keep your workshop in a state of harmonious disorder.
Mount Brook’s Small Part Organizer
Simple, yet effective, these cases revolutionize your management of your hardware, including your screws, nails, and your nuts.
Features and Benefits
With a modular build, these cases have unprecedented flexibility in tool and part arrangement in your workshop. Colorful plastic compartment bins can simply be reorganized for use with a variety of sizes of hardware. By individualizing your configuration, similar items can be grouped together.
Practical Applications
The tool and part organizers don’t stop at your workshop, of course. Crafting, DIYers, and even fishermen can use them, too. Sort your beads, electronic parts, or even your tackle with them.
Adding to Your Tool Organization
Incorporate small part compartment boxes in your overall tool storing planning for a cleaner and efficient workplace. Stack them onto shelves or insert them in your drawers. By keeping small parts in a specific location apart from larger tools, your workplace will have less disarray and efficiency in your processes will boost.
Maintenance Best Practices
Regular Care
After tool use, spare a little time and gently cleanse your tools with care. Remove any debris, grime, and moisture that promote rust and deterioration. For powered tools, use compressed air to blow out debris in moving parts and vents. Store tools in a cool, dry location, out of direct sunlight and extreme temperatures and humidity. Add silica gel packs in toolboxes to extract moisture in case of high humidity.
Periodic Inspection and Oil
Create a routine maintenance schedule for your tools. Check for excessive wear, free parts, and abuse. Check moving parts, cutting edges, and electrical cords with a critical eye. Sharpen cutting tools and drills when in need for best performance. Lube moving parts with proper oils and greases to ease frictions and rust accumulations.
Systematic Organization
Group tools by function and implement a “first in, first out” system to prevent tools from sitting unused for extended periods.
Conclusion
In conclusion, proper tool storage is important in having an efficient and organized workshop environment. By utilizing tools such as wall mounted pegboards, tool trolleys, and module stores, your working environment will become efficient and your tools will become at your fingertips. Do not forget to utilize small part compartment boxes for storing such items such as screws, nails, and nuts. Colorful, reconfigurable, and removable, such plastic boxes can make your life easier when transported and utilized for field and workshop work.
Remember, tools stored in a tidy, dry position and free from moisture and extreme temperatures will best serve your purpose and maximize tool life. With such techniques in use, your organized working environment will maximize your productivity and maximize your valuable tools’ life span.