Share your tips and tricks for dealing with small spaces.

[rnelson0]

I found a garage sale where some guy was selling dozens of cigar boxes for $1 each. I bought three or four but I should have bought 30. A larger, flatter case is used to hold one of those "30 screwdrivers of all different sizes" sets, another has some electrical components, and another has some "junk" that has no home - odd flanges, a small piece of conduit I use as a counterweight - plus the commonly used items like pencils and crayons for marking. If I only had about 20+ more...

Not only does the box keep the sawdust off, but it smells better

[dbhost]

I found a garage sale where some guy was selling dozens of cigar boxes for $1 each. I bought three or four but I should have bought 30. A larger, flatter case is used to hold one of those "30 screwdrivers of all different sizes" sets, another has some electrical components, and another has some "junk" that has no home - odd flanges, a small piece of conduit I use as a counterweight - plus the commonly used items like pencils and crayons for marking. If I only had about 20+ more...

Not only does the box keep the sawdust off, but it smells better

I have one of those mega packs of screwdrivers I got at Home Depot on sale a couple of years ago. It's a 100 pc set that comes in a zippered bag. It hangs on my peg board. I honestly do NOT remember the last time I bothered unzipping it. The screwdrivers are so unspectacular it's not even funny. I have two other sets, a Stanley 10 pc set and a set of now discontinued Snap On blue handle 8 pc set I used as a pro mechanic years ago. (Linked to the closest similar current set).

I am sketching changes to my current 2x4 / strong tie workbench that will improve storage somewhat. But I am so painfully aware that I have a LONG way to go in organizing...

The biggest problem I have found in cleaning is I have so many little tidbit things that ended up on open shelves or on the workbench that I have no idea where most of my stuff is... I am building and designing storage for this stuff as fast as I can, but I'm only one guy you know? Plus I am trying to help LOML organize and de-bachelor the house...

[pelligrini]

I still have a bunch of open shelves in my little shop. I made several stacking treys for the little things & a couple biger ones for router bits & tablesaw accessories. The top two on the left hold quite a few roter bits, the big ones directly below hold featherboards, a couple grippers, pushsticks etc.. The ones on the top right hold an assortment of pegboard hooks and other hanging hooks. Scraper accessories, marking tools & some other little stuff in between the router treys & them. The boxes on the bottom right are full of BT stuff; T-nuts, studs, connection plates, knobs. etc..

The construction was simple. Rounded top edges fit into shallow coves in the bottom edges of the stacking box. I did some with locking miters, and some more with box joints. I've got several other even larger ones that hold scrap hardwood pieces and one for MDF pieces.

[drumpriest]

I am fighting a similar battle in my house, not my shop. The shop is the most organized part of our house, the rest of it is a bit of a nightmare. My wife seems to always buy 1.5 times the stuff we can reasonably store, so it's just piles of junk everywhere, and I cannot provide solutions fast enough. So I sympathize.

[rnelson0]

I have one of those mega packs of screwdrivers I got at Home Depot on sale a couple of years ago. It's a 100 pc set that comes in a zippered bag. It hangs on my peg board. I honestly do NOT remember the last time I bothered unzipping it. The screwdrivers are so unspectacular it's not even funny.

True, I mostly do not use them. More like the ones I let my wife or the neighbors borrow. That is where my angle driver is, though, since that does not hang well on pegboard. I really could throw all but two or three of my craftsman set in there and save some room in the pegboard rack.