After having a new to us house with a basement for a year, I had
managed to just about completely have a disaster zone in it for a
workshop. My wife being blessed with orzanizational skills helped get
it straight before my new table saw came (it had to have a nice home
you know).

I had 3 sets of shelves which were emptied and all like items placed
together (paint, cleaners, glues, etc.) the stuff I don't use much was
moved to the other side of the room to free up some space. I had a
set of metal wire bottom shelves in the garage that I moved to the
basement to put small power tools on (the wire bottom lets me leave
the blade or bit on the tool and it just sticks through) don't really
worry about dust getting on them since I don't clean them completely
between uses anyway. A set of enclosed shelves holds some of the
nicer and sharper tools and meters, etc. I have shelves since the
walls are block. The little sets of plastic drawers make a good home
for all of the screws and I try to keep the screws/nails that came in
boxes in the boxes so I can see what they are.

One pegboard is up in the middle of the room on the side of the
stairs, and it is full of all sorts of tools, squares, levels, the
stuff I use all the time. All the table saw stuff is around the saw.

I need to make a lumber storage rack, I have drawn a plan but have not
gotten the wood or time yet. It does make for faster projects and
home repairs after all of the organizaion. Good luck with yours.

Jeff

HI All,

It seems that my ISP does not allow posting to groups only downloading
so I am using google post! (sorry if this becomes a duplicate posting)

After becoming totally frustruated at my workshop I have decided to
knucle
down and get the place organized. OK how about sharing your tips and
methods for keeping such things as your hand power tools, their
accessories
organized. How do you keep such items as nails, screws and other
hardware
sorted and redably available. Also how do you keep small items shuch
as
screw bits and such orderly.

I would like to have input on what has worked and what has failed.

Right now I have two locations for my tools one is in the upper
section of
my barn where my big power tools are located, tablesaw, Joiner, RAS
are
located. the other tools tend to "float" between my bacement the barn.
The
barn is unheated so this time of year I don't use it as much as the
bacement. One of the ways I have tried (unscucessfully) was to put the
tools
in toolboxes labled with the function of tools (general, electrical,
plumbing ...) So what has worked for you and what hasn't?

Thanks,
Dave M