I have a lack of space problem… Fine. That’s a lie. I have a stuff problem. While I’d of course love to have a warehouse sized workshop with ample storage for all my projects, I honestly can’t really complain about the space I have dedicated to making things. The problem is that I’ve always got at least seven projects in progress at any time. Even the most ample bench space will become an unruly mess with that many in progress projects at the same time. So something had to change.
I’ve already got a lot of drawer-based storage that comprises the “parts-bin” section of my shop… but to paraphrase Adam Savage: “Drawers are where [projects] do to die.” So the new project storage needed to be easy to access, easy to tell what’s inside, and easy to organize.
In the end, I came up with what you see above, clear storage bins. I know… exciting and un-original. But the real part that I feel makes the difference is the ability to divide up the bins so they can hold multiple projects and be re-organized and re-sized quickly, like this:
The dividers are just laser cut sections of 2mm “chip board”, or just solid cardboard. Corrugated would work fine as well, but I felt the chip board would hold up better.
I originally thought about laser cutting some complicated system with slotted pieces of cardboard but quickly decided that simpler was better. Gaffer tape to the rescue and I can easily place the dividers wherever I want.
Now, I can pull out a project, work on it for awhile, and then quickly put everything back and out of the way. Already did so about 5 times today :) Did I mention I work on a lot of different things all at the same time?
Bonus points for anyone who can figure out what I’m building for each of the above ;)