Free Shop Tool Organizers!

Hey, Dirt Farmer Jay here from DirtFarmerJay.com. Don't you just love working in an organized workspace? But sometimes it's hard to get started and it can be expensive, but I'm gonna throw a few tips your way that'll help you get started with a minimum fuss, must, and expense. Stay tuned. Hey, Dirt Farmer Jay here from DirtFarmerJay.com. You know as well as I do that being organized is a process. It's not an event. I wish it was, but you've got to constantly fight entropy. Things get disorganized, they kind of fall apart, and we're starting the adventure of that in our shop. We'll show you a lot of things along the way that we're doing to make our space really productive and make it easy to get work quickly and to have supplies on hand when you need them. But we're kind of kicking things off a bit with a little bit of an entry level here. One of the things that is kind of a pushback on organizations, it can get expensive buying organizers and tool racks and containers, but I'm gonna show you a few little things that you can use that you might already have to get started to minimize the expense and whether or not you use them long term, at least they get things in the right place until you can re-approach them again and perhaps put more resource their way. Well, let's begin with this. Well, as you can see, one of the things that we first began with is this is an expensive item. This is roughly around $400, but this is kind of the key where we're starting to actually do a lot of tool setting. And you can see up here, we're actually starting a whole battery charging area. In future episodes, I'll show you where all of these tools and all this will be stored so it's ready to go to work at a moment's notice. Air is in the area and all that. But that's all for another day. Let's just talk about some of those inexpensive things you can do to get started. Well, here's my first stab at some of the organization in these tools. And these tools are in these drawers. And of course, these tools are more mechanics tools, wrenches, nut drivers, hex keys, and that sort of thing. But I wanna point out something. If you look down here and see these in here, these are not purchase racks. These racks and these holders right here and here, and even these nut drivers, all are the consumer packaging that came in here. And if you've been around for a while, you'd certainly understand the Husky brand. It's from Home Depot. But all the big box stores have their own tool setups and some of the major manufacturers have them where you're gonna end up with consumer packaging that can be repurposed to actually hold the tools. Now, there's some pluses and minuses on this. If you look over at these racks, these just set in there and they just nest and they fall in and out. Those are great as long as they're stationary and it makes it fast to access and to return the tool to its place. It's very obvious when a tool is missing. If you look at these kind of racks, they all have little clips on them and literally you have to push that back. They also hold it, but it does take a little bit more effort to get the tool out and then to replace it. So there's a little bit of trade-offs of which one you use. Now, there's a couple of ways to make use of these or to access these. If you look at this particular one, I simply took the tool carrier and the retail package into the bandsaw and cut it free. And then I end up with this little rack like this that now has its place in one of the shallow drawers in my roll-around tool chest here. You can certainly purchase socket holders and this is one that's purchased. It's magnetic base. It's all numbered. And as my metric socket collection grows, all of those will be filled with a home, but you don't have to go that way. Like I said, you can use those. These are consumer packages, ready to go. Freed, put into the space, and now it's very clear and they don't roll around here. It's very clear where they belong. Let's look over here though. When I removed this one from the packaging, you notice it's not sawn free. And this is just a little tip. What this would do is this lid right here would be on the package. When you go to use it, you would open it and there was a little swing around bar that kind of helped keep this all in place for carrying it. To free this up and get rid of that, I was able to clip that off. But if you'll note right here, there is a place right here and right here where this was attached to the holder down here using these little nuts and bolts with hex key heads on them. And these are kind of cool. I'm gonna put these in my little keeper to be sorted thing. I'll find a reason to use them in the future. But they work really well. You take it apart, that goes away. That'll be thrown away. And now you have a tool rack, okay? So there's a couple tips right there. Now, let's continue. There's some other things. Some of this is really low tech. But why not use some just common packaging? Dirt Farmer Maggie and I are puzzle makers. We enjoy doing puzzles. It's good camaraderie and keeps your mind sharp. But sometimes you can double up a box. This is where I kind of throw all my glasses and visual aid, so to speak. And then that goes in the drawer. So you can use something like that. Well, let's look at some other area that you may not have thought. Let's take a look over here. So, when you get tool kits, many times they come in a box like this. And there are different cases that come along that make good candidates, other ones that don't. No, this is not an ad for DeWalt, and they are not branding this. This just happens to be the tool system that I use, and I've been pleased with it. And I thought I'd show you some of the things we're doing here. So, when you get a case like this, or like this, there's two different types. This is a blow-molded type of case. And when you open it up, it is formed to the inside of the tool. And is actually, its strength structure comes from both the outer textured case that you see, that's branded, that is normally what you see sitting on the shelf. And then inside, there's another inner shell. Well, if you cut these apart and remove this from the inside, it becomes very flimsy. These are not a very good candidate for repurposing. They're pretty much dedicated purpose, and you're gonna see less and less manufacturers use these because this one's been sitting on the shelf for a long time. It's actually gonna either be taken to plastics or recycled or cut up and reduced in some way. So, that's not a good candidate. However, when you get these kinds of cases, they're hard outside case. They have all these different ribbings inside them for the tool system, the battery chargers, accessories. And this is actually a proprietary thing that each tool manufacturer brands, okay, or says, this is our system, it's trademarked, and you can't just, another tool manufacturer can't use it. But here's the thing, you can get rid of all of these, like I have done, in here. As you can see on this bottom here, I went ahead and sawed out some of these items right here, utilizing a flush cutter. This happens to be a RIDGID JobMax. This is many times used for flush cutting moldings when you're gonna put in laminate flooring. But it also does a good job of cutting flush. So, I can get the saw in like this, and it's gonna get loud a bit. And I can work right through the process, trimming some of that off of the side, coming down the side until this whole pan is empty. And now this becomes a toolbox that you need to put dividers in. You can kit something. Let's suppose you have a bunch of air tools of some kind, or you've got a kit for electrical parts, or some kind of process that you use ongoing. This becomes a great toolbox. You can, and the clasps are nice. The DeWalt brand, or the branding, tells you this is the upside, so that when you open it, things don't fall out. And then you can clasp that all again, and boom, you have something that sits on the shelf nicely, and you've repurposed instead of thrown away. Now, one other thing I'll throw at you very quickly, and that is some of the canvas bags that tool kits come with. So these are almost like mini gym bags or sports bags, but because they're soft-sided and flexible, they're great for taking on weird-shaped things that are not easily put into a container system, or put in bins, or that sort of thing. You can put them in here, and there's no reason why you can't take a felt-tip marker, such as a Sharpie, and write what's on it, and create kits of these. So you don't have to go out buying things. Use what's been given to you. Now, undoubtedly, you have some insights to some things that you're using around your shop or makerspace that has helped you to organize your space. And if you have some ideas you'd like to pass on to your fellow viewers, please do so in the comments below. If you found this video to be helpful, won't you like it? And better yet, ring the bell so you get notified immediately when we put out new content, approximately every Friday. And subscribing really helps us out. It really helps us to put out new content on a wide range of subjects, from in the shop, in the kitchen, about your vehicle, out in the garden, all about. So stay tuned for future upcoming episodes. Until the next time, this is Dirt Farmer Jay from DirtFarmerJay.com, in a more organized space.