Tool Organization for People Who Can't Be Organized

Everyday I’m working in the shop two things are true: I’m trying to be efficient, and I am excellent at creating a mess. This is an overview of my tool wall which helps me be organized and avoid frustration.

If you’ve somehow avoided Adam Savage’s First Order Retrievability videos I highly recommend you look them up. His ideas and iterations are very helpful to anyone laying out a shop, and I think about them a lot when I set up my work space.

If you found this entertaining, educational or even enraging, consider buying me a coffee...or a beer;). Please use the link:
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Here are links to a few tools I highlighted in this video. If anything caught your eye that isn’t listed please just mention it in the comments and I’ll find a link. Amazon links help me out, Thank you!

Incra T-Rules:

Fastcap Tape Measures:

Sand Paper Rolls

[mariofix]

"I'm physically incapable of storing this box" oh men, it's so reassuring to hear a grown man saying what my brain thinks but can't handle. Thank you for sharing.

[gregbenwell]

The "shop" I have is tiny at just 8 feet by 8 feet with another 8 foot by 8 foot storage area behind it!!!! WORKING in a shop this small, DEMANDS I put things away as I use them OR ELSE! You see there isn't a lot of "work space" to start with, and if I don't put things back as I use them, then I literally have ZERO PLACE TO WORK to begin with!! BUT also having a shop this small means everything is basically in arms reach more or less too!! So putting things away isn't hard at all!! It is the one nice thing about owning a small workspace, because "everything has a home, everything has its place"!! And if you get just one tool or item out....suddenly the whole place looks cluttered and disorganized!!

[Jay-Horta]

I’m happy to know that I’m not the only person like this. Like seriously. I am fucking in capable of doing the tiniest stuff, but I will slave to work on cars Four days on end, but when it comes to putting the tools away for 10 minutes, I just can’t do it. Thanks for making this video!

[cosamuel]

Thank you for leaving the chisel/file thing in and not re-recording it. This man is a human like I am.

[refisherdesktop]

One expression of ADHD is the tendency (once one actually gets going on something) to push the session right up to (or often past) the point where we should've started winding down or stopping altogether.

I catch myself doing this all the time - "I can squeeze another five minutes out of this; I can be a little late for dinner/that appointment/whatever". I'm often trying to get to a place that feels like a natural stopping point (even when that isn't really a necessary thing), instead of reminding myself that for the most part I can set this thing down right here and pick it up again from this state without a negative consequence.

Part of ADHD time blindness is not having the capacity to accurately gauge how long something will take; another is losing track of how much time is left. One way I deal with this is to set my "wind down" alarm (on my phone) for some time before I know I have to stop what I'm doing - so if I'm going to stop at 7 I'll set the alarm for 6:30 with 10-minute snooze intervals. It goes off; I remember I have to stop in a half-hour, so I snooze it and go on. Goes off again 10 minutes later; "Oh yeah; I'm getting closer" (I'm mentally preparing to change gears).
Goes off again 10 minutes later, I know it's time to stop working and start putting stuff away. I need to build that clean-up time in at the end and try to stick with it if I'm ever going to have any hope of having an efficient workspace, 'cause the flip side of that is that A) I can never find anything, and B) I'll take one look at the shop and think "I can't work in this mess." - so not organizing at the end of a session becomes a built-in obstacle to beginning the next session.

I also use that phone-alarm trick for when I have to leave the house to do something. It's helped me a lot - when I remember to set it.

[NicPottier]

If you build another of those cubby storage racks, do a video on it, would be curious to see. Love your system and how it's just all a plywood wall.

[sandwon]

I like your idea's. 👍You have a Great camera assistant also. 😃👍

[randywl]

So relatable, but my space is tiny.
I see a lot of useful ideas. Im mainly looking to better organize a corner work table and wall by my drill press.
Basic stuff you grab all the time, like squares angle finder, calipers, micrometer, ruler, tape measure, drill index, pliers screwdrivers.
Not all of everything, as I will keep most stuff in a tool chest. Most of the time, you gwill grab one particular screwdriver and one particular wrench and one particular screwdriver....
So just the basic go to stuff that you always reach for
Thanks for the ideas. 👍

[akshi_az]

I like how most used nailer has its handle covered in glue :) Really hard to avoid if you're fixing glueups with nails.

[vikkirountoit]

OK only into video 1 min and somehow you are describing me perfectly? I envy the size of your shop though - mine's quite a bit smaller. Gave me some ideas, thanks!

[frostieone]

I thought that I was the only one who had a problem returning things! There must be an answer, some sort of therapy perhaps? I know it would eventually speed things up but I just can’t do it! Great video by the way!🤓

[beachthor]

Part of the fun of my shop is not being required to clean up after myself. But yes, mine looks very much like yours.

[anthonyseiver]

I picked up a few hints from your video, esp the ruler storage. Thanks for the video.

[BywaysnoHighways]

Tool storage is one thing. Material storage is killing me!! LOL

[triplenickelniner]

I’m really bad about putting my tools away too. I hear ya. I thought about spray painting or painting a red square or something on my workbench to remind me to put stuff away. I subbed for more. 😊

[stuartkorte]

Fine tooth bandsaw blade mounted below or above the sandpaper rolls works great to cut the paper.
I really like hanging speed squares perpendicular to squares.

[emmaslow]

Paper towel rail - looks like you could just turn it upside down so it can be refilled from the right hand side, which has more clearance? I absolutely have the same inability to keep things organised, but I also don't have the ability to figure out how to organise things in the first place so I love this video full of ideas!

[jerrywilson]

I worked for several years with a small crew of folks who "just couldn't put stuff away." As the junior member, that always fell to me. The aisle of our small work trailer would be covered with boxes they had pulled out to get something - a trip hazard. My several college psychology classes hadn't offered an explanation, but one day we were having lunch and I announced, "Guys, I'm quitting next Monday if you won't put away the things you pull out. It's not fair to any of us to clean up after each other." What do you think happened? Did they start putting things away? Nope. And I did quit. I think Adam's workflow process could easily include putting stuff away - if he really wanted to. I wonder if he's a smoker . . . . .

[devinquince]

Yes, videos or designs for your racks would be amazing

[donnieronald]

My man I have been trying to organize my garage for 8 years now.. I have the exact same problem!