What are your Tips for an Organized Workbench? [Ask e14 - Join, Share & Win Competition] September 2025

This might be a little outside the box... or rather inside the box.  I have been using little cardboard boxes with dimensions slightly smaller than a shoe box.  Specific dimensions are 32cm x 23cm x 10cm.  These boxes have a lid and I've been packing them with items that fit a common theme... for instance I labeled one AV cables and another Tube Amp Supplies. So far I bought six of these boxes, which retail for $0.99 and I've been stacking them on a book shelf.  It helps to de-clutter.

I've been doing similar but with 'Really Useful (plastic) Boxes'. 

They are clear so can get a rough idea of what is inside. Also being plastic a bit more resistant to water if you get a leak or spillage.

Sizes are 9L, 3L, 1.6L

Two 3L at right angles will securely stack on top of a 9L but unfortunately only one 1.6L will stack securely on a 3L. 

Have about 50 of them now forming towers around the room.

I've been buying them when they have been discounted in store.

The great thing about the Really Useful Boxes is that they are !

I've been using them (mainly 18L, but other sizes too ) for (at least) 23 years.

The pictures show only about 1/3 of them (and that's not counting the 700 or so 0.3l and 0.14L ones in nests) !

MK

The great thing about the Really Useful Boxes is that they are !

I've been using them (mainly 18L, but other sizes too ) for (at least) 23 years.

The pictures show only about 1/3 of them (and that's not counting the 700 or so 0.3l and 0.14L ones in nests) !

MK

It's fine so, using transparent boxes it is a pretty good improvement. 

Very nice.  I zoomed in and took a look at your labels.  I noticed that some of them have dates and that the bins collect the items from specific projects.  That would be my strategy as well... as opposed to others who might instead gather like components all together, ie capacitors with capacitors etc.

dang74 said:

I zoomed in and took a look at your labels

I don't label. That forces me to look in several boxes before I find something. And that keeps my memory fresh. Because I see all the other stuff I have, before I find what I need.

I do the same with my records. I have loads of them, and they are unsorted. I approximately know where a record sits, when I want to listen to it. But by the time I find it, I've already put aside five others that I wasn't looking for - to play them.
I thrive on disorder. But not on the working desk.

Labelling nearly everything is quite recent (last few years) for me. The problem is that it can take so long to find the right job box when looking through the older ones because some may not have been opened for many years.

You know you have a serious issue of forgetfulness when you can't remember the job even after opening the box.

I have found that, on balance, the labelling saves time.

@ dang74 

I keep job related parts in a job box but more general components in component places (drawers or nests of little boxes.)  I find that kitting is much faster when the components are indexed and kept out of the job boxes. In the last few years I have been reducing the proportion of bits that go in job boxes and I think this has saved a lot of time.

@Jan Cumps 

My records are kept in alphabetical order but seem to form themselves into piles of most recently played. Currently about 10% seem to have escaped that way.

MK

Interesting way to test the old memory.  I was just like you as far as my record collection goes, but about a month ago I finally put it in alphabetical order.

I can relate on bad memory.  Recently I opened an old bin up at work and found a PCB from the early 2010s that I don't even remember doing.