Question of the Month: How do you Organise Your Components? (or don't you?)

My component storage system is, in principle, inspired by chaos theory—mostly the chaos part. In the early days, I kept everything in the bags they arrived in and hurled them lovingly into a single drawer. I maintained a flawless mental index of my stash and only had one archaeological dig site to excavate. Life was simple. Ish.

Then my electronics habit escalated. With it came a corresponding rise in the volume and creativity of the swearing while spelunking through the Drawer of Doom. So I attempted to “get organised”… by which I mean I relocated the problem. I washed out a few Chinese takeaway tubs and began categorizing according to the supplier’s taxonomy: opto-electronics, resistors, semiconductors, capacitors—you know, the usual suspects. Miraculously, this reduced the profanity per search cycle and increased component-acquisition efficiency.

Naturally, my addiction grew again, and the single drawer evolved into a proud two-drawer ecosystem. Spotting a trend yet?

Fast-forward to today: I’m the proud curator of five drawers and three cube-storage boxes from that well-known Swedish temple of allen keys—strategically distributed across three rooms and my workbench. It is, objectively, a catastrophe. But it is my catastrophe.

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve rage-quit the hunt, ordered a replacement, and then—without fail—discovered the original part at the exact moment the new one thudded through the letterbox. The universe has a sense of humour and it’s very specific.

My one nod to “proper” storage is a 60-cell SMD organiser—which, in my defence, I only own because someone gifted it to me. Left to my own devices, I’d still be stuffing parts into bags like a demented raccoon.

I should get my act together, but honestly? That’s time I could spend building something new, shiny, and potentially flammable.

<Confession Ends>

I usually keep components in their original bags, but some are organized into labelled box. I'm experimenting a bit, and using the method that fits better for the component in hand.
I also have a local database with all the components. It just saves time when searching. 

I store electronic stuff, you name it, in food grade zip lock bags inside a plastic storage container that slides under a bed. I no longer exercise storing the tub under a bed, now that my daughters family has moved out. I have a room with a wall to stack it against.

Keeping the stuff in the original box sometimes work but consumes to much space and need more tubs:(

mayermakes how are your drawers of stuff these days?

90% of compoenents have moved from drawers to bins ..and the farnell packets in those bins, sorted not by partnumber  but Purpose. and the shelves are sectioned in "type of thing". So A Dip pushbutton i would find in the left shelf (as its a mechanical thingy) amongst the bins of buttons and switches in a labeled bin.
And a 74HC595 shift register would go in the right shelf amongst the logic chip section in roughly the middle of the shelf in  a bin "shift registers".
its pretty much Peter Ludolfs Haufenprinzip (the heap principle - by Peter Ludolf of a german reality TV show on a scrapyard) but for electronics. 
www.imdb.com/.../

CRAP! I made a post to this including picture and nada. I wish I knew when posts were not successful. I would be able to keep the content for later. Oh well!

All of the above, I've a parts drawer containing a number of boxes, tubs and tins containing similar items e.g. switches, LEDs, transistors etc.

But I also have a number of work in progress boxes with parts for specific projects.

And judging from yesterday quick trip to the workshop there's a good level of chaos at the moment. Need to do a spring clean.

I have a tackle box with clear bins. I take the bins out and look at them. for parts parts, so mcus, connectors, dev boards, etc. 
discrete components, are in a cabinet. I do keep things on the reel, but only when designated containers are full. 
if you looked at my desk, you might also see chaos. 

I hate stuff in bags. I cleaned a friends work space earlier this year, and took out a garbage bag full of bags. Favorite was when I found multiple bags of bags. just bags.
well I got him some trading card sleeves, and put most of the components into sleeves into binders.  took the labels off the bags and stuck them in the sleeves with the components. 

I for my own use keep one junk box as unavoidable evil. when that box gets full, I parse that. 


Guys at work, my friends have 100 junk boxes. My thinking is that all junk boxes are chaos, and that 1 chaos + N chaos = 1 chaos. 
so all the junk boxes can be consolidated, or organized, I dont care which. 

I mean I get it, Im frequently working on a dozen or so projects. project reminats, finished projects, current projects all in the same space. 
all my plc stuff is mounted on din rails. got 15 or so laptops and IPCs, Im using 3, but what if I need the parts?  so I also have boxes of PSUs, cables etc, loosely sorted. 
laptop power: its own box.
5,12V regs, thier own boxes.
everything else is in the chaos PSU drawer.

damn it, I can do better, guess I better clean up in here.

Previously i used to keep them in boxes without labelling it. And it becomes a disaster when i need to use them. Recently i have started to do a proper labelling and storing. Life is more ease now.