Bins

Always good to see more storage ideas. I have 6 of the parts bins that have all the little drawers. There is a larger drawer version too that is real handy.

Using your phone...I had the same issue. The key is to hold the phone so the bottom of the screen is aimed off to your right.

Jack

Harbor Freight storage box width between dividers?

This Harbor Freight parts storage solution is intriguing, to say the least.  

A key question: What is the exact width between the dividers?

Denny S. Anspach MD

Sacramento

Plano tackle boxes

Plano makes some boxes with dividers for fishing tackle that are just the right size for HO Grandt Line and Tichy windows and doors.and Detail Associates, Details West and other parts.  Model #3503  I purchased mine at Cabella's.

Robert

@ Danny

I will measure them when I get home. They are a bit wider than a DA or similar parts bag.

Looks like a great idea. The company I work for uses Plano boxes

to organize small parts on each van. I find them to be cumbersome personally. I am not a fisherman though. They are also expensive compared to the Harbor Freight organizers. I have to look into the HF organizer system.

Harbor Freight boxes

Mine measure 2" wide by 5.5" depth. I had to CA the bottoms of each divider as I found them to be a little flimsy and some items were sliding beneath the divider.  I believe that Sears also made this product as I recall seeing them on the shelf at the local Menards

Baseball card holders

great idea

great idea

Bin Storage

I just love this idea!    Nice Post!    Thank You!

Interesting Subject

Interesting and timely subject for me right now.

I was looking at several places where I might put a pull out work space in my rather small, compact shed layout. And importantly where and how I would put a selection of small parts that might be needed. I have a fair amount of items I collected over the years, and I need to re-organize them to fit in a compact manner. At the moment they are all in various larger boxes in my storage trailer (that I am hoping to eliminate within a year).

Storage

Is always an interesting subject, Brian. Because we all have different places and different "stuff" to store. So all of the above ideas are worth consideration. And even though I have most stuff fairly well organized, I can always use more ideas. To find better ways. Thanks to all that post your ideas.

Storage cabinets

Based on a garage sale find by my wife, we have accumulated plastic bins on wheels that very conveniently store things under the railroad.  Under the work bench are supplies and drawers for locos, loco parts, and freight and passenger cars and parts. Similarly, next to the main electrical controls, signal system, etc. are cabinets for everything electrical, DCC, CMRI, etc.  At the end of the room, under the most sparcely sceniked areas, are the scenery supplies.  This all is a boon to maintenance of enthusiasm when in the midst of a project, and you need just one more thing to solve the task at hand.

An opposite approach to storage

Faced with a similar situation, namely having collected bits, kits, tools, and random stuff since switching to HO in the late 80s, and tossing in 3 moves to scramble everything thoroughly, my railroad and other hobby items were in a number of large carboard boxes, including a few in a storage unit as well as my garage and basement.

I approached it by going through each box, inventorying what was in it and grouping like things in the boxes: all the rolling stock/locos in a couple of boxes, all the scenery material in another box, all the building kits in a couple of others. Couplers went into their own smaller box, as did electrical components and woodscrews.  

As I went through each box, I put together a spreadsheet listing each item, with different worksheets for each type of item and the numbered/labeled box they are stored in.  A loose leaf notebook would work just as well.  

A few plastic toolboxes from Harbor Freight served to collect and store my paints, my hobby tools (by category - electrical, trackwork, modeling), solvents and other chemicals, a smaller one with the blank car cards and switch list forms.

The key for me is going back to my spreadsheet.  I can decide what I want to work on, find out where the kit is at, what components such as coupler, paint, and hardware are needed (and if I have them on hand), and lay my hands on the pretty quickly.  I can also track progress on each project by using another page that lists major steps or stumbling blocks for them. By separating tools by type of task, I can bring the appropriate toolbox to my workbench and have everything I need at hand for a project.

None of this happened overnight, and there are still at least a few items I know are somewhere in my garage, still packed away from an earlier move, that will surface sooner or later, along with a couple forgotten other things that are probably packed with the ones I recall but haven't found yet.  At least everything is out of storage units. It's not as nice looking or as presentable as the photos shown here, but it works for me.

A bonus is that as I look at the projects I'm working on, I can easily create a shopping list for the next hobby show I attend, and it has cut down on the number of impulse buys that turn out to be something I've already got stashed away.

Janet N.

@Don

Nice looking set up Don.

Do the rolling plastic carts really hold up when loaded down?

Storage Bins

If you have a university nearby that has student housing, find out when the students have to vacate their dorms. I picked up most of my storage bins, some on wheels, from the dump area outside the dorms. Today's kids dump them at the end of the semester instead of storing them over the summer. To be fair, some of them are graduating. You can also find mini refrigerators, dorm-sized TVs, furniture, fans, etc. To this old guy that worked, paid his own way thru college, and commuted, it was amazing to see what and how much they considered 'disposable'. 

When I lived up in the DC

When I lived up in the DC area. I remember visiting the outlet store that the Univ of Md operated. Found lots of interesting things there...not just from students, but from the Univ itself.

My experience.

I have many different kinds of storage boxes. All plastic ones do not roll well. I keep one that is a metal frame with plastic drawers in a place where I only have to move it a few inches or so. But the drawers keep slipping out of the side tracks. Plano boxes are really the best. They can be stacked. They are clear to see what's in them, and/or put labels on. I use the slightly larger ones for cars/locos. The smaller ones with the many dividers for all sorts of parts. A cheap way to store "junk" or "miscellaneous" is the plastic shoe box.  Example for the shoe box: I keep those plastic sprues in one. Also, one for old plastic couplers/NMRA. Another for plastic wheels that I've removed from trucks for the metal wheels. Yes, those are many.Why keep them? I never did know, it's just that I'm a pack rat and save everything. The shoe boxes I use all stack nicely so they don't fall over. And again, clear to see what's in and also can take labels. I guess what I'm saying is that individual boxes seem to work better for me than rolling carts or file cabinet style.

One of my projects today was

One of my projects today was to cut this storage rack down by 2 layers so it could fit under my staging track deck. I had this rack left over from my MD days, and 2 of them were in my cargo trailer to transport boxed locos.

I found some plastic fishing box containers at WalMart that had multiple small compartments for those small parts. Bought 6 of them at 3.50 each they are just over 2" high, 14" wide, 16" deep.
 

The whole thing is recessed back under the main deck far enough to give me leg room for the rolling chair I hope to occupy when working on a pull-out work surface from under the main deck.
 

That stack of red containers next to it are some old soda containers I've lined with foam to hold a multitude of items including a double layer of freight cars laid on their sides. I got 7 of them stacked up there, and hope to repeat that at other locations around the room.