12 Workshop Organization Ideas: Drawers, Racks, Reels and Foam

MWA Woodworks lays out twelve ways to organize a workshop, starting from the idea that a cluttered shop works against productivity. The ideas range from a $25 jig and homemade plywood dividers to a smartphone app that feeds tool outlines to a CNC.

Drawers first

The first build is a custom drawer organizer made from thin plywood strips, sized after surveying the drawer and loosely arranging the items to be stored. The strips are half-inch plywood, though quarter-inch would probably work. They are cut on a table saw with a thin rip jig that slides in the miter slot and locks in place. The cut is made on the outside of the blade, and the fence is readjusted to touch the jig before the next cut.

The jig is a safety choice. Cutting thin pieces between the blade and fence is harder to control, even with a push block. The presenter once cut strips for cutting boards against the fence and a piece kicked back so violently it went almost clean through the back wall of his shop. The jig cost $25.

The grooves are cut with a dado stack set to the exact width of the plywood, in a single pass, and made about two-thirds of the way through. The fit is snug enough that the assembled dividers need no glue, screws or brad nails, only friction.

Fasteners, bits and trays

For small fasteners, the presenter prefers 8 oz plastic deli containers. They are flat, stackable and clear, can be labeled on top, and fit his fasteners about 99% of the time. For bits and drivers he uses open orange containers instead, so everything stays visible and ready to grab. They come in a set of 42 for about 20 dollars and have connectors to join them.

For deep drawers he adds sliding trays: work out the clearance needed for the bottom layer, glue or tack strips to each side of the drawer, and build trays from quarter-inch plywood bottoms with small strips around the edge.

Grab-and-go storage

He prefers tidy, visually clutter-free spaces, but cites Adam Savage's idea of first order retrievability: the tools used most should be easy to find and close at hand. His compromise is a drill charging station that holds drills and drivers, makes a missing one easy to spot, and has sandpaper, common hand tools and clear fastener bins with labels written on the front because the bins sit high. A second grab-and-go area under the cabinets is organized by frequency of use rather than tool type. He calls the process iterative.

Special cases

• Saw blades: a slide-out organizer built from two pieces of plywood, drawer slides and 5/8 in. dowels stores blades vertically so carbide teeth do not grind on each other.
• SawStop rail tray: a 3D-printed tray slides into the side rail in place of the plastic plug and holds safety glasses, a pencil, a small ruler and a tape measure. He has only confirmed it on a SawStop.
• Track racks: Fastcap Track Racks screw onto a garage door or shop wall to hold aluminum track saw guide rails.
• Reels: a retractable reel holds 50 ft of air hose next to the compressor, and a power cord reel on the garage ceiling reaches the garage, the workshop and the yard.

Kaizen foam

Kaizen foam layers can be pulled out after cutting around a traced tool with a utility knife or thin razor. The presenter calls it more than everyday storage needs, but it proved valuable in the drawers of his portable workbench, where tools are packed, some double-stacked, so nothing rattles in transport. Foam test tube carriers hold 20 mm bench dogs.

With the Shaper Trace, a tool such as a chisel is outlined on paper with a black marker and photographed with a phone app, producing a to-scale vector file for CAD software. Tool paths then go to a CNC, which cuts the foam held down with two-sided tape using a foam cutting bit from Bits and Bits, leaving a clean pocket with a flat bottom.