Organizing my tools — with a tool trolley

In my new home office — I never got around to set up an organized system for my tools. I’ve had some in tool cases, others in boxes — with lids. Not a good system…

I’ve found that if something is out of arm’s reach, I’m far less likely to put it back when I’m done with it. So I’ve accumulated tools; on the bench, and on the floor.

But — with my new tool trolley; I’m hoping to solve all these issues 😎

Before

In my first apartment I had my tools mounted to the closet next to me. This was pretty convenient, they were easily accessible and everything had its own place. But adding new tools were often a challenge, as I would need to find the space for additional tools holders.

And sets and assortments could not be mounted like this.

When I got a house, and made a workshop in the basement — I got a tool cabinet with wheels. Sounded like a good idea when I got it, but it wasn’t… The tools weren’t close enough to my work area, they were hard to reach, and it was difficult to get a good overview of everything.

The space usage wasn’t very good either.

In our next house I had a peg board, right next to where I was sitting. Pretty good — but there simply wasn’t enough available space, and some tools were hard, if not impossible to mount properly.

Currently

That brings us to my current home office. There isn’t any wall space available down here. So I’ve kept some tools in tool cases, and others in boxes. This solution had two major drawbacks:

• Most times I didn’t bother putting the tools back — I just left them, on the desk, or floor. Sometimes I didn’t even put the boxes back 😛
• I completely lost control of what tools I had. It’s not ideal when you order tools, just to find that you already had them 😕

Yeah, so the home office has been a bit messy — at times.

The solution

Just by chance — I stumbled onto a Bacho E72 tool trolley on sale. After some thinking, and measuring, I ordered one.

It was delivered a few days after, on a truck… And getting it down the stairs to the basement was no easy task. It weighs 68 kg, that’s 150 pounds! But my dad and I managed to get it down, somehow.

I have placed it next to my homelab server rack, which is right behind me when I’m working on my electronics bench.

And oh man! This thing rooms a lot of stuff, and everything is so easy to find, and put back 😃

The trolley is 69 cm wide, 51 cm deep, and 95 cm high. The drawers are 44.5 × 54.3 cm, and can take 30 kg load.

The top three drawers are just 5 cm high, perfect for screw drivers, pliers, etc.

The next two drawers are 11.6 cm high; I’m using these for my measuring instruments and power tools. The bottom drawer is 24.6 cm, I haven’t figure out what to put there yet.

The top has a raised edge, so things don’t roll off. Having a work surface right next to the homelab rack is very useful 🙂 It’s the perfect place for setting up and servicing servers 👍

I’ve been using it for my upcoming virtual VyOS router project 🙂

Summary

Of all my previous solutions for organizing my tools — I like this one best. Things are easy to place, easy to find, and easy to put back. I currently have no tools scattered around, and I actually put things back now. Lets hope it lasts 🖖