Shop Organization

[Bob Paulin]

Have you ever gone into a parts store, looked at the rows of those heavy-duty, cardboard box/drawers on the shelves, and wished you could do something similar for your own shop?

In addition to keeping things of various sizes organized, these box/drawers allow you to use the full-depth of the shelf for storage - without pushing things off the back of the shelf!!! Slide them forward, and you have access to what is stored at the rear of the box/drawer.

Have you even gone so far as to price out a case of those die-cut, fold-'em-yourself boxes.....only to realize that......

a.) ......they're somewhat expensive.....

b.) ......each case only contains a single size.....but, you could probably use several different sizes to fill all the nooks and crannies in your shop.....

Well, son.......I'm here to give you a lead on all the free - not inexpensive - *FREE* box/drawers you could possibly use.

Your friendly local "Big-Box" home improvement stores such as Home Depot and Lowe's get all their plumbing products such as copper, plastic, and cast iron elbows, connectors, fittings, etc. shipped in brand-new box/drawers....every week!!!!

The old, only slightly used, box/drawers on the shelf are usually taken off the shelf, broken up and compacted in the cardboard compacter.

Go to the Operations Manager at your local BB, and ask if these could be saved for you.

Point out that you will be taking away the expense of disposal.

THEN, go talk with the department manager....and ask that they save these boxes for you.

If you know someone who works for one of these places, all the better.......ask them to do this for you, then "compensate" them with a dinner, some maintenance work on their car (they don't make a lot of money in these places), or something else....

In addition to the plumbing fittings and hardware, you can find these box/drawers in other areas including some fairly large Eveready Battery box/drawers, and some in the hardware department from Stanley hardware.

All you need to do to use them is to place a wide strip of tape or label material over the front label and re-mark the box/drawer's use - or not.....

I have done this at my local HD store, and it can easily generate 20-or-more of these different-sized box/drawers every single week.

I usually need a shopping cart to remove them from the store - of course this is AFTER the Service Desk or a manager checks to make sure they are empty.

The key is to check at least weekly. They are willing to save for you, but if storage becomes an issue, they will toss them.

I am passing along this closely-guarded secret because I currently have more boxes than I need - to the point that I am now giving some to my wife for use in the house pantry.

In order to store all that I have acquired, I have sorted them by size, carefully unfolded them, and store them flat.

B.P.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Good idea and suggestions on finding the boxes.

I get these type of  boxes from my work

[enjenjo]

I used to get them where I worked too. And when fatcat was building corrugated dies, he made some in custom sizes for me.

I also have several hundred tulip crates, that I got from a local green house. These are similar to milk crates, but lower and longer. they are about 16" by 24" by 8" high, and lock into each other when stacked. They make storage, and moving parts very easy. I picked up some tire carts, for moving stacks of tires, that fit these crates exactly, so I can move a whole stack of crates at the same time.