I’m working away on some exiting new projects but until I get them finished I wanted to share some quick ways that I use to keep my workstation organized. With thousands of small parts, endless types and colors of cable and a pile of specialized tools it can be very easy to watch your workstation descend into chaos. Today I’ll go over a few quick tips to help you keep things organized so you can spend less time searching for tools and parts and more time focusing on your builds.
1 – Component Shelves
Component shelves can be purchased online from amazon or at most major hardware stores and I honestly can’t imagine my work area without them. I’d recommend purchasing a few of these as soon as you start exploring electronics, set up a sorting system and keep to it. This way instead of digging through a pile consisting of every resistor you own you can just reach out and grab it from the corresponding drawer.
2 – Wire Rack
It doesn’t take long for your spools of wire to start unwinding and trailing around your workstation, the simple solution to this is to set up some kind of wire rack and place the spools onto it, this way you roll and unroll them with ease. There are commercially available wire racks though the one I use is actually an old broken lamp. Paper towel racks are also often very effective.
3 – Bins
For parts or devices too large for your component drawer I keep a number of bins of various sizes on selves around my workstation, Label each bin and sort items into them as necessary. I have large bins for things like cables, toys and “Devices for Salvage” then there are smaller bins for things like adapters, alligator clips and speakers.
4 – Tool Baskets
I keep a few baskets around my workstation which are where I store all of the common tools I use on a day to day basis so that they are at hand whenever I need them. In these baskets you can find things like pliers, wire strippers, angle cutters, a few screwdrivers and my solder remover.
5 – Small Containers
Small containers are great for holding all the hundreds of tiny screws you remove from devices as you take them apart, along with any other small parts that you remove and don’t want to lose. Typically I get these from dollar stores though daily dosage containers from pharmacies are excellent as well.