21 Great Tool Organization Ideas for Your Garage or Workshop

Ideas About How to Organize Tools in Your Garage or Workshop

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There are three types of handymen – those that already have their tools neatly organized, those that are happy with a “messy” garage or workshop, and those that want to get organized. If you belong in the third category, then you’re in the right place.

Below, I share 21 ideas for how to organize your tools regardless of whether you work out of your garage or have a dedicated workshop.

 

Simple But Efficient Tool Organization Ideas: Images to Inspire You

All of the items these ideas are fairly easy to execute – some only require you to buy the necessary organization tool while others require some simple DIY work.

The ideas that will work the best for you will depend on how your garage or workshop is laid out and what tools you have among others. As such, to get the best possible results, you will need to mix-and-match some of these ideas – and customize them for your exact needs.

Anyways, let’s jump into the list.

 

1. Pegboards

This is one of the most common ways to organize tools – especially manual ones – in a garage or a workshop. You simply attach a large pegboard on one of the walls and create a space for each of your tools using hooks and other attachments. If you have a permanent workbench, you will ideally attach the pegboard above it.

The main advantage of this idea is that it makes it easy to access all of your tools without having to go through boxes. At the same time, it takes up a lot of wall space and so might be difficult if you don’t have much space available or if you have too many tools. Even in that case, though, it might make sense to have a smaller pegboard with just the tools that you use the most often.

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2. Magnetic Bars

This idea takes advantage of the fact that most hand tools are made from metal – and thus stick to magnets.

You can place a couple of magnetic bars above your workbench and attach some of your most used screwdrivers, pliers, and other tools to it. You can even attach empty cans to it and use those to hold pencils or other items that can’t be directly stuck to the magnets.

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3. Drawers with Foam Sheets

Depending on the layout of your workshop, chances are that you already have some drawers filled with tools. Chances are also, however, that the tools are just thrown in them and not really organized.

While the easiest way to organize them at least a bit would be to sort them into drawers by the type of tool, even better would be to use foam inserts with a dedicated spot for each of your tools.

 

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4. Parallel Bars for Hammers

If you have a lot of “T-shaped” tools – especially hammers and mallets – then you know how difficult it is to stack them or otherwise organize them on a flat surface.

What you can do instead is make a custom rack with parallel bars that will hold as many of your hammers as you need in a very neat way.

 

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5. Wall-Mounted Boards

If you are looking for something similar to pegboards that has more of a “DIY feel” then you should consider this idea to organize the tools you have in your garage.

Take some spare boards and add holders made out of smaller boards, screws serving as hangers, and so on for all the tools that you want to organize. Then mount that to your wall. You could have one long board or multiple shorter tool-holding boards mounted next to each other – the options are limitless.

 

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6. Bars with Hooks

The best way to keep things such as extension cords and even wrenches organized is by hanging them on hooks.

While that could mean having hooks sticking out of your pegboard or similar, another option is to have a long bar set in your garage to which you can attach anything you want using simple S-shaped hooks.

 

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7. Cordless Tool Holders

If you don’t have much space to begin with then utilizing the empty space below your workbench will be crucial to organizing your workshop efficiently.

One of the ways you can do so is by getting some power tool mounts and screwing them under the bench. You can use those to hold your cordless tools – especially impact drills.

 

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8. Spring Clips as Tool Holders

Whether plastic or metal, spring clips are a useful piece of hardware for many different purposes including holding your cabinet’s doors shut and keeping cables in place.

They can also be useful when getting your tools organized, though. You can attach them either to your wall or your workbench and use them as holders for your screwdrivers and other similarly-shaped tools.

 

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9. Custom Cordless Drill Rack

One of the best ways to organize your cordless power tools – especially drills – is by making a custom wooden rack to hold them. You can then mount this rack on the wall above your workbench so that you can access the tools easily.

While you can design a rack that will perfectly suit your own needs, one of the common layouts is to have a shelf with slots for holding drills on the bottom and a normal flat shelf at the top. You can use the latter to organize your chargers and other accessories.

 

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10. Wooden Circular Saw Blade Holder

You could take all your circular saw blades and just put them in a drawer. But, where would be the fun in that?

Instead, consider making a holder that has a separate tray for each of your blades. The CD-player like holder will not only be a cool addition to your workshop but it will also be a fun project to work on.

 

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11. Tabletop Small Tool Organizer

There are literally infinitely many great things you can make with just a few boards and nails. A tabletop organizer for your smaller tools like screwdrivers, scissors, etc. like the one pictured below is one of those.

It will speed up your access to some of your most often used tools by taking them out from your drawers and laying them out nicely right in front of you.

 

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12. Custom Shelf for Hardware Organizers

Hardware organizers are one of the staples of every handymen’s workshop. They help you keep all your bolts, screws, and so on in order – and avoid you many headaches when you need a specific piece of hardware.

You can take it a step further by creating a custom shelf with slots for each of your hardware organizers. That way, you will not have to re-stack them every time you need to pull something out of one of those that you keep at the bottom of your stack. You can also equip the shelf with some drawers for your tools.

 

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13. Custom Wooden Tool Box

While there are many plastic and metal toolboxes that you can buy at your local hardware store, they are all generic and not made to fit the exact tools you need in the exact way you want.

As such – especially for use in your workshop – you might want to consider making yourself a custom wooden tool box with slots for all the main tools that you use. You can even add a handle or a tray to hold any hardware you might need during the task you are working on.

 

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14. Drainage Pipe Organizers

While drainage pipes might not be visually as appealing as wood, they can still make for great material to make tool organizers out of.

You can cut them to various lengths to store a variety of tools like screwdrivers, scissors, pliers, and so on.

 

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15. Wall-Mounted Battery Chargers

If you use a lot of cordless power tools, then you likely have a decent amount of batteries and chargers to organize.

While you could just throw them all in a drawer, there are better ways as well. One of those is mounting your chargers and even batteries on one of your workshop’s walls to save valuable space and having a permanent charging station. That way, you will never have to be in the situation where you need to use a power tool but realize that all your batteries are dead.

 

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16. LEGO Wrench & Bolt Holders

If you are interested in building things now as an adult, chances are that you used to play (or even still play) with LEGO blocks. While they’re a great toy, they are also a nice material to make your tool holders and hardware trays out of.

While not absolutely necessary, I recommend gluing the bricks together so that your creations don’t disintegrate while getting heavy use.

 

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17. Well-Labeled Boxes

As mentioned in one of the earlier ideas, hardware (and tool) boxes are a staple in many people’s garages and workshops. They are fairly versatile and can store anything from the smallest screw, bolts, and nuts all the way to larger power tools like reciprocating saws and hammer drills.

What sets the organized ones apart from those where you have to spend ten minutes just to find the right box and then another five minutes to find the right tool are labels. When organizing your equipment into boxes, make sure – besides grouping them logically – to label the boxes as well as you can. I recommend making the labels as large as possible so that you can see what’s in each box effortlessly.

 

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18. Wooden Block Attachment Holders

If you do any type of woodwork, you will likely have leftover pieces of wood in your workshop. While you could throw them away, there are many ways to reuse them. One of those is to make a custom stand for your tool attachments – drillbits, jigsaw blades, and so on.

Simply take a fairly thick piece of wood and drill the necessary holes into it to hold each of your attachments. You can take it a step further by labeling each hole or even color-coding your bits based on their size.

 

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19. French Cleat Hardware Boxes

French cleats allow you to easily hang items on and remove them from walls. It can be used for securing cabinets, frames, and other things around the house.

You can also use it to create a set of hardware trays which you will be easily able to remove from the wall and take to your workbench when necessary.

 

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20. Wooden Tool Rack

While not as advanced as some of the other ideas on this list, even having a simple movable rack for your power tools can be a big difference when it comes to how organized your workshop is.

Depending on how you plan to use it, you might even consider adding a set of wheels to it so that it is easily movable.

 

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21. Outdoor Tool Rack

When visiting people’s garages and tool sheds, it is most common to see them having their large outdoor tools – shovels, rakes, hoes, and so on – tucked in one corner.

Even though that works fine in most cases, especially if you only have two or three tools, if you have many of these tools, you will want to make something like the rack on the picture below. It’s very simple to make and it will help you keep those tools organized well enough.

 

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Summary

While having a pile of tools on your workbench and knowing where to find each of your tools is a good start, as you grow your tool collection, that will get harder and harder to do. As such, you will want to get your tool and hardware organized as soon as possible.

The easiest way is by getting some tool boxes from your local hardware store. However, where’s the fun in that?

Instead, I recommend you take some of the tool organization ideas above, mix-and-match-and-customize them to suit your needs, and create an organizational system that will impress everyone that will step into your garage or workshop.

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