DIY Tips & Clever Ideas To Organize Your Small Garage Or Large Workshop
Has your workshop become overcrowded with stuff? Do you find yourself wasting a lot of time looking for the right tool or router bit in the middle of a project?
Making your shop organized can be a fun and fulfilling process. Clear the clutter with these clever workshop organization ideas and become more productive.
Following these simple woodshop organization tips will set up a workspace where you can find every single jig, board, and hardware in no time.
Whether you are cutting timber, fastening screws, or sanding and finishing your project, you will find every single item you need quickly and easily.
Vertically Organized Lumber Storage Rack
Storing lumber always takes up a lot of space in any workspace. You don’t want to keep running to the store every time you need a piece of timber or plywood, so it makes sense to order and store all the wood in advance. But this can leave your shop cluttered.
A simple way to handle this problem is to build a dedicated storage rack for your lumber. Vertically storing lumber can save space and make it easy to browse through the different boards and get to the one you need quickly.
Horizontal Wall Mounted Lumber Storage Rack
If you do not want to craft a dedicated vertical rack for your timber, then the next simplest organization idea is to build a wall mount. There is always some unused wall space in any shop or garage.
You can mount metal wall brackets or build a horizontal wooden rack to hold and organize all your timber boards of different lengths and widths in one area.
Drawers, Cabinets, Or Shelves Under All Work Surfaces
They are usually empty areas under various workspaces, which can be filled with a cabinet, shelf, or a chest of drawers.
If there is space underneath your workbench or under any stationary power tool like a miter saw, or a table saw, then this is the ideal place to set up a portable tool cabinet or insert an old file cabinet. Then you can use it to store your frequently used tools and hardware.
Corner Shelves Organize Unused Workshop Space
The wall corners are often left unused in many wood shops. You can use some scrap plywood to quickly make these simple shelves between the corner studs and fasten them with cleats.
These shelves are perfect for holding small items like polishes, waxes, and glues, which may become difficult to find inside larger cabinets. These corner shelves will give you an ideal place to store small items that you use frequently.
Tall Free-standing DIY Shelves Organize Your Woodworking Shop
Build some tall free-standing DIY shelves using 2x4s and set them up close to your walls. You can complete this project in a single day, and the shelves will be very useful for holding your power tools, batteries, and miscellaneous hardware. Crafting the shelves on your own will also be much cheaper than buying pre-built ones.
Airline Food Carts Use Narrow Corner Spaces For Storage
There may be tight and narrow corners in your garage or wood shop that are unused or unorganized. Buy some airline-style food carts and roll them into these tight corners. Now you can store your gear in an organized manner.
And whenever you need something, you can just roll the cart out of the corner to fetch the item. If you want to keep costs low, you can even search and get some used food carts online instead of buying new ones.
Organize All Shelves With Labeled Plastic Crates & Tubs
A tool you cannot find is as good as a tool you do not have. You may have set up a lot of shelves and cabinets in your workshop, but if you have to go on a hunting expedition each time you want a tool, then it is still useless.
A simple way to organize your shelves is to put up clearly labeled plastic tubs or crates and sort your stuff into the correct container. This will save you time and help you quickly get any equipment you need during the construction of a particular project.
Pegboard Wall Tool Storage Organizer For Workshop
One of the oldest and simplest ways to organize any garage or workspace is to set up a large pegboard on a wall. Then hang all your tools, clamps, hardware, cords, and supplies on pegs. Sometimes the classic way is the best way.
Pegboard Shelves To Organize A Small Garage
Take your pegboard storage to the next level by setting up some shelves on them. You can quickly DIY some shelves by drilling some pegboard slots into a thick plywood board. Drill slots or holes into the board for hanging your tools.
These slots in the shelf will allow you to group together all your chisels, screwdrivers, and router bits in one compact area for easy access.
Double-Sided Pegboard Leaves Tool Holder
If you do not have sufficient space in your woodworking shop to fit all your tools on the walls, then building these double-sided pegboard leaves can be a great solution. You can store tools on both sides of the leaves and flip through them like the pages of a book. These panels will help you get the maximum use out of your walls for compact tool storage.
Drill Bit Magnetic Strip Tool Organizer
Another smart way to group similar tools together is to use a magnetic strip. Use it to hold all your drill bits or router bits in an organized manner. You can also fasten larger magnetic strips to walls and hold heavier tools like wrenches and hammers.
Build A Wall Cabinet For Custom Organized Storage
The most direct way to fulfill your unique garage storage and organization needs is to build a wall cabinet specifically suited for your personal workspace. You know the kind of gear you need to use frequently in your shop and the tools you don’t need that often.
Build a custom wall cabinet with all the right storage compartments for your unique requirements. Take some time to plan out the dimensions and layout of the cabinet on paper or on the computer.
Then build the carcass and test fit on the wall to get a clear idea of where each piece of equipment will be stored. This might be time-consuming, but it will help you get the maximum organization into the minimum amount of space.
Reuse Old Filing Cabinets For Deep Storage
Getting some old filing cabinets can be a good idea if you don’t want to build your own cabinets and want a cheap way to store your shop equipment.
You can find these old metal cabinets online or in thrift stores. They are usually very sturdy and have deep drawers which can be easily organized for storing a lot of hardware and tools compactly.
Build Vertical Pullout Drawers For Compact Storage
If you have run out of horizontal space, then go vertical. Building a free-standing cabinet with vertical pullout drawers will allow you to tightly store a lot of cans, tools, and hardware in a narrow space.
Pegboard Tool Mount Vertical Drawers Under Shelves
This is a creative way to use pegboards to store your gear vertically organized in a tight space. You may currently have your tools all heaped up on some shelves underneath a work surface.
Replace these shelves with vertical slats or drawers made of pegboard. The slats can be pulled out along slides. This will keep your tools organized while still taking up minimal space.
Ceiling Joist Drawers For Hidden Storage
If your garage or woodworking shop has projecting ceiling joists, then you can build some foldable drawers into them. Build the drawer using plywood and fasten it to the ceiling joist using a pivot bolt.
Two wooden cleats that pivot on screws hold the drawer in place when it is in the closed position. Make sure to only store rarely used lightweight items in these drawers because they won’t be able to bear heavy loads.
Small Parts Hardware Storage Organizer
There is always that one type of nail, screw, or nut you cannot find right when you are in the middle of a project. And then you have to go searching all over your shop. Having a simple small parts organizer can solve this problem easily.
You can either buy a plastic storage cabinet specially designed for small parts or build one yourself. In both cases, the cabinet contains many smaller boxes, each of which is either labeled or see-through and stores only one particular type and size of hardware.
Sliding Pegboard Doors Provide Compact Tool Storage
Build this sliding pegboard door storage system in front of any existing shelf to make full use of narrow corner spaces in your garage. The doors are mounted 6 inches apart to allow the rear door to hold large tools and still slide behind the front one. Each door slides smoothly on rollers on its own track and is supported by door hangers.
Double-Sided Pegboard Rolling Tool Organizer
You can easily DIY this mobile tool cart which is basically just two pegboards hanging on a frame with rollers. It will allow you to organize a large number of tools and hardware in a small mobile cart that can be stored in any corner of your shop.
Flip Through Pegboard Storage Rack
Similar to the pegboard leaves system, this flip-through pegboard “book” can be mounted to any wall in your garage or shop. You can use it to sort and cluster a wide range of chisels, saws, hammers, and screwdrivers in a tight space and still find each one easily when needed.
Swing Out Plywood Storage Organizer For Workshop
Organize your lumber close to your shop’s door and find the right board quickly by building this swinging lumber organizer. This storage box swings out like a file and makes it easy to add and remove timber quickly. The system rolls on three-inch casters and is fastened to the wall with pipe flanges.
Drill Bit Storage Tray Drawer Organizer
Having a lot of stuff in drawers is not useful if you have to rummage through each one of them every time you want something. Drill bits can easily get lost in heaps of stuff inside your drawers.
Building or buying a simple drill bit storage tray organizer for your drawers can make your life a lot easier. It cuts down the time taken to find the right bit for the task currently at hand.
Sliding Drawer Organizers
Another clever way to organize your hardware and parts inside deep drawers is to build a set of sliding drawer organizers. They just take a few hours to build and require minimal plywood. But they will organize your gear a lot better and save you a lot of time otherwise lost in searching.
Adjustable Drawer Partitions Is A Great Organization Idea
Partitions are a great way to compartmentalize the contents of any large drawer. But what if your needs change over time?
Having a set of adjustable drawer partitions handy will allow you to move and change the size of the partitions as and when needed. This is also a great way to organize a large number of drawers in a short time without having to build custom storage trays for each drawer.
Rolling Tool Cart For Mobile Storage
You can have all your vital tools handy no matter which part of the shop you are working in if you build a mobile tool cart. You can get as creative as you like and build drawers and compartments with pegboards into them.
Or you can keep it simple and have just a few basic shelves. A rolling tool cart lets you stay organized and get to your tools as soon as you need them, even if you are in the middle of a project.
PVC Pipes Storage Pockets Organization
A clever way to use any corner spaces around tables and shelves is to fasten a set of one-foot-long pieces of PVC pipes alongside. You can then store any small tools, parts, brushes, or other hardware in these pipes. They are easily visible and very handy.
You can also cut out the PVC pipes in an arc and create a storage rack for hanging all your power tools.
Hanging Shoe Rack Organizer For Wall Tool Storage
A shoe organizer can easily be turned into a tool storage rack with a little bit of creativity. Use it to store your spray cans or hang it on a door to hold frequently used small tools.
Organize Cables In Paper Tubes
Do you have a lot of cables and cords lying around your shop in a tangled mess? Just stuff them into rolls of cardboard tubes from toilet paper rolls to easily organize them in a box.
DIY Tape Dispenser
You may need different kinds of tape while building any DIY project or just need them for simple tasks around your woodworking shop. Build any one of these simple wooden multi-roll tape dispensers to have all your tapes organized and easily accessible at all times.
Vertically Organized Tool Stand
This huge vertical tool stand is a great way to have all your tools in one tight mobile tool container. If you have a small garage, you may be forced to have your tools stored in random piles inside drawers. This large rolling toolbox is a great way to completely organize your shop without breaking the bank.
DIY Wall Storage For Paint Brushes
You will use a lot of brushes in different sizes for applying paints, varnishes, stains, and glues. The collection of brushes can quickly pile up and create a mess inside drawers and bins.
Build this simple and compact wall hanger with a piece of wood and some nails or dowels to hang all your brushes according to size and use.
DIY Clamp Rack Organizes All Your Clamps By Length
If you do a lot of woodworking, you will need a lot of clamps of various lengths and thicknesses. You can DIY a simple yet effective clamp rack using lumber boards or PVC pipes and have all your clamps organized neatly by size on your shop wall.
DIY Saw Blades Organizer
You will need different kinds of saw blades for your power tools to make different-sized kerfs and to cut into different kinds of boards. Build a simple blade rack or shelf and organize all your saw blades in one handy location.
DIY Sanding Paper Organizer
Sanding is an essential part of any woodworking project. Whether you sand by hand or use a random orbital sander, you will need different types of sandpaper of varying grits. Having all your sandpaper cut and organized neatly according to grit will save you time and keep your shop organized.
Get Rid Of What You Don’t Need
The last workshop organization idea is probably the simplest and yet the most challenging one. Get rid of the stuff you don’t need! There may be a lot of jigs in your shop for tools you no longer use, paint cans that are no longer useful, old tool cases, or even old expensive tools that you never use anymore.
Go through your workshop with two large trash bins. Put what is worthless in one bin and what can be sold off in the other bin. Throw out the useless stuff and sell the valuable items in a garage sale or online. This can free up a lot of space in your woodshop and make it easier to organize the items you actually use frequently.
