I’m good to go now.

For years, I treated portable power tools as an afterthought. Sure, I owned them, but I didn’t put much thought into them. And it was beginning to show.

What a mess.

And then this fall, I got a long-overdue replacement for my cordless drill driver – an 18v Bosch. It’s quite a step up from the Black and Decker model I’ve been using for the past decade. Hold on a sec. I need to go fix something…

…Got it. Thanks for hanging in there. Like I was about to say, I’ve gone from looking for alternatives to my cordless drill to looking for reasons to use my cordless drill. What really flipped the light switch for me, though, was the Sortimo case it came in. These cases are a nice balance of durability and light weight, and best of all, they stack in a uniform form factor.

My wife picked up on my enthusiasm for this system, and with my mother and my mother-in-law, colluded to encourage my organization kick. With two of the drawer systems and plenty of drawers, I managed to reduce the mess above down to this tidy stack.

Getting there…

I added a few of the No. 3-sized boxes, one for my plunge router and another for my circular saw, reducing the stack down even further and making room for a leaning tower of fasteners.

A neatly organized space.

So far, these boxes seem to be very thoughtfully designed. Unlike the typical molded cases, the consistent form factor means they take up less space. The latches have a more positive action to them, which is good, since the latches seemed to be the first thing to fail on the original cases for these tools. I do have one drawer that likes to stick on me, but my guess is that this is a result of the way I’ve loaded it.

With the old, bulky boxes in the recycling bin and the white painted bookcase broken down in my stash of reclaimed pine, I’ve saved a fair amount of space in my shop and made these tools much more portable.

I could use a few more of the No. 2 boxes – one for my 15 gauge nailer and another for my sanders – but for the most part, I have this corner squared away. I even hung a cabinet in place of the rickety metal shelving I had hanging upside down to store stains and finishes. The cobbler’s kids are getting shoes.