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I have a combination of various storage systems, mostly as a result of things I was given by a bunch of different people. My Grandfather built my long workbench before I was born. I got it when Grandma could no longer stay at her house. It is made of 2X wood and has a bunch of drawers my Grandpa made. Under the drawers, I keep large items, like portable toolboxes. Above the workbench,I added pegboard for large hand tools, and above that, I added a 6 foot balcony, where I keep boxes of various things and stuff I seldom use, but don't want to get rid of. My wife scrounged an old pattern cabinet from a sewing store that she decided she didn't need. I am using it to store my power and air tools. I put it on casters, so it easily moves around. I keep a tool chest on top of the cabinet and store electrical tools in it. I also have another regular rollaway and chest with mechanics tools in it. Years ago, my Dad was given an 8' tall records cabinet that may have been used to sort mail. It has a couple of hundred "pigeon holes" and is of heavy steel. I use it as a bolt bin and to store other things by category. It makes it easy to find things quickly, as all the bins are open. My daughter's old refigerator quit working and I was unable to fix it. So it came home with me and now is my warm, dry storage for welding supplies, paint and other things that should not freeze or draw moisture. It was easy to rewire the original power cord to keep a 25 watt light bulb on all the time. I got some industrial sheet metal shelving when a friend had a moving sale. I store many things, like oil and other automotive products on the shelves, which I put along one side of the main bay. I have a bunch more actual shelves than I do supports, so I am looking for some perforated light angle iron. Before I got the shelving, I spent a lot of time looking in various boxes for things. Now it is much easier to find just what I want quickly. I also have a bunch of small parts cabinets with the little clear plastic drawers, which also make it easy to find things. I still use a bunch of cardboard boxes for storage, especially of things like pipe fittings and sprinkler parts. To make things easier to find, I write the contents of boxes on the end. I have found that orange boxes from Costco work great for this and stack well. I wish I could say my shop is completely done. It probably never will be, because I keep thinking of something else to do. I have it almost all drywalled and insulated and hopefully my next big project will be a hanging natural gas furnace. If you keep your eyes open, there are all sorts of cabinets and shelves out there that people no longer want and give or almost give away. With a little imagination, lots of such items can be useful in a shop. It might not look completely uptown, but works pretty good for almost no cash outlay. Good luck scrounging!
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