At our man-cave/shop, we've adopted a Bin policy on everything we work on. Nothing gets started without grabbing a bin first. We order them by the case and while it may sound expensive shelling out $50 or $60 for a case of these bins, it will save you hours and hours of useless search time and days of waiting for the replacement part you lost.

We stop by the tool box and dump all the 3/8 sockets, ratchet handles, extensions, screwdrivers and everything else into the bin and off you go. But the 5" wide blue bins we got weren't big enough, so yesterday, I got the box of the big plastic bins we're going to use for tool use around the cars. These are 11x16x5 1/2 with a low lip on the front, so you could see what's inside, even laying under the car. Uline has them and the PN is S-13537R





You've got to order a carton of ten, though, from ULine and that's $60, which is reasonable considering that I've had to search for sockets that rolled away, while under the car, dropping tools because you're carrying too many or having tools on the seat, risking damaging your Corvette.

We also got a case of these 7x18x4 a month ago and they've come in quite handy for storing parts while you're rebuilding that sub-project! Nothing is getting lost this way. A good example is the driver's door power window rebuild project. All the fasteners and pieces went right into the blue bins and then the whole thing got moved from the vehicle to the workbench. The blue bins also hold the new parts and side-by-side, you're sorting all out and nothing is missing.

This is a total sanity saver and worth the initial outlay in my opinion!

 

Good Dog!

 

all kidding aside, hold a similar sized object in the original position and let it fall. one of two things will happen-you'll be looking for two things, or the first missing piece will be close to the second. i've found many dropped very small objects that way.

 

Missing thingies are always in the last place you look. It's a rule of nature.

 

I'll keep a lookout for your socket. Little known fact - all of the items you guys in the northern hemisphere drop or lose eventually wash up on a beach down here in Australia.

I've got a mountain of left socks, small change and various spanners and sockets.

Would be handy if you dropped more metric tools, the imperial items don't fit anything down here.

Will let you know if I see it.