A storage tote is one of those organizational tools that everyone has seen but no one seems to know what it is called. The reason a plastic storage tote has a tote in its name is because you can carry it around to wherever you need to go and require your tools. The picture on the right should give you a good idea of what we are talking about here and if you are one of those people who likes to do a lot of projects around the home, let me tell you will be blown away by the convenience that these storage boxes bring to the table.
They look like any standard plastic boxes except that they have a large number of compartments slotted into them which lets you keep all you tools and the accessories that come with them in there. These compartments are unlike those that are found in a plastic food tray — there is a large slot for putting in your bigger tools and then a couple of smaller ones. These totes are usually arrives without lids but you can definitely find some with lids if your specific application requires them to be as such. If you plan on using your plastic tote as a spare parts tray, then you’ll probably need lids to make sure that nothing like screws or nails fall out.
Another feature that plastic totes are known for is that they can be stacked up on top of each other effectively allowing you to make of tower of totes which can act like a chest of drawers. Since you can get them in different colors it becomes pretty easy to get a quick organizational strategy in place using just these totes — when the job calls, just pick up the appropriate tote for the job and dive in!
They are also heavily used in offices as tray organizers with the larger ones used to help sort and deliver letters around the office. The larger ones are usually mounted on stands which have wheels under them which makes it pretty easy to maneuver the whole box around. Since you can install more than one plastic tote on the same rack, you can stock up a large amount of supplies in the same vertical space on the plastic tote rack. Infact, one of the small startups in the Bay Area has been using them as filing cabinets for more than a year with a lot of success. Food for thought — a plastic organizer and some imagination goes a long way in taming the mess at home or in the office.
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