Miscellaneous parts storage. How do you do it?

Yesterday and today have been spent cleaning out the shed. And as usual I have a random selection of parts that range from light bulbs to supercharger piping to rear view mirrors, hoses, vacuum hoses, new in the package transmission line's, Borla mufflers and a bunch more. All is stuff for vehicles I have either don't have any more and some of it I don't remember what it is for or is parts left over from some creative transplants.

The question is how to store it. By part type. Electrical, exaust, tubing, etc? Or say by project? The big box where you just put everything? Or?

Just looking for ideas and want to know what you all do.

By vehicle, in labeled boxes sorted by parts type. If it's not vehicle specific (like the collection tubes used to make headers), then simply by parts type. But I have areas of the garage devoted to each vehicle.

I usually leave them in random boxes around the house but somehow I remember where everything is. Every once in a while I find something I forgot I had. Came in handy when my son was born. Was able to sell a few grand in rare Cadillac and Triumph parts for stuff I didn't even own.

Random piles works for me too. I have great organisational skills, but I'm far too lazy to utilise them.

I use the "it looks like it will fit in that space" method of storing stuff. I've tried organizing it, but everything winds up getting mixed up when I have to move something out of the way to get something else...

i have a bin for each vehicle for smalls, bins for generic supplies(plumbing, wires, gaskets), shelves devoted to specific parts(all my alternators, brake parts, exhaust bits are all together) and when i'm in the middle of a huge project an entire shelf gets devoted to the parts for that project. currently the chevelle's entire new suspension, rear end, engine parts are on a shelf together.

novaderrik wrote: I use the "it looks like it will fit in that space" method of storing stuff. I've tried organizing it, but everything winds up getting mixed up when I have to move something out of the way to get something else...

so, Tetris basically?

I don't. If it does not apply to a project that I am currently working on,it goes to the scrapyard or gets sold if it has any value. If it does not sell, that answers the value bit; my storage space if more valuable than parts.

In reply to NOHOME:

Why did the hoarder soul inside me just cringe?

I organize like Home Depot organizes their employees. Move the electrical to find the plumbing, in that corner is shims, buckets, and random leftover parts from rebuilds, with the drill bits and sockets are the insulation grommets, wire looms , and torches. Every time I organize and make things pretty, the first project comes around and E36 M3 just goes everywhere. Just easier to keep random piles, surprisingly accurate when it comes to remembering the right pile

NOHOME wrote: I don't. If it does not apply to a project that I am currently working on,it goes to the scrapyard or gets sold if it has any value. If it does not sell, that answers the value bit; my storage space if more valuable than parts.

Ah, but the trick is that every car is a project So as long as you own the car, it counts as a project you are working on. I've got parts for the Caddy, the Rover, the Mini, Miata Miata Miata Miata, the VW and very little leftover stuff from older vehicles. Although I did just discover some factory workshop manuals for the MX6 IIRC. Anyone?

I usually do a defrag on my garage once a year. Tear most of it apart, reorg the parts, change out some cabinets for some that give me more...whatever I'm looking for. Takes most of a day. It's stuffed pretty tight by now, but I can find everything, I have room to work and my stuff is safe.

It is always comforting to hear that I am not the only one affected with automotive hoarding.

I too use the 'project' system. I have clear plastic storage totes that parts for project go in, with 3x5 index cards marked with what is in the tote visable from the out side. Smaller bits are then baged and tagged in the tote.

Larger stuff becomes more of a game of Tetris, and after moving corvette front and rear suspension, a ford 9in, an aluminum v8 short block, and the dune buggy to make room for a craft project in the garage... I realy could use a bigger space.

As I age I am getting fonder of Peter Egan's method. Put the part in a box, label the box not with the part info but the date, annually trash every box older than two years. If you haven't gone hunting for it in two years you have probably forgot you had it anyway.

Vehicle specific parts I try to store near each other and then it's stored via part type.

One of the good things about a single story house is rafter storage in the garage. A majority of my extra parts are up and out of sight.

I throw them all in the air. What God wants, he keeps. So far, it's clear he's not fixing the same cars I am.

ultraclyde wrote: I throw them all in the air. What God wants, he keeps. So far, it's clear he's not fixing the same cars I am.

And if you get clouted on the head by a ring and pinion on the way down, that's just God's Will?

codrus wrote:

ultraclyde wrote: I throw them all in the air. What God wants, he keeps. So far, it's clear he's not fixing the same cars I am.

And if you get clouted on the head by a ring and pinion on the way down, that's just God's Will?

ehh, I'm not strong enough to throw those that high.

OHSCrifle wrote:

novaderrik wrote: I use the "it looks like it will fit in that space" method of storing stuff. I've tried organizing it, but everything winds up getting mixed up when I have to move something out of the way to get something else...

so, Tetris basically?

Kinda, but with elements of Jenga and Sorry thrown in..

One side of my garage is lined with custom cut modular steel shelves (similar to HD’s only twice the gauge and half the price) which support twelve 66 quart clear Rubbermaid containers with locking tops…before I had my kids, they were each labeled “Plumbing E36 M3 – Electrical E36 M3 – Painting E36 M3 – Sprinkler E36 M3 - etc.” The labels were just for fun as you can easily see inside the containers from a distance.

Anyway, all up the system was under $500 and I’ve easily saved multiples of that by avoiding part redundancy and unnecessary trips to the hardware store. Besides, nothing communicates “professional’ to SWMBO like being able to consistently produce some obscure home repair part in thirty seconds.

Half of my basement is full of stackable plastic tubs with used TR6 parts mostly sorted by function (brakes, suspension, engine, etc.). I put new/smaller/delicate stuff on heavy shelves. There is still some other TR6 stuff from a purchased basket case project that is a good example of entropy in action. Stuff is just thrown in random rotting cardboard boxes. That's definitely not the way to do it as I lose an hour every time I go searching for a specific part.

I have one shelf of stock stuff that came off my Mazdaspeed Miata because it just never breaks.

In reply to dean1484: Whatever you do please don't follow my example.. My shop is 1800 sq,ft. with lots of shelving. I still have parts from my MG TD on shelves. Mostly they are worn out rusty junk that are easier purchased new than trying to find them in the various boxes they wound up stored in.. Some of those parts were pulled back in 1962 and they've been moved and moved and moved again.. I felt proud of some of the wooden boxes things are stored in .. Original MG, Jaguar, Morris, wooden crates etc.. but the contents really need to be recycled or simply tossed.

Then the old race car stuff. A really great XK head with the big valves that was properly ported out and flowed better than any head I've had done or did myself.. However I lost the Cam caps and so it sits there dusty and probably will never be used.. Yes I've found replacement caps and all it needs is to be align honed but the car is gone.. As is the never used vintage supercharger for the same Jag (Black Jack Spl.) complete with drive, manifold, and 3 S.U.carbs.. Thousands of dollars spent in the 1970's to acquire but likely never to be used.. My rarest pieces are Knock off wheels from the MK1 Chaparral. Rare pin drive real magnesium wheels Cast by Halibrand for Troutman and Barnes machined for Jaguar hubs with 3 eared aluminum knock offs.. Who would ever want those? But they are too nice to simply toss away.. So I've stored them for the past 35+ years..

frenchyd wrote: In reply to dean1484: Whatever you do please don't follow my example.. My shop is 1800 sq,ft. with lots of shelving. I still have parts from my MG TD on shelves. Mostly they are worn out rusty junk that are easier purchased new than trying to find them in the various boxes they wound up stored in.. Some of those parts were pulled back in 1962 and they've been moved and moved and moved again.. I felt proud of some of the wooden boxes things are stored in .. Original MG, Jaguar, Morris, wooden crates etc.. but the contents really need to be recycled or simply tossed. Then the old race car stuff. A really great XK head with the big valves that was properly ported out and flowed better than any head I've had done or did myself.. However I lost the Cam caps and so it sits there dusty and probably will never be used.. Yes I've found replacement caps and all it needs is to be align honed but the car is gone.. As is the never used vintage supercharger for the same Jag (Black Jack Spl.) complete with drive, manifold, and 3 S.U.carbs.. Thousands of dollars spent in the 1970's to acquire but likely never to be used.. My rarest pieces are Knock off wheels from the MK1 Chaparral. Rare pin drive real magnesium wheels Cast by Halibrand for Troutman and Barnes machined for Jaguar hubs with 3 eared aluminum knock offs.. Who would ever want those? But they are too nice to simply toss away.. So I've stored them for the past 35+ years..

This WAS my situation, albeit not as rare a collection. 25 years of buying and hoarding MGB parts for the one MGB that I own. When I caught myself buying parts that I already had, because it was easier than finding and/or using what I had, I placed an add in Kajiji for free scrap. Emotionally, there was no way I could have taken the stuff to the scrapyard. I pointed at the shelves and said "Take everything". It was funny because the guy who showed up knew about the value of the stuff he was lugging out, but also mentioned "not worth trying to sell".

Not to worry, I have pretty much filled the empty space with Miata, Volvo and 302 parts. I've learned to hoard faster as I get older!

frenchyd wrote: In reply to dean1484: Whatever you do please don't follow my example.. My shop is 1800 sq,ft. with lots of shelving. I still have parts from my MG TD on shelves. Mostly they are worn out rusty junk that are easier purchased new than trying to find them in the various boxes they wound up stored in.. Some of those parts were pulled back in 1962 and they've been moved and moved and moved again.. I felt proud of some of the wooden boxes things are stored in .. Original MG, Jaguar, Morris, wooden crates etc.. but the contents really need to be recycled or simply tossed. Then the old race car stuff. A really great XK head with the big valves that was properly ported out and flowed better than any head I've had done or did myself.. However I lost the Cam caps and so it sits there dusty and probably will never be used.. Yes I've found replacement caps and all it needs is to be align honed but the car is gone.. As is the never used vintage supercharger for the same Jag (Black Jack Spl.) complete with drive, manifold, and 3 S.U.carbs.. Thousands of dollars spent in the 1970's to acquire but likely never to be used.. My rarest pieces are Knock off wheels from the MK1 Chaparral. Rare pin drive real magnesium wheels Cast by Halibrand for Troutman and Barnes machined for Jaguar hubs with 3 eared aluminum knock offs.. Who would ever want those? But they are too nice to simply toss away.. So I've stored them for the past 35+ years..

You wouldn't happen to have one of those little ball thingies from a MGTD that attaches to the engine bay end of the throttle and clips into the linkage that attaches to the carb? I've got the linkage and the ball thingie on the carb end, but not the throttle end. I'm restoring a '51.