Harbor Freight owns a bevy of important brands that blend price efficiency with high-quality construction to bring valuable tools and accessories to all sorts of users. Mechanics will be particularly fond of some Harbor Freight gear, like its Icon flagship lineup or the low-cost but hardy Pittsburgh equipment. The brand also offers numerous gadgets that can amplify a DIY car project with ease.
Toolbox organization may be boring, time consuming work, but it forms the bedrock of any successful DIY home
improver, woodworker, or auto mechanic's tool journey. Harbor Freight naturally carries a range of organization solutions, including plenty of toolboxes, workbenches, and shelving equipment. You can even buy damaged Harbor Freight toolboxes as a part of the outlet's Scratch & Dent sale offers. Beyond the ever-present toolbox, however, there are numerous pieces of accessory equipment that every tool user will need in their pursuits. Storage additions of all kinds can be instrumental augmentations to your workflow, and these five feature among some of Harbor Freight's most useful accessories when seeking to accompany your toolbox in its organizational tasks.
Read more: 7 Harbor Freight Icon Tools That Are Worth Buying (And 3 To Avoid)
Yukon 5-Tier Shelf
Shelving units make for a big improvement in any workspace or storage area. They come in many different varieties, but shelves remain one of the most useful organizational solutions you can find in any home improvement store or tool retailer. What you want to look for in an ideal shelf for managing toolbox additions is enough height between the rungs to support medium and even large individual power tool cases. You might also consider measuring the height of your toolbox and other storage bins you are already using. Shelves can be useful when placing individual pieces of equipment in a new, designated space, but these often provide critical room to support larger storage requirements.
This Yukon 5-Tier Shelf from Harbor Freight offers 14½ inches between shelves and can hold up to 150 pounds on each one — that's another important factor to consider when selecting a storage shelf. The polypropylene construction in this build delivers durable performance you can count on to last. Each shelf features a grate-style construction that doesn't lend itself well to placing smaller tools directly on the surface, but there are other benefits baked into the build. Namely, you won't have to worry about standing water or issues in air flow that can create musty conditions and degrade your tools. Getting your bigger equipment out of the toolbox and onto storage shelves can be a game changer as you work to organize your workshop, making storage shelves a must-have storage addition.
U.S. General Hanging Tool Cabinet
The U.S. General Hanging Tool Cabinet features a 20 gauge steel frame with a baked enamel finish to provide durability in any kind of workshop setting. The built-in mounting brackets let you bolt the cabinet onto your wall with ease, and each of the three compartments can be locked to secure your equipment inside when not in use. This makes it great for sensitive gear or in workshop spaces that may not be entirely private. Each of the three compartments measures 23¾ inches by 15¾ inches. There are also two shelves in each compartment to provide ample storage volume for all kinds of tools and accessories.
Wall storage is essential in any setting because it's often one of the least utilized areas of the workspace. Most people will think about benches, rolling tool chests and cabinets, and standing shelving units. But wall cabinets that hang up above other storage elements can deliver significantly more organizational capacity without sacrificing floor space and making your area feel cramped. Wall storage that features built-in mounting equipment is a big help for most. Crafting French cleats or looking to install alternative mounting solutions adds to the task in ways that can be challenging and time consuming. With this kind of storage added to your workshop, retooling wall space to support your needs can be accomplished wherever you need it. This tool storage solution is available for $100 and ranks among Harbor Freight's most highly rated tool storage solutions.
Storehouse 30-Bin Wall-Mount Parts Rack
When it comes to storing small components, there are numerous choices out there. Harbor Freight's answer is a decent option. Offered for $20 and enjoying a 4.3 star average rating out of nearly 2,000 reviews, the Storehouse 30-Bin Wall-Mount Parts Rack provides ample space to organize all kinds of small parts and components. These kinds of bin storage solutions aren't going to hold your primary tools, but they do offer a crucial point of support for removing small components and other little pieces of gear from your main toolbox compartments. Harbor Freight's solution comes with 18 red bins offering 2-pound load capacity each and the larger blue bins providing 3½-pound weight limits. The removable bins attach to a poly board along the back wall you need a pegboard style configuration.
You might use some of the larger bins located along the bottom two rows for small hand tool organization, but this wall mounted solution will largely serve as a means to give loose parts their own place to live. No matter what kinds of jobs you tackle, you're almost certainly going to have at least one storage container of random extras. These might be salvaged screws and nails that came out of old, dismantled furniture or projects, or it could be extra pieces from your collection of Ikea builds throughout the years. Either way, these loose parts often end up filtering down into the bottom of the toolbox and taking up a crucial segment of the storage solution's interior space.
Voyager 18-Inch Organizer Case
The Voyager 18-Inch Organizer Case provides complete customization control within an impact resistant case, making it good for tool users who frequently find themselves on the go. It comes with quality, shock absorbing inserts, and heavy duty metal clasps alongside compatibility with a padlock for onboard security. This kind of tool case is ideal for those who often beat up their equipment while working in rural or remote locations, as well as those who frequently carry delicate tools and sensitive gear that might otherwise see extensive abuse. In particular it will probably appeal to electricians and mechanics who tend to use more fragile testing equipment and specially insulated tools, alongside their durable hand tools and other necessities.
No matter how you slice it, though, a hard shell case makes for an ideal addition to separate out certain pieces of equipment from your primary tool organization compartments. This will be helpful when building a mobile toolkit to tackle specialized and specific jobs. The deep storage capacity within the Voyager option is great for both hand and power tools and the toolbar on the inside of the lid can provide customized fixtures for things like pliers and multi-bit screwdriver inclusions.
Bauer Modular Storage Tote
This might not sound all that surprising, but one of the most common accessories that people in the trades use to carry their tools from job to job is the humble bucket. They're essential for all kinds of tasks, and buying an extra few ahead of a new job will allow you to toss a pile of necessary tools into a deep storage solution with a built-in handle. However, the average bucket isn't designed to be used in this way — other tool accessories, like the Bauer Modular Storage Tote, provide the same functionality with a few feature updates that make for a superior user experience.
This storage tote can carry up to 50 pounds, much more than I can say for the cheap buckets I've used in the past after discovering this approach. It's made from heavy duty resin featuring high impact characteristics and is compatible with Bauer's modular storage system. This means it can be linked into your modular toolbox and other storage accessories from the brand to deliver customizable and highly mobile tool management approaches. It also features side handles that make it easy to carry alongside a deep tool well with a height of just over 10 inches. Still, if you're looking for the most cost effective deep-well storage option, a cheap bucket is hard to beat!
How We Chose These Tools
Organizing any toolbox requires an understanding that the task isn't just about optimizing space within the one solution, itself. Building organization into your toolbox and workflow demands additional resources that can help distribute the burden of storing equipment of varying sizes and dimensions. Each of these storage accessories were chosen because they serve an integral role in delivering on that mission. All of them provide a unique service to the DIYer or professional tool user with varying strengths brought to the conversation.
These accessories can help create better organization for small parts, delicate and important hand tools, bulky powered equipment, and everything in between. They span as wide a range of different categories as possible to assist in any kind of new storage requirement that a user might find themselves up against.
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