Buy or Build: Organizing Your Pliers

Ahhh the plier drawer. Many of us organize our sockets, drill bits, and screwdrivers but that awful plier drawer is usually a wreck. I try to keep my pliers all flat so I don’t have to dig through the drawer, but try is the key word there—I always end up just throwing more pliers on top of the so-called organized ones.

Searching for a solution, I ultimately narrowed it down to two options—buy it or build it:

Buy It ????

During my search, I came across what looks to be a cool toolbox drawer insert that, when combined with others, would allow me to fit considerably more pliers and cutters into a single drawer, while also keeping them all totally organized and accessible.

The product is from MLTools, who I’d never heard of until now, and is basically a chemical-resistant plastic rack with 10 7/8″ wide slots to accommodate a variety of different sized pliers and cutters, even those with over-sized insulated or spring/lock mechanisms.

The rack itself is about 10″ long, so I could fit 4-6 of them in one drawer, depending on which drawer I’d use them in. There’s also a rubber base on the bottom of the racks to keep it from sliding. They call it, simply, the Pliers/Cutters Organizer Pro and it is Made in the USA.

Check Price on Amazon!

Build It ????

The other option—and the one I really like—is to build something custom. This 3-1/2 minute video from Making it Matters is great and pretty much shows us just how it’s done.

To keep things a bit more flexible, I would probably consider building a system like this on a smaller scale as separate modules so it’s not so custom that I can’t move things around. I’d also paint and seal it to help keep the wood clean of oil stains and whatnot. I do love the look of this, though!

If you’ve got a different idea or have thoughts on either of these, please share, because I’m still not sure which route I’m going to go.????