How to choose storage

Good storage pays you back every day - parts found in seconds, tools still there in the morning, a bench that stays clear. The trick is matching the box to what you're storing, how you pick it, and where it lives.

We carry the Fischer plastic system - picking bins, lidded boxes, parts trays and louvre panels, moulded in tough copolymer polypropylene - alongside steel tool boxes and Knaack jobsite chests for tools that need locking down. They solve two different problems: organising small parts so you can find them, and securing tools so they don't walk. This guide covers both, plus the numbers that catch people out - load, temperature and food grade.

Match plastic bins and trays to how you pick your parts; match a steel box or a Knaack chest to how your tools travel and how they have to be secured.

1.Small-parts storage: bins, boxes and trays

Fischer 8L Stor Paklidded, stacks squareShop lidded boxes

Start with how you use the parts, not just what they are - that sorts you into the right container.

Fischer's boxes share a footprint across sizes, so a 2.5L and a 6L stack and line up on the same shelf - worth knowing if you're kitting out a whole store. The drawer organisers do the same job inside a bench.

2.Tool boxes and jobsite security

Knaack Storage Master Cheststeel, site-grade securityShop Knaack chests

Tools are a different job from parts - here you're buying security and weather protection, not compartments. There are three types, sorted by how they travel:

On a site box the security is in the build, not the padlock. What to look for:

• Steel gauge. Heavy-duty 1.5-2.0mm cold-rolled steel takes a crowbar; thin sheet folds.
• The lock. A recessed padlock housing (only the keyway exposed) or an integrated tamper-resistant barrel beats an external hasp - a battery angle grinder goes through an exposed shackle in seconds.
• Concealed hinges. Internal or welded hinges stop a thief grinding the pins and lifting the lid off the back.
• Anchor points. Cast-in base holes so you can dynabolt it to a slab or bolt it through to the ute chassis.

Two more that catch people out. Sealing: outdoor tools die from dust and water, so look for an EPDM pinch-weld seal (a rubber bulb with a steel-wire core that grips the lip), not stick-on foam that perishes in the sun. Mounting: bolt the box through its base to the vehicle - a ratchet strap won't stop someone lifting the whole thing off, and most "tools of trade" policies won't pay out unless it was physically fixed down.

Important note: there's no Australian security rating for tool boxes - the security claims are the manufacturer's own. What your insurer asks for is physical: bolted down, properly padlocked, or inside a locked vehicle. Buy the build - steel, lock, hinges, anchors - and meet those conditions, and you're covered.

3.Sizing, load and food grade

Fischer Parts Trayremovable dividersShop parts trays

Three numbers decide whether a bin does the job or lets you down.

Size. Buy a size up from what you think you need - a bin run at 100% overflows onto the bench. Favour clear where the stock level matters (a picking face, a consumable you reorder) and solid where it's just tidy storage. Removable dividers earn their place too: one tray holds a dozen sorted fastener sizes instead of a dozen little bags.

Load. Volume is not weight - a 10-litre bin is not a 10kg bin. Reputable bins carry a rated static or uniformly-distributed load in kilograms, so check it against what you're storing (a bin of steel bolts is heavy). And the rating changes with the mounting: a bin that holds 20kg flat on a shelf can shear at the rear lip hung fully loaded on a louvre panel, and loading every bin on a panel to its own limit ignores the panel's total rating and the wall fixings.

Food grade and temperature. If anything you store touches food, "polypropylene" on its own isn't enough - look for compliance with AS 2070 (plastics for food contact), which means virgin PP and compliant colourants, not just any PP. (That's a different standard from AS/NZS 4020, which covers drinking-water contact.) On temperature, copolymer PP bins run happily from about -10 to +80°C - fine in a coolroom, but they soften and lose load strength above 80°C, so keep them out of ovens and off hot engine bays.

4.Setting up a parts store

Fischer Louvre Panelwall picking faceShop louvre panels

If you're building a picking face rather than buying the odd box, the quick recipe is a louvre panel on the wall or the end of a trolley, hung with open-front bins sized to your parts. It puts everything at eye level, one grab away, and it scales - add panels and bins as the range grows. Pair it with a few lidded Stor Pak boxes for the parts that travel to the job, and clear organisers for the fiddly stuff. Colour-code the bins and you've a Kanban or 5S restock running straight off the shelf: a colour per line, refill when the bin runs empty.

Tell us what you're storing - parts to organise or tools to lock down - and how much room you've got, and we'll spec the bins, boxes, panels or chest to suit. The full storage range is here.