A cool hand-made tool organizer

Need a simple, easy to make tool organizer? I had the thought that it would be better to have a vertical tool organizer instead of having the tools lie all over the work area. Using styrofoam and cardboard, an effective tool holder is made.

Step 1: Gather Materials


For this simple project, you will need cardboard, styrofoam (EPS foam, actually) a craft knife or box cutter, a hotwire machine if possible, some glue and a rubber band

Step 2: Prepare Foam Blanks for Cutting


Here, a piece of foam is selected to be the holder for the pair of pliers shown. With a pencil or sharpie, trace silhouette onto the foam.

Step 3: Cut Out All Tool Holders From Foam



In this step, all pieces are cut with the hotwire machine. A craft knife can be used also, you are just limited in thickness of foam. Use many strokes to cut with a knife, taking care not to tear foam.

Step 4: Glue foam to cardboard


For each tool piece, cut and glue appropriate foam piece to the pre-cut cardboard. For this project, I had four tools to organize, hence four pieces of foam and four pieces of cardboard.

Step 5: Complete Pieces for each tool.

The four tools in this project and their foam pieces cut and glued to cardboard.

Step 6: Complete Project


The final product...Note how footprint of holder is about equal to the space one tool occupies. This way you can tell at a glance if all tools are in place, and they are easily grasped for doing your work. I used a rubber band to hold the modules together, but they can be enclosed in a "box" made of cardboard, masonite, matboard, or so on. I left it at this point as I might want to add to it in the future, but don't want to make it too big.
Step 7: Tool Organizer Makeover

I decided to update, improve and decorate my tool holder....time on my hands!