Adam Savage Rearranges His Workshop Storage System 

I’m a workshop organization geek. These are by far my favorite videos. What always amazes me is the amount of consumables Adam has in his shop at all times. Seems like it’s enough for a full time prop making shop with 6 employees. I love it and am envious. Thanks for the content.

love watching workshop infrastructure setup gives me ideas for my own little shed

At this point you need to just go full ladder on rails, like in old libraries, just for your stuff.

Everyone could use an uncle like Adam. The kind, knowledgeable and wacky type that's able to keep up energy wise with a young minds' energy level. Thank you for the video 👍.

I feel your joy, thanks. The process is basically increasing density by better organization which creates space which makes more room which means more stuff!

I love these organization videos. There a perfect balance of organizing and the drama of actual balancing shelfs on shelfs on shelfs without any wall anchors. I pray that theres never an earthquake when someone is in that shop.

I have a serious case of motion sickness now, thanks a lot Adam. Way too much spinning around but I love your enthusiasm.

I think we need a full workshop tour again soon... Things are shifting and changing. Or maybe another 360 photo?

Not only is the shop a tile puzzle, each tile is also an irregular tetromino shape, on top of that. _Hours_ of fun! (For certain values of "fun".)

I am happy to see that my model shop is not the only space that morphs every time I bring in a new piece of infrastructure! Thank the heavens for vertical space!

Upon rewatching the entire series run recently I had an epiphany! Now this isn't some grandiose epiphany like "OMG! I know how they got the caramel inside the caramilk bar!", but more of an epiphany of the memory kind. Yeeeeeears ago when I lived in a rural area I had watched one of the Mythbusters episodes where you, Adam answered questions about the equipment you used. Specifically, THE little black pocket reference book that appeared to have the answers to everything in it. Being a junior carpenter and all-around builder of things I immediately zipped into town, ran into the bookstore (that big building with glass on the sidewalk front that displayed these archaic rectangular objects called "books") and spent the rest of the afternoon waiting for the stores dialup internet to order "Pocket Ref Pocket-sized reference book by Thomas J. Glover". Days turned into weeks... weeks into a month... a month into two months... but Lo! On the third month a received a call on my primitive device called a "telephone" which in those days we had to build a house around to store all our data. My little black pocket reference book had arrived, and life changed from that moment on. It was as if I'd been gifted the Holy Bible of Physics, Astronomy, Trigonometry, Construction, Life and everything from Jeebus himself!!! That book went everywhere with me, and always had either the answer or the formulas to get the answer in a hurry! Life was grand and I appeared to be the smartest critter in the valley for years thanks to that book. Need a knot that'll keep you from plummeting to your untimely death? Lemme seeeeee... page 585... yes I think a bowline knot will do just nicely! What's that? you've screwed up your bowline knot and plummeted 60 feet to a bone crunching stop?! Hold up... First Aid page 261and I'll have you fixed up in a jiffy! That book had everything! Then one day years later my world came crashing down in the form of a bouncing baby clone who was teething and I suppose felt he could absorb the Pocket Ref's knowledge and power by eating it rather than reading it. Noooooooooooo!!! At that moment I knew how Samson felt after Delilah chopped off his hair! It looked like a drooling version of the family cat had torn up another roll of toilet! Years of darkness followed. Years of being asked a question, absently reaching into an empty back pocket then withdrawing that hand with a mournful tear in my eye. Fast forward a few decades and aforementioned drooling clone now drives Choo Choo trains instead of eating them so perhaps he did absorb some of that little black books power after all. I binge the entire run of Mythbusters and Lo! The little black book! I look it up on amazon and there it is! Two days later Jeebus delivered it by hand right to me! I now look upon the book with the fond memories of events and smile... which is all I can do because apparently they haven't changed the teeny tiny font and I pretty much have to hold it an inch from my face to read it. So, thanks for the years of memories and making me feel smarter! Cheers! MWP

Nothing kills my creative energy like a messy (as in disorganized) work space, especially if half finished projects or hoarded materials taking over the space. And yet for me it takes a lot of discipline to keep it organized, or find the motivation to clean and organize. You’re absolutely right that the shop is like a living organism, and it needs care and feeding.

Having all these areas each for their own use case is so good. My garage is way smaller but all this insight into organisation of your stuff is so awesome!

I bet a little silicone dry grease on the camera arm would save our ears during pans. 😜

I love, love, love, love shop infrastructure videos. Adam emphases patina or worked in, lived in shop and he is literally the only one I know of who constantly do it and do it well. While his shop might look overwhelming, making things increment better, gives me a dopamine rush!

Love and envious of your shop.

For those not in the know, a Harloff of similar utility to the cabinet Adam bought is 5grand. 7 hundos is like stealing the thing. :))

It never hurts to reassess how you manage your stuff, store it, retrieve it. I really appreciate you showing those changes. Thanks, Adam.

Ooo, storage sorting, love this stuff

I like how, after years of spurning drawers, Adam is embracing them in his shop. I predict that his shop storage will look more like Jaime's massive wall of storage boxes in M5, but scaled down to fit his space (that is, the airplane carts and sortimos vs. the large bins).

It's so satisfying to reorganize storage whether it's in a workshop or at home, a great feeling of accomplishment, fantastic 😊

I Love Adam! He has inspired me in many ways. I do need some distance and order in my shop to feel sane. I amazed how much he gets out of that tiny over stuffed area!

1:10 reminds me about the first episode of Futurama, when Prof. Farnsworth shows his assorted lengths of wire in his drawer.

At about three minutes mark my motion sickness started kicking in. 😵‍💫 But I still watched because I love seeing different kind of organization.

Yep, I've often said that any reorganization in the shop - most often to incorporate something new - is a combination of the tile-puzzle and Tetris to move things around and get it all to fit again.

Adam on an Orginizing spree LOVE IT

The shop is a living organism. I love that so much. It fits so well.

I've been watching this channel for over a year and I didn't even know you HAD a mold-making area. Maybe another shop tour should be on the agenda sometime soon?

This is just therapeutic. Loved it

What grand new ideas will Adam have after dusted off after all of this? I always find these videos motivating get up and do 😅😊

700 isn't too bad considering all those holders, if you go price a good tool trolley you'll know.

Like many of us, Adam grew up playing Tetris. He's got this!

I love how running his workshop is like 40% reorganizing. Gives us such an inside into how his mind works.

I don't know what is more aspirational: having at one's fingertips such a wealth of tools, supplies, and materials; or having this level of organization in life, generally speaking. I (currently) have... neither of those things. lol

I love these builds and it always makes me appreciate having a 90% wood shop as i dont have nearly enough space in my shop to take on more supply storage.

This was really helpful - I'm about to move into a new place and have been trying to plan out my (very) tiny workshop, but shop organization is by far my weakest skill. While I don't have the luxury of being able to dedicate 8 draws to brushes for instance (they're in two 2L plastic bins), there are a few ideas I can take such as that rack Adam made for the plastic bins at the end of the video; the rack adds minimal extra size to the bins, but means you can access them individually rather than playing Tower of Hanoi with them or wasting space & materials on full shelves for them to sit on (my two current solutions). I do much prefer clear bins to opaque draws though, as even with a label I get hit hard by "out of sight, out of mind".

Ballistics gel man: "i've figured out a new way to sort wire!" Literally thousands of people, me included: "oh hell yes." Thank you Adam Savage for serving Professor Farnsworth by showing us your drawer of assorted length of wire. This is really helping me set my own shop up.

I'd love a 3D scan of this entire shop to sit and enjoy in.

I used to think my hobby was making or repairing stuff in my shop. Now my hobby has become the shop. I'm constantly changing my organization and I find it very relaxing.

"The shop is always a tile puzzle" xD Adam, your shop is 3D Tetris and you are a master at squeezing every last inch of capability out of your space. xD

The shop is a Tetris game lol… make everything fit until you hit the ceiling lol

Watching your organization videos is always great. It makes me wonder if you have a shop floorplan map and how fun it would be to create. It seems like it would get a lot of revisions though 😂

3:04 - Vertigo Warning! 🤣

This shop somehow is able to give me anxiety due to the clutter and a sense of calmness due to the organization.

excellent....must do some shop organizing.....black masking tape and white out labels.....yes please.

All work becomes more enjoyable when you have every tool and material you need, and can find it

I rearrange components in my double garage shop weekly - always evolving

Every time i learn something new with you and i just love your cave , not like my but one day i will have one just like that . Thanks from 🇵🇹

That was a full day, OMG. And you gave me a lot of great ideas. Thanks for all your time and effort.

Good God…I could watch videos of Adam fawning over his organization all day everyday and die happy.

It is always interesting to see the domino effect a new item can have on your shop. I doubt it has stopped yet, even if it seems like it has.

1:14 I think that nest in that wires just proves that snakes are an inevitability 🤣

Seismic storage wouldn’t want to be standing in the middle of the workshop if there was a little Rumble. That being said I love your shop, so good !!!!! Very inspiring thanks mate

This video is the antidote to the anxiety hoarders feel when they watch Marie Kondo. Amazing!

Tackle boxes are a great way to organize sewing projects!! If you're "just" a mender/novice/kidding yourself about your potential like me,having a fishing tackle box was a LEGENDARY upgrade for just the on-the-go situation (or if you're recovering from feeling like a renegade,anyway!) Like I am.... Is my two cents on the thing. Man,I love these videos!! This is cathartic shit right here.

I feel like those supplies could now support a team of 20+ makers (though they'd need a workspace) ❤

Still amazes me how Adam is able to keep track of everything he have and where it is stored, the expandables, the tools, the collection of artifacts and seemingly still be able to maintain a balanced life! I have a 5x2m small shop with at most 01% of Adam's stuff even that is a nightmare to manage >o

Love the commitment to cohesion of covering “lazy susans” on a drawer with a piece of tape that says “lazy susans”

I appreciate when Adams tells us what he roughly paid for his Greggslist/online finds. It puts things in context and shows us what might be attainable and what not.

Your creative chaos is the best 😊

Hey Adam, I once set up an entire machine shop for a major company. I spent $25,000 on tooling cabinets and big bucks for Snapon stuff. But for my home shop I found I can't beat U'S. General from Harbor Freight. Shalom/gw

Still waiting for lista to send him some drawer cabinets. Their simply the best and would be a great addition.

"The shop is always a tile puzzle." Truth.

Added more storage and gave you the means to straighten and pretty up the shop in a few other places

whenever you point to your wire, all I think of is the quote: "this is my lab table, and here is my work stool, over there is my intergalactic spaceship.... and here is where I keep assorted lengths of wire..." "I designed it myself.... let me show you the different lengths of wire I used..." - Prof. Farnsworth

This series of videos should be in its own playlist labeled “Drawers”.😂

I'm loving these videos.

this is so satisfying to watch and inspiring, very nice!

Maybe organising so particularly may inhibit creativity? One of my joys is to meander around my yard and shed with no intention.... then walk out with my most enjoyed experiences of art making.

"Tile puzzle. Shop as tile puzzle." 100% right.

Clutter triggered anxiety is helped by drawers that hide contents until you need them. Balancing that with your out of site out of mind(drawers are where things go to die) (object impermanence is a bitch), and you find your ratio of drawers vs bins.

I'm loving Adam channelling his inner Scotsman by calling things "SHITE"

Good chaotic video. Reorganizing is such a thankless task by the observers but the improvement in efficiency is always worth it. The only thing that I don't like about your shop is the dust/debris that goes everywhere from the power tools. The former projects on the walls are cool to look at but I would definitely have them in a shop office on display instead of adding to the clutter that has to be moved when it's eventually in the way. That's just me though. After having recently moved, my workspace is far more chaotic at the moment.

I started stacking my shop like you, then thought oh wait I live in an earthquake prone area of the world, now nothing is higher then my head in height. Made me do a very full on clean up to get it to all fit.

Adam’s whip-pan game is tight

What a chaos... ;-) My cave does not look better but has only a tenth of the different parts in it. Kind regards from Germany!

I love that quite often a re-arrangement can be triggered by just the purchase of one additional new tool. Been there. :-)

When he said for a pretty good deal i was expecting at max 100quid 😂😂

12:07 - - POV you're a stack of reorganized aircraft serving drawers about to be moved into your new home by Adam Savage.

I'm going to see my chiropractor from all that camera whiplash. LOL Tile-puzzle... that's how my shop cleanup operates too! BTW: Those aircraft food severs reminded me like a squarish R2D2s.

I bought two medical cabinets like this for $20 a piece. They make excellent rolling tool cabinets. 👍

I just love how Adam goes to get the airplane food cart and R2D2 is just hanging out in the shop in the background.

Love your videos and highly value the information you present. Do you have a video on your "SPECIAL MACHINE TOOLS" cabinet with the clear doors?

4:40 “Hey man, your fly is down.”

Adam, I would be really curious whether you have ever considered having a master list of all the tools in your shop? Like the kind of complete organizational system that some historical Makers' workshops you've made videos about once used? As a former propmaster and current teacher, it seems that might be helpful if you don't always know where to find a tool in your shop if you haven't used it in a long while! If not, I would be really curious to know how your organizational system is set up, even if it's just one in your head, from one organizer to another

Not sure if by black masking tape you meant gaffers tape, but I discovered that does eventually leave a horrible residue. I had it on some camera equipment for a couple years that had just been sitting in a box inside, and when I finally needed it again and took it off, it left this horrible gray goop as if it had melted. It works great for a while, but when it goes, it goes pretty bad from what I can tell.

Would love to see a full tour at some point!

Adam's timelapse makes him look like a lego Star Wars dude building. 7:08

the butterfly effect of the cabinets!

I can’t wait to rip my garage apart and start from scratch. 90% of my big stuff is going on a trailer for a mobile welding rig, then I can have a spot for that so it’s locked up. When it’s pulled out I plan on work table that I’ve made out of an 8” beam and 1/4” plate. I’ll have threaded anchors in the floor so I can set up in a few minutes.

I’m fairly sure your Med cart is an ex anesthesiologist Med cart. A nursing cart on a unit would have individual bins for each patient and fewer divisions. The separate large locking drawer would be for controlled substances which an anesthesiologist would have a larger quantity on hand than your standard Med cart.

Adam Savage: Square your scraps and organize your shop. Also Adam Savage: Lets hold into this random piece of poster board with a round hole on it. Stick it in the crevice. 16:31

When I was a kid, I thought my dad was crazy for organizing his tools and supplies in an old wood dresser and labeling in SHARPIE directly on the wood drawers 😳 but now he seems to have known what he was doing 😂

I find organising the workspace as enjoyable as what I use the space for.

great video , i love organization .

Dizzyingly great video, Adam! I'd love to know how much actual time was compressed into that time-lapse. That was a lot of very tedious work, so thank you for doing that!

You are top drawer Adam!

watching these videos really make me want to get drawers of organizer drawers... only to realize i already have too many drawers & what i need in my room is shelves 🤣

Could someone please provide links to the black masking tape? I can’t find any in my area except for black washi paper masking tape

Hello Adam! Let me intrude upon you with this quote from a "documentary" narrated by William Shatner: "The largest mass extinction since the big bang". I can't get it out of my head. 😂