Just behind me where I am sitting at the moment I have 21 RUBs containing my collection of about 42000 pinned out flies (mostly). The RUBs are stacked in and on top of bookshelves. I seem to remember that you could buy a rack to hold them but it looked too flimsy for what I wanted. The flies are pinned out onto plastic foam sheets in small clear plastic presentation boxes, 48 of which fit in each 12 litre RUB. I still have to properly identify about half of the flies. Photos of the presentation boxes and CSV files of the identifications are backed up to https://github.com/tristrambrelstaff/flies. RUBs have played a significant part in enabling me to manage all this.

I initially read "42000 pinned out files" and sat there, processing, for a minute. Professional deformation at its finest.

Yeah, we have a similar setup for haberdashery - white Ikea Billys, a few extra shelves, and a lot of 9l RUBs. They're a couple of inches deeper than the shelf, but that's not really a problem. Larger projects and long-term storage go in 35l's or 64l's. The 84l's tend to be too big for us - we've got one, and I hate lugging it around.

That's a hell of a collection. Is there any risk of them degrading over time, as they're organic?

I discovered recently that IKEA actually do a deeper Billy that you can order online. I've seen them as deep as the Kalax. I used to work there and never knew. Might be helpful for the overhang

if they're the ones I'm thinking of (wide, but not very tall, good for large flat things - basically map drawers but not quite that big) just be forewarned that the drawers don't fully extend. (There are mods to fix that which involve doing some drilling and grinding on the drawer slides...)

Thanks for the Really Useful Boxes referral. I've been using made in the UK Wham Plastics organizers and IKEA boxes, but front-loading is what I really need.

Second that. Our garage is full of their 50L boxes with the XL lid, perfectly fitting those industrial shelves. Very versatile and long lasting. Even after nearly ten years, they look pretty much the same, and we live in harsh climate near the coast.

My oldest ones (about a decade, same as you) are a touch more yellow than the ones I bought last year. I still think that, kept away from UV, they'll probably outlast me.

Same. I have one that’s about 15 years old, lived in a cupboard its whole life, and it’s slightly yellowed but still going strong.

Although looking at his, several of them are so covered in dots as to be opaque anyway.

I'd have maybe used different colored dots, e.g. N blue, then remove them and place 1 green etc. as a counter and so on.

Future availability is such an underrated feature. I buy IKEA food storage containers exactly because of this.

I wonder if how we build/cycle software would change if we stopped calling it "backward compatibility" and started calling it "future availability."

Really Useful Boxes are excellent. The best feature for me is that the lids are raised, so you have some room that's slightly higher than the rim of the crate. Sure, buy a bigger crate, but it's nice to pack things just about level and not worry about one annoying part poking up.

I've switched to UTZ Rako/Euroboxes for longer term storage. I even bought a beat-up dolly so I could easily transport 60L boxes around. They stack, they're divisible (e.g. 2x30L on top of a 60L) and the smaller ones fit neatly into a KALLAX cubby. You can buy them used for cheap, if you're willing to spend an afternoon scrubbing factory dirt off them. But they're not significantly pricier than Really Useful.

There are other suppliers like Auer, who make all kinds of interesting variations like toolboxes and latching/lockable boxes, but can get really expensive. You can get insert containers for them, but same problem: no transparent lids, only generic gray unless you want to buy 100.

I've been lusting after some of the Sortimo boxes that Adam Savage recommends, but I can't justify 50-100 quid per compartment box.

As for the original article... I like the idea of dots, but I would try a gridded label with sharpie marks. Having worked in a lot of workshops and labs though, boxes are not efficient. You want a good rack/drawers for things you use all the time (tape). I do like one box per project for convenience, which is often more useful than a box with generic grouped parts. If you really need to, you can do things like cut SMD tapes for each project. This way is much easier to drop back into something you only have time for on the weekend, and it's also what we would do in hardware shops (single sorted organizer with the BOM items for a project).

I do agree about the hardware side being surprising. When I was working on electronics for work, having a 4 channel scope was indispensable. But most of the time, debugging on chip/breakpoints are enough. I switched to a 4 channel mixed signal Picoscope.

(Someone else mentioned kitchen containers. I spent some time in a professional kitchen which hooked me on Cambro-style containers, or whatever Nisbet's sell in the UK. Also standardized alu sheet pans and matching silicone mats for baking.)

i have lots of boxes like these filled with various hobby stuff. I keep two boxes on my desk though, one labeled 'A' and one labeled 'B'. Any time I use something like a tool or microprocessor or cable it goes in the A box, when the A box gets too full i pour some of it into the B box. When the B box gets too full i put the contents away where they belong. It's basically like a 2 stage MRU cache of my hobbies, all the stuff i'm currently messing with is right there in the A box or, if it's been a while, in the B box. If i'm doing something new i have to get up and go get what i need from the shelf or other boxes.