Hasta La Ideas

So what is the ultimate in mobile tool storage? In our research, the absolute best, most useful, and well-designed thing we’ve found is this:

I know that looks like the lovechild of a 1980s Xerox machine and an X-Box, but in fact that’s a basic building block of the Systainer mobile storage system, found here and here, by German company Tanos. (You may see it cross-marketed as a Festool product, as they are sister companies.)

The Systainer system was designed for people who work with tools both in a shop and on-the-go. There are five basic containers, each one scaled up in size from the one below it on the price ladder.

You can use each box as-is, or fill them with a variety of inserts–pre-formed, user-arranged, or “pick & pluck” foam for customization–to subdivide their contents.

If pull-out drawers are more your thing, there’s also a line of Drawer Systainers, again with steadily-increasing capacity.

As for how all of these become a system:

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