I find that commercial storage solutions are inadequate for the electronics hobby. You need to make shelves and containers of your own design with appropriate drawer sizes and such to efficiently store your components. I find most purchasable solutions result in a shit load of dead space. This requires knowledge of carpentry and plastics work to do efficiently and cheaply. I find that if I just throw stuff inside of esd bags and put those bags inside of containers results in a container filled with shit that I feel intense stress when I access.
Think something like ESD foam lined "toolbox" that the interior space of the shelf is just enough to have like 0.25cm headspace over a DIP part thats pressed into the foam. If you have a bunch of DIP IC's there is no need to sort them into individual containers, you can press them in "show formation" right next to each other, then use something like a label maker.
I for instance just have little parades of op-amps sitting in black carbon foam banks, grouped by type... its easy enough to read the number of the part.
SMD stuff is more annoying since you can't pin it into something easily, so you need some kind of barrier to segregate them... but you can do alot if you think about fine construction. Just make sure your containers are reasonably sturdy so you don't get some kind of 'bounce' that occurs when you open them, which will cause the parts to start popcorning out of their respective storage pens and make a mess. Cheap plastic sometimes will develop stresses that makes the bottom start having a drumlike effect that scatters parts around. You can make the enclosures incredibly small so long you remember that you need to carefully use tweezers to remove the parts.
It's precise pain in the ass work but you can do alot with just a router, nails and reasonably dimension ally stable wood. Just make sure it seals well so you don't have a dust problem.
I also feel heavy psychological exhaustion sorting parts for some reason, so I set time limits on such work so I don't get burned out. Same goes for sorting screws and other small mechanical components. I don't feel quite normal if I spend a few hours sorting a 'junk box'... like I drank 10 cups of coffee, then I feel a intense psychological repulsion to returning to the task and would rather do pretty much anything else.
Being mindful to replace the part into its respective storage container also helps alot, so you don't end up with little impromptu junkboxes..
I found that early in my hobby I would not plan well, since the idea of making a circuit is exciting but then you don't think about how the project will be managed if you run into a hurdle like missing parts, difficult technical aspect... this is why companies tend to have so much overhead, considering how quickly you can make storage containers if you get good at it, it may be wise to engineer a project storage solution that fits the scope of your project before you start construction. Failure to do so makes you question your actions when you trip over a half finished LISN sitting on the floor for 3 months
![Lips Sealed :-X](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/lipsrsealed.gif)
It is still a struggle for me. Also always consider dust, nothing pisses me off then caked up dust in high surface area irregular geometry things like unfinished PCBs.
I would recommend that you work outside to sort stuff like junkboxes, I find if you do it on a nice day on an outdoor table you feel alot better and you don't associate your lab with mundane work. Or at least in another room. I noticed too that all the test equipment, dials, knobs, etc just leads to a generally stressful atmosphere that is unpleasant unless you want to actually get something done.