And this is where I keep various lengths of wire....

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not the most organized person in the world. When it comes to small electronics though, even someone like me has to get organized.

    

      When I started with the Arduino I had parts scattered everywhere and stored everything in cardboard boxes. Now I've managed to organize just about everything into two boxes.

    

     The first one is a hardware organizer I picked up at Walmart. It's perfect for organizing the medium sized stuff. I keep wire, cables, PCB boards, Arduino shields and micro controllers in it.

     The next one is a 26" tool box I got on clearance at Lowe's. The bottom of this box is good for storing robot projects, project boxes and other large items. It has a tray on top for holding my soldering iron, multimeter and smaller boxes.

     The smaller boxes are small tackle boxes. They're perfect for storing smaller components like integrated circuits, LEDs, resistors and different modules.

     This setup seems to work pretty good for me. It's also very portable so I can get everything out of the way when I need to and get everything set up pretty quick when I feel inspired. The main advantage is that it only takes me a few seconds to find the right resistor or transistor or capacitor now instead of fumbling through boxes of loose components for an hour.

     If you're thinking of getting into this sort of stuff I highly recommend the first thing you do is get a nice toolbox or tackle box, anything that can help you get organized.