The Drawer Organizer Guide

Updated August 15, 2026 Buying guide Layout templates

The small-parts organizers people actually buy — with the grid each one uses, what it's best for, and how to model it in WhichDrawer so your inventory matches the real thing.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, WhichDrawer earns from qualifying purchases made through links on this page. Prices and drawer counts are as published by the manufacturers — always confirm the exact configuration of the unit you receive before building your layout.

Quick picks: For fasteners and electronics, a wall-mount Akro-Mils 10164 (64 drawers) is the classic. For a mix of hardware and odds-and-ends, the Akro-Mils 10144 (32 small + 12 large). On a budget, the Harbor Freight / US General 40-bin. For makers, a Gridfinity baseplate. For LEGO, stackable Sterilite drawer units.

How to read the grid

WhichDrawer models an organizer as a grid of rows × columns, and lets you merge cells for larger drawers. When we say “8 × 8”, that's 8 columns across and 8 rows down. Where a cabinet mixes small and large drawers, we describe the grid you'd draw and which cells to merge. Every organizer below can be created from a preset or custom layout in under a minute; several also have community templates you can apply with one tap.

Wall-mount small-parts cabinets

8 × 8 · 64 drawers

Akro-Mils 10164

Plastic cabinet · 64 small drawers · ~20 × 16 × 6.5 in
Best for: fasteners, resistors/capacitors, beads, small LEGO parts

The one from every dad's workshop. Sixty-four identical drawers means sixty-four chances to forget what's where — which is exactly why it's the organizer WhichDrawer was built around. Model it as a plain 8 × 8 grid, number drawers in reading order, and use one drawer per thread size (M3, M4, M5…) with washers and nuts adjacent.

8 × 7 · 32 small + 12 large

Akro-Mils 10144

Plastic cabinet · 44 drawers · ~20 × 16 × 6.5 in
Best for: garage hardware, sewing notions, junk-drawer refugees

Same footprint as the 10164 but the bottom rows are large drawers, which is what most households actually need. Draw an 8-column × 7-row grid; keep the top four rows as 32 small cells and merge the bottom three rows in pairs to make 12 large drawers. Put the “I don't know where this goes yet” stuff in the large ones — and give that drawer a proper name in the app so it doesn't become a black hole.

4 × 6 · 12 small + 12 large

Akro-Mils 10124

Plastic cabinet · 24 drawers · ~20 × 16 × 6.5 in
Best for: kitchens, offices, medicine and battery drawers

Bigger drawers, fewer of them: half small, half large. Draw a 4 × 6 grid and merge pairs in the large rows. If you're organizing a whole household rather than a workshop, start here — it's the unit whose drawers are big enough for a phone charger, a tube of glue or a box of batteries.

10 × 6 · 60 drawers

Stack-On DS-60

Steel-frame cabinet · 60 clear drawers with dividers
Best for: electronics benches, jewelry findings, model builders

Steel frame, clear polystyrene drawers, and included dividers you can drop in to split a drawer in two. Model it as 10 × 6; if you use the dividers, add a second item location to that drawer rather than splitting the grid — WhichDrawer lets one drawer hold multiple items with their own quantities.

6 × 8 · 44 drawers

IRIS USA 44-Drawer Parts Cabinet

Plastic cabinet · 32 small + 12 large drawers
Best for: craft rooms, classrooms, home offices

A friendlier-looking take on the classic parts cabinet with a mix of drawer sizes. Model it like the 10144: small cells on top, merged pairs for the large drawers below. IRIS also makes stackable open-front bins that pair well with it for bulkier supplies — track those as a second organizer in the same room location.

40 bins · dividers

Harbor Freight / US General 40-Bin Organizer

Wall-mount plastic cabinet · 40 removable bins · optional dividers
Best for: budget garage setups, jobsite hardware

The value pick — a fraction of the price of the name-brand cabinets, with removable bins you can carry to the bench. Model it as 8 columns × 5 rows. Because bins come out, photograph the bin contents from above; that photo becomes your AI search target when you can't remember whether the drywall anchors were bin 12 or bin 21.

Portable / modular organizers

Adjustable · 1 tray

Stanley SortMaster (and FatMax)

Latching case · adjustable dividers · stackable
Best for: per-project kits, screws by project, tackle-style storage

Dividers slide, so the grid is whatever you make it. Set the dividers, then draw that grid once in WhichDrawer (say 4 × 3 with a couple of merged cells) and treat it as one organizer per case. Label the case lid with the organizer name so the app and the box agree.

Compact 5 · Low-profile 11 bins

Milwaukee PACKOUT Organizers

Stackable jobsite organizers · removable bins
Best for: tradespeople, mobile workshops, van setups

If you're already invested in PACKOUT, each organizer maps to a small grid (the compact organizer is roughly 5 bins; the low-profile 11). Model each box as its own organizer and put them all in a “Truck” or “Van” location so search results tell you which box to open before you get to the truck.

42 mm units · any grid

Gridfinity (3D-printed)

Open-source bin standard · baseplates + bins in 42 mm units
Best for: makers, electronics, anyone with a 3D printer

Gridfinity is a free, open standard for 3D-printed bins on a 42 mm grid. A drawer with a 6 × 4 baseplate is a 6 × 4 WhichDrawer layout; a 2 × 1 bin is a merged cell. It's the most flexible system here and the easiest to model exactly. Read our Gridfinity guide.

Household drawer units

1 × 3 · stackable

Sterilite 3-Drawer Units

Plastic drawer towers · wide/medium/mini · stackable
Best for: LEGO sorting, craft supplies, seasonal items, kids' rooms

The unofficial standard for LEGO sorters and craft rooms because they stack. Model a stack of three 3-drawer units as one 1 × 9 organizer (or one organizer per tower — either works). Photograph each drawer's contents from above; sorting by part category rather than colour makes the photos far more searchable. See our LEGO sorting guide.

3 × 3 · 6 small + 3 large

IKEA MOPPE Mini Chest

Unfinished wood mini chest · 9 drawers
Best for: desks, stationery, jewelry, tea

Six small drawers over three wide ones. Draw a 3 × 5 grid: three rows of small cells on top, then merge each of the bottom rows fully across for the wide drawers — or simply use a 3 × 3 preset with the bottom row's cells labelled as one drawer each if you don't need merges. Perfectly indexable, endlessly re-purposed.

Any · Super Satchel

ArtBin Super Satchel & craft boxes

Latch boxes · removable dividers · stackable
Best for: beads, embroidery floss, markers, sewing notions

Craft storage is really just small-parts storage with better colours. Set your dividers, draw the resulting grid, and lean on WhichDrawer's categories (colour families, brands, projects) plus low-stock alerts so you stop buying a fourth pack of the same seed beads.

Have one we haven't listed?

Tell us the make and model at support@whichdrawer.app and we'll add it here with a community template. If you've already built a great layout in the app, share it to the community template gallery from the app and it can appear in this guide.

Choosing between them

If you mostly store… Get WhichDrawer layout
Fasteners, electronic components, beads Akro-Mils 10164 / Stack-On DS-60 8×8 preset / 10×6 custom
Mixed household hardware Akro-Mils 10144 or 10124 8×7 or 4×6 with merges
Budget garage Harbor Freight 40-bin 8×5 custom
Per-project kits SortMaster / PACKOUT Small custom grid per case
Anything, and you own a 3D printer Gridfinity Baseplate units = grid
LEGO, crafts, kids Sterilite towers 1×3 per tower (or 1×9 stack)

As an Amazon Associate, WhichDrawer earns from qualifying purchases. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Product names are trademarks of their respective owners; WhichDrawer is not affiliated with or endorsed by any organizer manufacturer.