The Tool Box Dilemma

 There still goes on a raging debate over how to transport one's tools and accessories when one is a mobile worker.

Whether a specific tradesperson or a free range technician or handyman,  you have to move a lot of stuff to go do your job.

As a professional handyman involved in business property services,  I can change kit not just day to day, but multiple times within a day.

One place I'm doing minor plumbing.   The next minor electrical.   Then an installation project followed by an assembly project with a repair job somewhere in between. 

That's a LOT of different tools, accessories,  hardware,  and materials to keep on hand.

Some things only get used in electrical work or plumbing work, etc...  They stay in a tool box or bag specifically to that purpose.   Other tools get used across the board on different types of projects.   They go in a box or bucket everywhere I go.

But again, that's a LOT of stuff to have to keep on hand all the time.  That's a lot of different boxes, buckets, and bags to fit in.

Security is an issue.  Trying to keep your stuff from being stolen out of your truck while you go inside to pick up parts or lunch.  

It's often different sizes and shapes and weights to try to bring in and out in any coordinated way.

Speaking of weight, these boxes and buckets and bags can get really heavy depending on what's in them on a regular basis. 

Not all modern portable tool boxes or "organization systems" can answer all of those areas.  In fact,  none of them can.

For the semi-mobile worker, they can be OK.  If you go from job site to job site and are at each one for a few days,  weeks or months at a time, it's a much more feasible system. 

But for the mobile daily different place or multiple places that techs and installers and professional handyman types go to all the time, we work out of our truck or van more often than not.

And it has to be a dedicated vehicle for the most part because once everything is in it, you don't want to keep hauling everything in and out all the time.  Only the things that are necessary. 

So, the packout and modular systems available aren't that great of a solution unless they get to stay in the vehicle.   Like a van.

But in a pickup truck, space is very limited and must be versatile.   In the back (bed) of the truck I might carry big materials like sheet goods, to a job.  Next I might have to haul an old appliance that I switched for a new one, out to a recycle center.  The point is, tools go pretty much in the back seat.  Not a lot of room.

So for me, I still haven't invested in the new systems.   There's no point.  Same problems exist for me.  Security,  weight, space, ease of in and out.

It's always something a mobile pro has to consider.