Reply by horologist

It really depends on the size and quantity of objects you wish to store. Like many, I do have a number of those cabinets with small sliding plastic drawers. They are a cheap and efficient use of space but I’m not real fond of them as the drawers aren’t very durable and the cabinets are, well, ugly. Instead I have purchased various wood and metal cabinets over the years to replace the plastic ones. I thought about posting photos but as my cabinets aren’t readily available it seemed that it wouldn’t be that helpful. Antique malls and flea markets are good sources but it takes a bit of patience. You can also keep an eye out for a local university surplus auction.

To belabor the obvious, you will need larger heavier duty cabinets for tools and materials, smaller cabinets for the smaller objects although you can effectively combine smaller items in a larger drawer. Just don’t use a drawer so large that you end up digging to the very bottom every time you try to find something. Some time ago I made a large purchase of small brass and steel wood screws. Most were in cardboard boxes, others in plastic bags. I have a cabinet with long, shallow, wooden drawers that are large enough to hold all the screws of one size and material. Some of the boxes fit in the drawer others had to be bagged in small zip lock bags. Jewelry suppliers have a wide variety of these bags for beads and findings.

If you have quantities of really small parts then something like this might be worth considering.

These are bushings for clock repair, they come in a flat cardboard box with a tray made up of open top pockets to separate the different sizes. There are two types of clock repairmen, those who have dumped a bushing box and those who will. I managed to avoid this catastrophe for years and then dumped the stupid things three times in one month. It takes hours to sort them all out again. The box above is my solution to the problem and has worked well. The company I purchased my boxes from is out of business but there are similar boxes at the link below that are much more reasonably priced than the ones I saw on amazon.
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-- Troy in Melrose, Florida