It depends on what you use the most.

I do OK with 10-foot tape, hammer (small one), picture hanging hardware, small slip joint pliers and 2 sizes each of Phillips and straight screwdrivers. And the small battery powered screwdriver.

When we first got married, I bought my husband an empty toolbox with a promise to buy him one tool each birthday and Christmas. The box now contains a tape measure, small claw hammer, picture hanging kit (various size hangers and nails)several screw drivers (regular and phillips) plus misc nails and screws. He also has a power screw driver, but it doesn't fit in the box.

All of my tools are in my apartment, as opposed to the basement storage area two floors down. This is because I am lazy and will put off going downstairs just to get a tool, which means that I would put off projects for months.

Instead, I have the power tools (drill, screwdriver, heat gun) in a kitchen cabinet and everything else in an Ikea Helmer unit.

This also holds extra light bulbs, extension cords and batteries, as well as picture hooks and wire, safety goggles and work gloves. The drawers come out easily, so you can grab a drawer and take it with you wherever you need it. And the whole unit is on wheels, if you need to move it.

My hubby...Whatever he has hes a builder,general contractor lol

Since our garage is convenient to get to I don't keep much in the house. Small screwdrivers, tape measure, picture hanging stuff. If getting to storage was a problem/pain I'd add a hammer, needle nose pliers, larger screwdrivers.

Not that I can ever find any tools in the garage. Two toolboxes but DH is not a put things back sort of guy. So the pipe wrench is just as likely to be under our bed as in the garage. :-)

Oh my goodness, that Helmer drawer unit is only $39.99! I see that you must assemble the entire unit. But how cool. Camlan, is this cabinet durable and well crafted? Do the drawers operate smoothly? It's not really huge, just 11 by 16 by 28 inches (more or less) but seems very handy and a lot nicer than a plastic rolling unit for not a lot more money.

cupofkindness--It's a pretty decent unit for $40. It was surprisingly easy to put together--the drawers come flat, but where you have to bend them is pre-scored and doesn't take much power.

It's pretty durable--I've had mine for 4 years and moved it once in that time--no dents, no scratched paint. The drawers move smoothly and come out easily. They can be a bit tricky to get back in. It's solid--not solid enough so that I'd tap dance on top of it, but for a drawer unit, it's solid--not wiggly or wobbly. I've seen them used as printer stands and as supports for a desk top.

The drawers can take a fair amount of weight and still work easily. My problem with a lot of plastic drawer units is that if a drawer gets heavy, it sticks on the framework of the unit and becomes difficult to open and close.

It also just plain looks nicer than the plastic units, if you need to leave it out in the open and can't stuff it in a closet (I have no closet space to speak of in this apartment).

ooh, I may have to look into that Helmer unit.

Not sure where I'd keep it exactly though . . .

If you leave the wheels off, will they stack?

Talley Sue, I checked the bottom of my unit and there's nothing to prevent stacking them. On the other hand, there's nothing to help keep them together, either. So I think you would need to use something--strong glue, double-sided tape, welding--to make sure they stay together.

I lined the drawers with a non-slide drawer liner from Ikea, so stuff stays pretty much where I put it. Things do roll around a little, but the liner prevents everything from ending up in a jumble at the back of the drawer.

In my last apartment, the Helmer fit neatly in the pantry. This apartment has no pantry, so it ended up just stuck under the kitchen window with a plant on top of it.

Here's a picture of some stacked units, so you can get an idea.

Here is a link that might be useful: stacked Helmers

lol...found a rolling tool chest with a butcher block top i have in the laundry room...that butcher top serves as a folding surface...it holds just about all the hand tools we have, plus a couple of drills, ect...other special drills are in cases on shelves above the doors...then we have a double tower (stainless)for nails and junk...with a hanging bar between for my hangers...we don't have a garage, and have made the most of the space we do have...

I keep a hammer, two screwdrivers, and a tape measure on each floor of the house.

The rest of the tools aren't that far away, but I have bad knees, and too many trips up and down the stairs and I end up crying in the recliner with icepacks on my legs, begging for someone to bring me a handful of ibuprofen. No fun.

My original list pretty much stuck:

hammer,
pliers + extra (I decided to keep there upstairs, bcs I've every now and then needed two at once, actually),
needlenose pliers,
wire cutters,
screw driver(s), especially the teeny tiny ones,
electric screwdriver,
tape measure.

And I decided I don't need to keep the Allen wrenches upstairs, nor the crescent wrench. And I put the small level downstairs, but I discovered a micro-level that I'll keep for stuff like picture frames, etc. (unfortunately, it's not ferrous!!)

And there's a mini pry bar in the drawer, and I decided to send it downstairs as well.

Only if I could remember:
-that it was IN the drawer (would I look here for it first? Def. not the pry bar!)
AND
-that I had used it in the past year (that's why the Allen wrenches went downstairs)

Of course, the downstairs toolboxes are going to be a bit of a mess, but oh well!

I almost LOL'd when I saw this topic, but DH is asleep on the other couch:)

Among many other tools...
--the sliding compound miter saw
--a slick (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/slick [super script 2, defn #5])
--pex clamp crimping tool

OK, I kinda cheated...the downstairs isn't finished but all of those are down there (and so is my bedroom). Upstairs in the super-pantry, I keep a hammer, a multi-tip screw driver, the jewelers screw drivers, an exacto, a small measuring tape (10 or 12 ft), and a pair of pliers. Since the "main" tools are so handy, it's just the basics. Growing up, we only kept a hammer and some tacks, a flat-head screw driver, and a Phillips head screw driver in the house. It was ~25yds to the shed where most tools were, but since my mother could only use the *very* basics, that's all we kept in the house.

So, I think it's a trade off of how far to the other tools, the space you have, and the DIY abilities of the person who "lays claim" to the "inside tools."

I have a hammer from Walmart that has four screwdrivers (two regular, two Phillips) in the handle. This fits in my junk drawer and handles light indoor hammering needs. $4.97 and study.