I'm about to tackle the Junk Drawer section of my triangular closet. And one of the big components of it is the hand tools that I have up here instead of in the tool boxes down in the basement storage bin (which is my apartment's version of a garage or attic).

I'm thinking of mounting magnetic strips on the wall to put some of the tools on. But I'm trying to decide which to keep up here and which to put downstairs. (It's such a pain to go down, so I want to keep useful stuff up here.)

What do you keep in your main living area.

I'm thinking definitely:
hammer,
pliers,
needlenose pliers,
wire cutter,
screw driver(s),
electric screwdriver,
tape measure.

Trying to decide on:
Allen wrenches,
extra pliers,
*which* screwdrivers,
crescent wrench,
small level.

Any suggestions, comments, guidance?

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.

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.

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. :-)

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).

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

If you leave the wheels off, will they stack?

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.

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.

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!

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."