I don't speak Japanese (hell, can barely manage English), but there is a Japanese concept I really like that Wikipedia describes as "Shibusa; an enriched, subdued appearance or experience of intrinsically fine quality with economy of form, line, and effort, producing a timeless tranquility. Shibusa includes the following essential qualities: Shibui objects appear to be simple overall but they include subtle details, such as textures, that balance simplicity with complexity...."
There's more to the definition and solid chance I'm grossly misinterpreting the concept and/or translation. My perception is the gist of the idea is an aesthetic appreciation of simple things/objects.
In between projects I like to tidy up the shop – you know, things like cleaning out all the miscellaneous scraps that accumulate under the bench and organizing hand tools. 3 things that have been scattered around the shop and stored in their original plastic shipping containers are: small sanding blocks, plow plane blades and router plane blades. Every time I go looking for these, I have to sort through disintegrating plastic boxes etc. to find what I'm looking for. Finally tired of of tolerating this dis oragnization, I built simple little boxes to store these tools. Nothing special, just fun, simple hand tool projects using scraps.
1 by Mike Allen, on Flickr
Even though there are major parts of my life that are clearly more than a little "disorganized", at least these 3 sets of tools are easier to find/use stored in simple boxes that I enjoy a lot more than the original plastic packaging. There – I feel better now!
Anybody else have any pictures of shop appliances/tool organizers they want to share?
All the best, Mike