The 7 Best Modular Tool Storage Systems for Garages and Barns

Volume is the number that matters here. DeWalt rates the deep box at 22.71 liters, and the interior is tall enough to stand cordless drills upright with batteries attached and still close the lid — more usable height than any of the shallow cases here can offer. It's the box we reach for when a project needs more than hand tools.

The removable tray is the small feature that changes how the box gets used. It lifts out in one motion with the bits, drivers and fasteners you reach for constantly, which beats digging past a drill to find one Torx bit. It also takes the top of the interior, so anything tall has to sit underneath it.

The metal side latches hold very tight and take deliberate thumb pressure to release, which is a two-hand job once the box is full. That's the right trade for a box that rides in a truck; it's less welcome when you're opening the same box ten times in an afternoon.

One number to check before you load it: the deep box is rated to 44 pounds, below the shallower TSTAK II at 66. Bulky gear makes that irrelevant. A crate of bolts, sockets and steel does not.

Six and a half inches of height is the entire pitch. This is the flat TSTAK case, the one that slides under a jump seat, sits on a shelf above a bench, or rides on top of a deep box without turning the stack into a tower you can't see over.

Inside it's one open compartment, with no tray and no dividers, which sounds like a downgrade until you're loading a 12-volt drill and impact driver with spare batteries and want the space back. DeWalt rates it at 66 pounds, so a bag of hand tools or a box of fasteners sits well inside its limit.

Low height and a high rating together are what make it worth buying next to the bigger boxes rather than instead of them: it fits where a deep box won't go and still carries more weight than one does. It's the module that makes a stack fit the truck, not the other way around.

The side latches are what turn a box into part of a system, and they're the part to check here. Craftsman's 17-inch VERSASTACK case is water resistant, 6.5 inches tall and rated to 66 pounds, the same size class as the flat TSTAK, and it joins the rest of the line through two side latches that can work loose and drop off.

That matters because a latch that falls off takes the stack's connection with it. Check both when the box arrives and again after a few weeks of use; on a box that lives on a shelf rather than in a truck bed, the exposure is smaller.

What you get over the cheaper flat TSTAK is water resistance, and that's the honest case for paying more. A damp tack room or a covered truck bed is where it earns its place. Inside, it's a single compartment with no dividers and no slots to add them, so plan on a small bin or a tool roll for the loose pieces.

The quick-release latch is what separates this set from the Keter. Press it and a module comes off the stack in one motion, which matters most when the box you want is in the middle of the tower.

All three pieces are here: a rolling tote with a telescoping handle, a deep toolbox, and a small toolbox. The set stands 29 inches tall and covers 20 by 15.75 inches of floor, so it tucks into a closet corner or the back of a feed room without taking over either.

The listed maximum weight recommendation is 10 pounds, and that single number tells you what the set is for. This is a gear carrier, not a tool chest: veterinary supplies, craft tools, a handful of hand tools for a small job. A full wrench set and a cordless drill are past its brief.

What we appreciated is how little ceremony there is in using it. Nothing binds, the modules come apart with one press, and they go back together without lining anything up — the difference between a system that gets used and one that stays in the garage. Between the two rolling sets here, this is the one for a light kit, and the fastest to break down.

Waterproof is the rating, not a flourish. Of the cases on this list, the L-BOXX 136 is the only one rated to keep water out rather than resist it, and that one word changes where the case can live.

Otherwise it's a sealed flat case: 5.39 inches deep, 17.32 by 14.13 inches of footprint, an ABS shell, and a 25-kilogram load rating. There's one compartment and no tray, so it protects a tool or a set of small parts rather than organizing them.

That's a narrow brief, and it's the reason we point people to it. A truck bed without a cover, a shelf in a damp feed room, a boat locker — those are the places where a cheaper case fails quietly and this one doesn't. It's also the priciest single case here, and indoors it does nothing the TSTAK deep box can't do for less.

It's built as an L-BOXX case, which makes it an addition for someone already in that line rather than a first purchase. Buy it because the weather is the problem, not because the case is clever.

Sixty-nine pieces in five sizes sounds like more than anyone needs until you count them: thirty are extra small, fifteen are small, twelve are medium, eight are large, and four are extra large. That ratio is the product. It's built for screws, bits, washers and tack hardware, not for a wrench set.

Which is fine as long as you're buying it for a drawer. The bins interlock along their edges, so a layout stays where you put it and pulling one out doesn't disturb the rest. What it isn't is a module of any stack here — those interlocking edges join these bins to each other, not to a TSTAK or a VERSASTACK box — and with no lid it organizes a drawer rather than becoming one.

Two things to check before ordering. The interlocking lip adds width to every piece, so a tight drawer may only take a rearranged layout rather than the one you drew. And the bins don't fill a drawer's depth, which leaves a strip of dead space behind them in a deep drawer.

In a tack room drawer or under a workbench, that's a small complaint next to the alternative, which is a drawer full of loose hardware.