Help me help my friends. Keep my first aid box organized!

July 25, 2008 9:00 AM

My shoebox is too small. I'm looking for a box, somewhat larger than the ubiquitous plastic shoebox, and taller, with a separate removable tray. I need to expand the number of supplies in my first aid box, but the resident FA assistant prefers a single layer of stuff in a box, rather than a multi-pocketed bag or a multi-layered box. I've seen toolboxes that are kind of what I want, but they'd get mixed up with the actual toolboxes that also get packed. The two-layer toiletries/makeup boxes I've seen are too small. I've poked around The Container Store's website, but didn't find anything useful. Any ideas?
posted by jlkr to Grab Bag (8 answers total)

My mom has a train case that she got on ebay, and it's quite large. Or maybe a Fishing Box?
posted by texas_blissful at 9:10 AM on July 25, 2008

Best answer: Sounds like a craft organizer is what you need. They sort of look like a toolbox, but are pretty distinguishable. Look at the Sidekick model from ArtBin.com (scroll down). If that's not it, I'm sure if you nose around that site, you'll find exactly what you're looking for.
posted by muddgirl at 9:12 AM on July 25, 2008

Target has an excellent range of craft organizers in lots of sizes, with removable trays and compartments for the small stuff.
posted by Susurration at 9:33 AM on July 25, 2008

I think toolbox was correct.

If the problem is just visual mix-up, seek out an odd color (I have seen electric blue and bright green toolboxes) and/or decorate it with some stickers or fluorescent tape to make it clearly a first-aid box, rather than tools.
posted by rokusan at 11:22 AM on July 25, 2008

If you want the first aid toolbox to stand out, a better color choice might be red with a white ¨+¨ on it, or white with a red ¨+¨. You can paint the ¨+¨ on all sides of the box and be able to find it easily in your toolbox collection.
posted by yohko at 11:57 AM on July 25, 2008

have you looked at fishing tackle boxes? lots of small compartments for lures and hooks.
posted by gnutron at 12:34 PM on July 25, 2008

How about a sewing box?
posted by kc0dxh at 4:24 PM on July 25, 2008

Response by poster: The FA assistant and I poked around at a bunch of stores yesterday (general merchandise, craft, hardware) and decided that this (in the two-tray upscale version (to get the metal hinges)) would be pretty close to perfect. It's built rather like a tackle box, but the tray slots are much larger. Thanks!
posted by jlkr at 6:42 PM on July 27, 2008