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A year and a half ago, automotive technician Tiffany Morgan received what is arguably the best Christmas gift a technician could receive—a new toolbox filled with tools. Working at the same Midas shop in Troy, Michigan, Morgan’s father decided to retire and pass down his toolbox and everything in it to his daughter.
The setup consists of all Matco Tools products including a triple-bay toolbox, a single-bay toolbox, and two lockers, one on each side. Morgan had to add the second locker only a few months ago because she had already run out of space in the now 14’ long setup. She notes that this is one of Matco’s deepest toolboxes at around 30-31” deep. Morgan’s favorite part of the setup is her new side locker. She made sure the locker included a power drawer, so then she wouldn’t have to keep all her power tools on top of her toolbox anymore.
To keep her box ready for work each day, Morgan likes to keep her tools organized in a logical fashion—similar-sized sockets grouped together in a drawer, SAE wrenches on one side and metric on the other, similar tools like prybars all clustered together, and so on.
Organization isn’t a problem for Morgan, but she does note, “I just need more drawers.” All the drawers in her setup are currently filled with tools and equipment, except for one drawer in her smaller side locker that’s filled with nuts and bolts.
Funnily enough, Morgan’s favorite tool isn’t stored in her toolbox setup. Her TraXion Topside Creeper lives behind the setup and comes in handy whenever she needs a bit of a boost. At a height of 5’2”, Morgan notes that “I kind of need [it] to get level to get up and do everything.”
Together from the start
Aside from her father’s toolbox, Morgan also inherited his passion for working on cars.
“I started working on cars with my dad when I was two years old, and it just kind of stuck.”
Morgan’s now been working in this industry for almost ten years, and after that much time—and growing out of her fair share of toolboxes—she’s picked up a thing or two on what to consider when purchasing a toolbox.
“You just [have to] see what all tools you and how [they’re] going to fit,” she advises. “If you have to go bigger or smaller, it all depends on what you do every day.”
Future modifications
Looking ahead, Morgan has a few modifications she’d like to make to the setup, starting with green handles/trim. Currently, only her side lockers and the single-bay toolbox are sporting the lime green accents, but now that their shop has a Matco Tool distributor visiting them again, she’d like to update the triple-bay toolbox as well to make everything match.
Additionally, she’s been thinking about adding a hutch and a mini fridge to her setup. However, she’s still debating the hutch, as installing that would take away her workspace.
