From the Opus of Amateur Radio Knowledge and Lore:
Well, were almost halfway there. We now come to Method Six of self-destruction: choking on small parts. This is actually more of a hazard than it was in days of yore, becausewellradios are smaller nowadays. To be honest, the only time I really came close to choking to death on a small part, other than, perhaps, some prehistoric experience during my infancy, was when a transistor (I believe) had fallen, unbeknownst, into my coffee from an overhead shelf. (See how all these safety issues can be related?) I think I actually swallowed the item in question. In any case, it was a most unpleasant, and best unrepeated, experience. Now, as unlikely as you are to undergo a similar trauma, you may (in fact, you should, if you are a ham worthy of the name) occasionally entertain young visitors in your ham shack. Young people, up to the age of around nineteen or so, have a penchant for inserting small foreign objects into their mouths and other orifices not intended for such. Be ever on the alert for this eventuality. Keep easily swallowed parts in appropriate bins until ready for use. In fact, you might even entertain the notion of labeling said bins, so as to more readily find the parts in question. This is a wonderful, innovative idea, though I have yet to encounter any ham whos actually implemented it.
i keep most of the small components (i.e. ICs, common resistors such as 1k, caps, dil sockets, etc) in a wall mounted storage unit, such as this...
mounted on the wall above my work bench. My work bench has a home made equipment rack for the scopes, power supplies etc on the left hand side. A rod extends accross the back of the bench with my cable reels on. http://www.srita.com/web03/jsclamp/parts_cabinet_main.gif
They are only handy if you take care to place your items in labeled plastic bags, and keep the bags in order. Otherwise, you just have drawers full of junk that you can't use because you can't find them.
It is all too easy to collect stuff, and extremely easy to let things get out of hand. If there is a female in your household, be warned that females occasionally like to "make a clean sweep", and unless your precious components are properly stored beforehand, this cataclysmic event will cause you a great deal of grief.
Parts bins, as shown above, work great for non-static sensitive components. However, for your IC's and other static sensitive components, use an ESD safe container which can consist of ESD bags, conductive foam, etc.