For years I've been using all manner of plastic fishing boxes and compartmented storage boxes for components but with the advent of SMDs I find they aren't really appropriate.
For example 0603 resistors, to use a full (say) 1x3" compartment in a box for a 100 resistors is way overkill when something the size of a thimble would be more than enough.
It's not really that big an issue for new components because you can just leave them in the tape, but I find I'm salvaging a lot of stuff from dead motherboards as well and I need a good way to store the bits.
Pharmacy's often sell generic mini-medicine cabinets. These are clear plastic boxes divided into rows and columns of small cells (often labeled M-F, weeks 1-4... like a medicine calendar or whatever). I've found these work nicely for small components, especially smd parts.
jezuz's comment reminded me of something I saw the other day at a pharmacy store. It was stackable pill containers. It now occurs to me that this could be an interesting way to hold SMD components.
Instead of the snap tops, which I find tend to let little SMDs spill over, these are individual containers. The stack ability will make it easier to keep them together. Also, I can imagine popping open the container I need, tweezing out the components while soldering, and then storing it back in order.\
Also if you have some on tape already, you might be able to curl them up into one of these.
Not sure if you can get something like this in your area, but check this out:
I use tiny ziplock bags (~ 1"x3") for non-ESD sensitive parts, and use my standard tackle-box style storage boxes. You can easily store 20 different types of SMT passives, hundreds or thousands of each, in a single slot in one of these boxes.
I too use ziplock bags, they are very good for it. You can even get pink static dispersive bags for semiconductors. I also have a number of engineer's sample books of resistors and capacitors. These are simple ring binders with pages that consist of slots in which to put the small bags into. Every single value of resistor then goes on the shelves like a book.
They are quite expensive to buy here is a link to one:-
Thanks guys, I think I'll have two-bob each way (for passive components) and get some ziplock bags plus some pill organisers. I happen to be near a city at present so may get into town in a few days and see what's available.
As for ESD sensitive devices, maybe a sandwich of the static foam in the tackle-type boxes I already use, enough foam to hold the chips firmly when the lid is closed.