An organizer for holding surgical instruments includes a tray that has instrument wells extending from the top surface of the tray. The instrument wells may be open to allow high-pressure steam to reach the instruments in the wells. The organizer has two sections. The first section contains sterile instruments to be used during surgery, and the second section contains empty instrument wells, each of which has a shape and depth corresponding to the shape and depth of an instrument well in the first section. After instruments are removed from the first section and used during surgery, they are returned to the corresponding instrument well in the second section. After surgery, an instrument is missing unless all the instrument wells in the second section are full. Structure may be associated with the instrument wells to indicate that an instrument well is not full.
