I did a little reorganizing

[Curlycherry]

I had a false wall that was taking up space in my basement. So last weekend I cleared out the space, knocked down the wall, patched the ends, put in new lights and added pallet racking to hold all my construction and general storage "stuff" (clutter as my wife calls it) into one better space. The result:




Each box contains something for a project or a class of items for storage. For example I have a box for drywall tools, one for blue tape, one for 5" sandpaper rounds, one for PVC pipe parts and the list goes on and on. The idea being that if I am looking for blue masking tape I have a box with every size available from 6" wide down to 3/4" wide. I can take a box of say drywall tools to a job location and have everything I need for that part of the project. No looking for the dust collector attachment for the shop vac for drywall or the screens for it or the trowels because they are all on one box.




The boxes are all rigid, dividable and the lids lap over the top. So if there is a flood (which I have seen in plenty of other houses) everything inside the boxes will stay dry. The boxes are stackable and I used to keep them piled one on top of each other from floor to ceiling. But every time I wanted something it was *always* in the box that was at the bottom of some stack. Always! So now I should not have to dig quite as far to get the box I need.

Here is an example of how for like copper sweating supplies, I have everything I need in one box (except the torch). I have all sizes of fittings and couplings and a few brass parts for those weird connections that might be needed. I can take this box to just about any job and have what I need to get it done about 90% of the time. The dividers are not ideal in that they do lift off the bottom of the box at times and the parts do get a bit mixed up, but they are easy to sort out. Some day when I get the dividers the way I want I'll hot glue tack them so they stay in place better but are still removable.



Down at the end I have my drawer slide collection and my wife took some space for our holiday decorations. I have a gigantic pantry project coming up on the horizon so I have about 100+ slides sets ready for that project, so they are taking up a lot of shelf space. I also have a few odds and ends of side mount drawer slides left over from other projects (I buy in bulk).

As always I wish I had twice as much more space to work with. Shops and storage space are never big enough.

[Wood'N'Scout]

Very impressive. And I thought I was organized. One suggestion for you. Add a way of putting the date on the bins that have perishable supplies in them. Things like PVC glue, painters tape. Even belt sanding belts get old and separate at the joint.

I speak from experience having gotten to a job site only to find my plumbers glue is a solid glob instead of a liquid.

[Curlycherry]

That has been my problem with a few things like the plumber's glue. I now just buy 2-3 small cans and usually toss the one I am using at the end of a job. Or I pick that up before I start a project. I have not had sandpaper belts long enough to have the splices go bad but then again I make my own belts so I kind of over do the splice.

My biggest problem is blue tape I get at work when the folks down the hall put cases out for "home use." The stuff is usually pilot plant runs testing something and they are good at sorting out stuff that is too sticky or not sticky enough. But backing problems are often not caught because that is often a aging problem. So I'll use a bunch of tape and the backing slivers like crazy and does not come off in one big pieces. Well, for free I guess I have no right to complain.

[jasfrank]

That's some nice pallet racking. But is that an awful narrow room or is all that on the right go way to the other wall? JK.
So tell us about how to fix those sandpaper loops. It seems plenty of them fail on my smaller belt sander.

[Curlycherry]

That room is a room to the West of the stairs that lead upstairs to the rest of the house. The stairs occupy about the 1/3 - 2/3 mark of the basement. To the East side of the stairs is my shop which is about 2/3 of the basement.

No way to repair the splices on belts once they let go. Belts are spliced by skuffing the backing to remove the set resin that is on all backings and thus expose the fibers. Then a thermo set adhesive is added and allowed to dry. Next a mylar tape is put in a heat sealing machine and the two ends of the belt are placed, adhesive side down onto the sticky side of the tape. The belt is then pressed and heated with the heat sealer at pretty high pressure. That kicks off the last of the cure of the tape to the adhesive and the adhesive to the fibers. ~24 Hours later maximum cure has been made and the belt is ready for use. Over time the adhesive simply breaks down and can no longer hold the high forces of stretch that a belt endures during running.

[jasfrank]

Thanks for the great explanation of how those belts are spliced. I guess I need to just get a new one on when they break.

[Pirate]

Very, very nice!
Can you tell us what brand the containers are, and where you bought them?
In my 2 car garage I put 18" deep pallet racks along 1 wall. Left an isle and put up a double row of 24" deep racks. Excellent storage.
My containers are a bit lacking compared to yours!

[Curlycherry]

I can't remember the name and I am pretty sure a few different companies make them. I get them from Global Industrial. I got addicted to them when I went to an auction and bought 50 (one gigantic pallet) of the light blue boxes you can see in the photos. I did not realize how expensive they were (I paid ~$30 for them and lids) and I gave about 3/4 of them away. It was when I started to buy them that I realized my mistake by giving them away. The big ones for example (12" tall) are ~$120 for 3 with lids when shipping is figured in.

They are worth their weight in gold and I have been buying them a set at a time for ~4-5 years so I have spread the cost out over that time.

[daddo]

It's always good to label everything- robbers won't be bothered with stealing stuff they can't get rid of or don't need.

Yeah- I'm just jealous.

[OldWoodChuck]

Wow what beautiful organization! Too bad those boxes are so expensive else I would be trying to follow your example.