JackOfDiamonds
Well-known member
I have a theory that the answer to my organization and storage problem involves greater use of bags vs. bins.
I have a large need for storage: bike parts, nuts and bolts, special tools, electronics small-parts, spare car and household things that you might never need again...basically lots of "infrequent but need to be able to find it when you do need it" type of stuff.
You can achieve high storage density by throwing everything in a single pile or single bin. But then you can't find anything so that's right out. It needs to be separate semantically, hose fittings with hose fittings, snap rings with snap rings etc.
My typical approach is a put things in bins. Like small rubbermaid bins, coffee cans, large yellow-lid tubs etc. The problem with bins is there is no correct bin size. I either have a bin that's 10% full, which multiplies my space by 10X, or the bin is full and I can't fit anything else in, if I stack the bins what I need is always in the bottom bin, all the bins have different incompatible lids because Big Storage Bin hasn't got together and come up with any standard storage bins; basically there are a lot of problems with using bins. But the bins are mostly transparent and serve the purpose of separating things and making them findable, they just aren't space-efficient.
I was recently organizing radial-lead resistors and I realized it was a microscopic version of my garage. Resistors have to be separated so you can find them...they are easy to mix up. But if I put resistors in a compartmentalized trays, a full set of resistors will take up a huge amount of space, because you might need 1 entire pocket of a Plano organizer to fit 1 single resistor. This could be multiple cubic feet of space just to store a hundred resistors. So I never do that; resistors go in little ziplock bags. The bags take up zero extra space, they can expand to fit the number of resistors, you an right directly on the bag and see through it, and a whole set of resistors can fit in your hand while being perfectly organized.
I think I need to be organizing other things in hanging bags. Like hanging file-folders, but durable bags. Then you could have organization, nearly perfect granularization because the bags expand so you can have a bag with 1 bicycle derailleur and it only takes up about 1 bicycle derailleur of space instead of an entire mostly-empty bin. Should be transparent and easy to browse through to find things. A bigger version of my resistor storage.
The technology gap seems to be in sourcing actual bags. There are ziplock freezer bags available up to 1 gallon. But they aren't terribly strong, you can't hang them, and aren't even terribly cheap in the larger sizes. Another option might be re-usable shopping bags...the canvas ones are dirt cheap, but they don't hang very well, and don't have a closure. I'm thinking there must be a source of medium size, durable, closeable bags that have grommets for hanging...but I haven't found them yet.
I saw something about Mythbuster's warehouse for special effects, a similar storage need of random things that you have to be able to find. And I think they use a combination of bins and bags: a large wall of bins, generically numbered, and then things inside the bins being organized into bags. In this situation, I could still use rubbermaid tubs, but the tubs could always be full of bags, and not waste space of partly-empty tubs.
So yeah. I need some transparent, closeable, hangable storage bags.
I have a large need for storage: bike parts, nuts and bolts, special tools, electronics small-parts, spare car and household things that you might never need again...basically lots of "infrequent but need to be able to find it when you do need it" type of stuff.
You can achieve high storage density by throwing everything in a single pile or single bin. But then you can't find anything so that's right out. It needs to be separate semantically, hose fittings with hose fittings, snap rings with snap rings etc.
My typical approach is a put things in bins. Like small rubbermaid bins, coffee cans, large yellow-lid tubs etc. The problem with bins is there is no correct bin size. I either have a bin that's 10% full, which multiplies my space by 10X, or the bin is full and I can't fit anything else in, if I stack the bins what I need is always in the bottom bin, all the bins have different incompatible lids because Big Storage Bin hasn't got together and come up with any standard storage bins; basically there are a lot of problems with using bins. But the bins are mostly transparent and serve the purpose of separating things and making them findable, they just aren't space-efficient.
I was recently organizing radial-lead resistors and I realized it was a microscopic version of my garage. Resistors have to be separated so you can find them...they are easy to mix up. But if I put resistors in a compartmentalized trays, a full set of resistors will take up a huge amount of space, because you might need 1 entire pocket of a Plano organizer to fit 1 single resistor. This could be multiple cubic feet of space just to store a hundred resistors. So I never do that; resistors go in little ziplock bags. The bags take up zero extra space, they can expand to fit the number of resistors, you an right directly on the bag and see through it, and a whole set of resistors can fit in your hand while being perfectly organized.
I think I need to be organizing other things in hanging bags. Like hanging file-folders, but durable bags. Then you could have organization, nearly perfect granularization because the bags expand so you can have a bag with 1 bicycle derailleur and it only takes up about 1 bicycle derailleur of space instead of an entire mostly-empty bin. Should be transparent and easy to browse through to find things. A bigger version of my resistor storage.
The technology gap seems to be in sourcing actual bags. There are ziplock freezer bags available up to 1 gallon. But they aren't terribly strong, you can't hang them, and aren't even terribly cheap in the larger sizes. Another option might be re-usable shopping bags...the canvas ones are dirt cheap, but they don't hang very well, and don't have a closure. I'm thinking there must be a source of medium size, durable, closeable bags that have grommets for hanging...but I haven't found them yet.
I saw something about Mythbuster's warehouse for special effects, a similar storage need of random things that you have to be able to find. And I think they use a combination of bins and bags: a large wall of bins, generically numbered, and then things inside the bins being organized into bags. In this situation, I could still use rubbermaid tubs, but the tubs could always be full of bags, and not waste space of partly-empty tubs.
So yeah. I need some transparent, closeable, hangable storage bags.
