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How Do You Organize Your Gear?
truffle writes "Like many geeks, I have acquired a large amount of items and gear over time, including miscellaneous hardware, cables, and such. I have books, papers, Lego, and more. I generally store most things in roughly sorted cardboard boxes, which is neither efficient nor attractive. For the non-messy geeks out there, how do you organize and store your geek stuff? Is it possible to have a clean organized grown-up home, without throwing everything away?"
I personally prefer separation of the different internal computer parts and cables into tupperware type containers. I also have a much smaller one just for all the different types of screws that can be used in a system. The tupperware gives it a very organized look, and still allows me to just throw the stuff in there in typical geek fashion -- a bonus for me.
dmiessler.com -- grep understanding knowledge
I have a cheap ass wardrobe from Ikea that works great. the top shelve is for hdds, keyboards and other weird shit, while I use the coat hanger rod for cables and other wiring. the bottom shelf works great for extra cases and small parts in shoe boxes.
this was actually given to me and has solved so many problems since I got it. it's cheap, but it's been a great solution.
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
I go to the container store and buy 20 gallon plastic tubs that have the lid. I put all my stuff in there. I give it a year and if I don't dig into it I donate it.
Turns out a charity in my area had several old machines donated to them from another charity and they could use the 4 speed CD burners and old memory I had.
So store your stuff, give it a reasonable amount of time and if you don't use it, donate it. Get some good karma generated in the process.
O wait... for any techie, that would be the entire house.
Rubbermaid makes stackable tubs and various other things for organization. Once you have that in order, look to store VERTICALLY (ie - build shelves) not horizontally.
If you want great ideas, tune into TLC channel and watch a show called "Clean Sweep" were extremely cluttered people learn how to organize and redesign rooms to bring their life back in order.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
For some strange reason my piles of crap and boxes of who-knows-what got organized real quick soon after.
Added benefit of this organization technique is that it comes with a free "relationship" thrown in. Did I say "free"? Whoops.
John.
BE very careful of static with plastic tupperware. YOu could very easily fry your gear.
I use two things heavily:
Sterilite storage bins, and WireTech wire shelving.
For the storage bins, I make heavy use of the clear storage drawers and bins. See this page for all storage options. Quite a few places sell Sterilite.
The other huge thing is WireTech shelving. It's very heavy-duty coated steel wire shelving in chrome, white, or black, that looks great and is very strong - each shelf can support 300 pounds. It can also be organized in nearly an unlimited number of ways. Take a look at Sensible Storage's site, click "Products", and then see Shelving Kits, Custom Shelving, and Accessories. I strongly recommend checking it out. WireTech is the only type that I have found that is like this. They work great for everything from equipment rack type setups, entertainment center towers, making really complex shelving setups, or just plain old storage.
There are a bunch of different places that sell WireTech, but there is one, and as far I can tell only one, place that sells everything online: Great Ace WireTech shelving. It's actually an Ace hardware store in Chicago, but I've ordered various WireTech things from them a couple times before and I've been happy with the results.
You'd be surprised how much the right tools help with the job, even for things like storage. Good luck.
Throw it all away. The 'it might come in handy one day' never happens, until you throw it that is. And if you do need it, you can go buy a new one, helping the economy and giving yourself a 'retail boost' in one foul swoop.
- You have regular sex (vasectomy is suggested in these cases - no, it doesn't hurt you wussies)
- your wife will make sure all of your 'junk' (yes, we all know it is) is in the basement or the attic - where it's definitely out of sight.
- You get kids (yes, they are fun)
- You get a housekeeper (ok, help with houskeeping)
- You get a friend for life
Of course, some of the key points are based on finding the right man/woman - which I guess means cleaning your place up."I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
I took the bold and unpopular move of getting rid of everything I didn't really need. It was rough and I wouldn't really have done it if I wasn't moving to a much smaller place but the fact of the matter is that most of the stuff you have around "just in case" is never actually going to be useful. 2 gig SCSI drive when I haven't owned a computer with a SCSI card for 2 years? Gone. Boxes for gear costing under $20? Gone. Quick reference card for my router? Didn't need it when I set it up 3 years ago, don't need it now. Receipt and warrantee info for something that's been out of warrantee for 2 years? Into the shredder.
I highly recommend a paper shredder BTW, less because I'm worried about the security of my trash and more for processing mail I don't need so that you don't end up with those piles of envelopes that are 99% credit card apps and that one bill you actually need.
The hardest part for me was getting rid of books, I've never done that in my life. When going through them though I found a suprising number that not only had I only read once, I didn't even really like them. Got a few books I really wanted instead of 50 I hated from my local used bookstore.
For things that I actually do need to store I use white plastic crates with hinged lids. They stack well, keep dust out and you can label them with a dry-erase marker.
My mother does all my organizing for me, you insensitive clod!
Make containers out of your Lego to store everything else in.
You sly dog: you got me monologuing! - Syndrome
I recently attached RFID tags to everything I own. I took a digital photograph, and entered each item into an object oriented database.
Now, I look up my stuff in the database, download the RFID ID into the reader, and wander aimlessly around the house until my RFID reader starts beeping.
No really, I am not kidding, I swear...
--- Generation X: The first generation to have SIG lines inferior to their parents... ---
Ever wonder why you have all that crap?
It's all out there. Lego, books, etc. Old computers and everything. Fuck your private museum, and the clutter that goes along with it.
I took all my out of date - but still valuable - books to the Library. They were grateful, and who knows how many future geeks will benefit from my old Linux and Cisco admin books?!
All those Apple ]['s, Macs and C 64's ain't worth a hill o' beans. Lose 'em. There's a reason why you are the only one who picked them up - they're useless. NEAT-O, but utterly useless.
Make room within your apartment, and YOURSELF for better, more valuable information and maybe - just MAYBE, you'll set yourself free from whatever it is that's been keeping you from getting a date.
It's a vicious cycle: No date, stay home and eat pizza and fiddle with VIC-20. Get fatter, so chance of date decreases, self-image goes down, fewer dates (fewer reasons to go out of the house period), more pizza, more VIC-20s, fewer dates, more pizza, more Amigas, and so on.
WHY?! Because you're a geek? Get a damned GEEK PRIDE tattoo! Hell, get the Apple I schematic tattooed as a swingin' back-piece! A portrait of a PPC Amiga 4000! A friggin' Data General if it makes you happy.
Just. Let. It. Go!
"Am I really the only one who thinks that "Rubbermaid" sound a little... well... you know?"
No, you are not.
Best part of it is, I work st Home Depot now, and the "Rubbermaid Girls" (our product vendors) have this thing for wearing vinyl.
I think they know what we think, and are certainly using it to thier advantage.
No, I'm not kidding.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order- Ed Howdershelt Via Tass