Wednesday March 29th 2017
At the Artisan’s Asylum: 10 Tyler Street Somerville Massachusetts When space is at a premium, stuff needs to get organized, or stress will ensue. Join Skunk in exploring the joys and habits of organized living.
free for members and Friends of Artisan’s and a $10 suggested donation from the public
Thrilling Topics Include:
- Organizing as a Way, not an Event
- A flowchart for dealing with stuff
- The smarter closet system
- Choosing the right storage systems to suit your needs
- A full box is a useless box
- The stupidly-simple way of organizing files
- How to de-cruft without the heartbreak
- Riding the incoming tidal waves of crufty objects that don’t fit anywhere
Disclaimers from the Speaker
- Most of this takes time.
- Money helps but it’s not necessary.
- I’m not done organizing.
- My way is not necessarily your way.
‘Claimers’ from the Speaker
- This talk will help you rethink the way you deal with the objects around you.
- You WILL be more organized.
I’m so enthusiastic about this subject! Why?…
In the early days of SCUL we had some serious organizational challenges.
- Piles of oddly shaped bicycles of the working and not-working variety
- Tools everywhere and lost
- Nothing ever went away, collection piles had no filtering
However over the years I’ve been practicing the ways of the organized and have made some progress.
- I’m extremely organized, especially for a junk metal sculptor
- Heavy things can’t be high up, so the top half of the space found use as a shoulder-height gallery
Behind the Curtain
- Steel shelves designed and CNC cut for the space particularly the depth
- Heavier and larger containers on the bottom
- In box, trash & recycling integrated into the system, not separate.
Organizing as a Way, not an Event
- Space is more important than stuff.
- You pay for space to store things, even if you didn’t pay anything for the object.
- Practice critical thinking of use of space.
- Flat spaces collect objects out of place, be wary.
- Integrate your reorganization into your processes.
Flowchart
- A place for everything, and everything in it’s place. This includes incoming.
- Go with the flow.
- A small to-be-sorted box is okay to have, but only if it’s small and regularly emptied.
Storage Systems
- Consistent, box-shaped objects in a range of sizes is key.
- As an evolution, the process of meta organizing never ends
- Skunkadelia started with cardboard. House of straw. Then evolved to…
Coffee Cans
- Free. Round. Almost as sturdy as I needed.
- Have fun with labels, but remember your context and be direct.
- Organized Two-deep on the shelves.
- Not efficient, since round wastes space and retrieving and storing things took more effort.
Metal Cabinets
- Money helps, but there are other ways. This cabinet this was free, but it takes time for free things to present themselves to you.
- Got a tip from friends about this shelf being on the curb. Let your community you’re looking for things like this.
- Almost no wasted space in the frame between the shelves.
- Barely strong enough as a result, be careful not to exceed the limitations of the storage container.
Small Bins
- Akro-Mils knows about organization!
- Pull drawers with peel off labels – don’t write directly on the drawer.
Med bins
- If a smaller bin overflows you need to think about upgrade vs. de-cruft the overflow.
Ammo box
- Remove gaskets unless you are protecting against vermin
- Very tough!
4 gallon square pail
- Some folks find these for free, I bought mine new. I don’t use the lids unless I need to stack.
- Stacking should be avoided, this limits access and therefore creates a barrier for your organizing. It doesn’t take much of a barrier to keep things from being easily organized.
- These are pretty tough!
Akro-Mils ALC
- A burning man staple
- Tough!
- I use three different heights, but the 16″ tall ones work best for me.
Larger than that
- These are the most challenging objects. Consider de-crufting whenever possible.
- Tetris the unruly
- The Secret Room
- Tall Stuff
De-crufting without the Heartache
- Think carefully before you adopt objects into your life, you could save space and money renting the space.
- Is it project material, or hopeful project material?
- The joy of re-purposing.
A Full Box is a Useless Box
- Instead of picking your container based on how much of something you have, consider how much space you want to dedicate to storing this type of object you have, and make sure you don’t have more than what fits in that container.
- De-crufting by skimming: If you have too much of something, keep the best ones and find another owner for the rest.
- If the container is too full, you may want to sort into more specific types. In the case of bolts, I sorted this drawer into >bolts and <bolts.
Extra boxes
- Prepared to deal with new categories
The Vault
- Home version of the game
- This wound up getting reorganized into heavy-duty plastic bags inside ALC crates, which saved a ton of space, at a slight accessibility cost. Well worth it – everything in these metal cabinets fit into four ALCs!
Knick-knack Shelves
- Full room nothing on the floor
- Fun stuff! But dusting was a serious problem, and my allergies won out over this. All these nick-knacks fit into just one ALC!
The smarter closet system
- A backwards hangar means it’s been worn but not washed yet.
- Dresser, hamper, and hangars in proximity.
- Re-hang worn and laundered clothes on one side of the closet, consider de-crufting the other side from time to time.
- Works well with the seasons.
Floaters and Satellites
- There are some items that are used so often that they have no home
- I call these objects ‘satellites’. These are things like keys, wallet, phone, etc.
- it’s great to give them a place to be – things get lost a lot less often!
Curtains
- Great for organized, yet unsightly things
- Lace works for windows if you have a cluttered view out your window but you still want sunlight.
Unsightly organization
- Work space and tool board
- Losing this front
Basement frontier
- Tides that move around
- The pails are used for sculpture podiums when lidded and stacked with a plywood table top bolted to the top lid, and a slipcover over the whole thing. Water can be used as ballast for the shelf if needed.
Stacks
- Make sure you and your containers can take it.
- Much harder to get to things (and more importantly putting things away) than shelves.
Efficient Shelving
- Look out for wasted space in the back or above the containers.
Games Shelf
- Trying vertical to make things accessible.
The stupidly-simple way of organizing files
- Location based files
- No categories: what is it’s name, in it’s very essence?
- Handwritten in pencil
- Beware of Alphabetization Rules which differ: does “A thing” come before “Amazing” in your mind?
- Flags vs. easy access
- THINK or ACT or WAIT? You may want to organize files into these three overarching categories.
Journal
- Half-letter sized three ring binders are my standard
- Can edit insert and delete very easily
- To Go Box
- Grab on the way
Surprise Inspection – SCUL tour
- Having all of SCUL in half a basement full of people is like working on a submarine
Tool Board
- No nails, use screws
- Pegboard is no good – too vague
- Make it easy for tools to find way home by tracing an outline
- When loaning tools, point at the tool, don’t hand it to them. This way they well remember where to put it back when they are done.
- Bike stands should be opposite to the tool board in order to facilitate the ease of putting tools away as you work. Make it easier to put the tool back than to put it down and you’ll save yourself a lot of cleanup time, not to mention you will always know where the tool is – if it’s not in hand it’s put away.
- In between the two boards are non-flammable fluid storage – efficient!
- Store things where you tend to finish using them.
- Cartoons behind the outlines makes it extra fun.
Hangar
- Once hooks on joists , similar to the basement of Broadway Bicycle School
- Spacing and directions for each ship
- Used to face against a wall, this rack creates a wall.
Tires
- Out of the way
- We don’t need all these tires
- Color coded and sorted with key
Outer Inner tube storage
- Excellent use of space
- Bins are too small, creating overflow inventory.
- Kan-ban card vs. ‘secret stash’.
Under the bench
- Old bins were horrible, things would fall of the bench and get lost in them since they stuck out and had an open top.
- No wasted space at all.
- Don’t bother labeling anything ‘misc.’ No label at all is ‘misc’
other important things not listed
- project shelf system
- cleaning tools in plain sight by coat rack means that people are reminded to clean up after themselves on the way out.
Last Minute pointers
- Be efficient with your movement as you organize, think of yourself like a Jedi doing Tai Chi.
- I sometimes make a game of it when putting away stuff. When I put something away, I look for the object out of place closest to me and put that away. Eventually you run out of things and the work is done – if you have created a place for everything.
- When you need a break from thinking or being creative, sort your cruft.
Most importantly, enjoy organizing and being organized!
Being organized has great benefits. Enjoy the way of the organized, it is the only way to become organized!
About the Speaker
When someone imagines the life of a junk metal sculptor, they often picture huge unorganized heaps of steel bits all tangled together. Let me assure you that’s not an environment that fosters creativity! It has been a long and thoughtful journey from not knowing what I have to knowing where everything is. I’m extremely excited to share my thoughts and experiences with those who yearn to break free of the clutter and chaos of objects out of place.
The Artisan’s Asylum Speaker Series seeks to engage our community and inspire us to make the world we want to see. All events are free for members and Friends of Artisan’s and a $10 suggested donation from the public.