Getting Organized.

[Ridge Rider]

I'm very organized.

All my model building stuff is kept very strictly in only one big mess.

This seems to be part of my problem. Having lack of space and getting creative is just half the battle. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but when I acquire spare parts and builts I want to put those parts and pieces as a group so if I ever try to rebuild or reconstruct I have an Idea of what goes where and whats its from. This creates a sub category of individual parts that i want to keep separate from the general parts stash that seems to keep growing. I'm not complaining, it's like saying I have to much money from different sources. Other than making a big spread sheet and trying to keep kits and collections together it is a big task to stay organized. I use drawers and model boxes at this time but would like to be more organized, it just takes away time from a 27 hr day that only has 24, at least that's how it feels.

[Tom Geiger]

Okay... lots of pictures, I'm doing this once, take notes!

Here's my cockpit.. the shelves above the bench are important to me. I currently have three lights clamped to the lowest wide shelf. Most of the boxes are my unfinished projects. It's important to me that I keep them visible so I don't forget about them. On the wall end of the shelves you can see two of those 50 drawer units, all small drawers. They're all marked with categories of parts. Need seat belts? Need an antenna? There's a drawer! There are two narrow shelves at the bottom, the lowest one has a lot of paints, glues and supplies. The one above that has a lot of staged bodies.

Some of the boxes are parts categories. Note "custom body parts", "headers" and seats.. both a full shoe box of bench seats and buckets. My strategy is to keep a combined box, and separate it down further when it over flows. There once was a box of "Seats". And this being an old photo.. "Tires" has graduated to a large tub. Inside that tub are tons of loose single tires, as well as sets held together with tied twine, and sets in small plastic bags, some complete with wheels and wheel backs, ready to use!

And all those blue boxes come free! My wife is a Swiffer fiend so I have a regular supply of these boxes. They come in two depths, the deep that you see here and a more shallow box. The deep one is perfect for keeping a project together. The narrow one is more a parts box. Best part is that they have a clear lid, so you don't have to open every box to see what's in it.

Tubs.. the $3 kind from both Walmart and when Giant Supermarket had them on sale. I just pushed my cart to the shelf and bought all they had. I probably have two dozen of these at this point, and old photo.. all those new ones are now filled. They stack nice, so I often have two or three of them stacked next to the workbench as a reference table.

Contents can range from "Tires", to junkyard categories of "1930s Fords", "VWs", "Dodge Vans", "Valiant", "Falcon" and many others. There are also boxes for specific kits I use a lot like "1955-57 Chevy Pickups", "1950 Ford Pickup", 1953 Ford Pickup" and "1957 Chevy". Some of those have new parts kits. When I discovered I had over a dozen of the pickup kits, I just took the unsealed ones and dumped them into the tubs for parts and projects.

My model tool box. This is a seriously cheap tool box that my father had that is way too flimsy for garage tools, but perfect for my use in the model room. It rolls so I pull it up to the bench when needed. Lower cabinet has air brushes and Dremel tools etc.

This little 4 drawer unit was at Walmart for about $8. I use it for my sandpaper squares and the bottom one has Q TIps and sanding tapes.

I buy the 3M sandpaper sheet packs. I own a cutting board so I slice those down to 1"x1" squares for use. I made a cardboard divider for each drawer. It works well, sandpaper always a reach away. I used to have them all in envelopes in a drawer and always had to hunt for the right grit.

[1930fordpickup]

Nice setup Tom .

[Ramfins59]

Very nice Tom. My wife is also into those Swiffers, although she only buys them...... I'm the one who winds up actually using them. I'll have to start saving those empty containers.