DIY - Organising Tools & Building Materials at home ADVANCED

These build on the more basic tips:

https://optimise-performance.blogspot.com/2019/10/diy-organising-building-materials-at_19.html

 

There are more tips that are applicable to you if you have a few basic skills:
(e.g. using a knife, etc ...)

1. You can cut up old clothes as decent cloths & rags - take the 'sheet' bits out e.g. cut away pockets, hems, collars etc ... 
2. There is usually plenty of cardboard packaging at hardware stores, etc ... - unlikely you have to hoard flat cardboard - drop off un-needed cardboard at a cardboard recycling place - exchange the sizes you don't need for the sizes you do need! 
3. A very handy skill to being able to fold and assemble cardboard boxes as you need them and can really help you tidy the place up as you then have the choice of what to fold, what to assemble, what to throw away ..., you need:
• A straight - edge
• How to use a knife
• Use tension in the tape when you cut it to stop it curling up 
4. There is not much point keeping blunt scissors, knives etc ... outside they may be able to be used in the house to cut paper ~ but as a general rule they are not going to be useful to cut anything outside (with such large surface areas)! 
5. Use a fold-able ladder or step ladder to utilise higher space - store only light items and when you go up remember to lock your ladder properly! 
6. When you buy plastic storage containers etc ... think in 3 dimensions including height - try and get containers etc ... which are stackable and also use drawers. It's amazing how these simple mechanical devices come into play to help you save a bit of space! 
7. Remember you can also use a measuring tape when you are buying large items (such as storage containers, cutting boards etc ...) to get an exact fit and utilise all of your space. 
8. Use sufficient WD40 on moving joints that are not used often to prevent them getting brittle and snapping.
9. Try not to store excessive amounts of fuel as it will expire and require additives to be usable after sitting for a few years. 
• Keep in mind metal fuel containers will rust (from the outside after 10 years) and plastic fuel containers may warp in the heat and cold
10. Don't forget about ceiling hooks as a stylish way of finding 'hidden' space by hanging from the ceiling
11. If paint is sitting in multiple small buckets, consolidate by pouring into a few bigger buckets - use improvised drop sheets out of old magazines, newspaper etc ... 

And as before you create even more space by doing a (final) clean up.

Understanding what you Organise

• The more you pick up, learn off the Internet etc ... the more you know what can be used, re-used and what needs to be thrown away! 

DIY - Organising Tools & Building Materials at home - BEGINNER

A few tips (this is for cleaning up building materials that are sitting around your house):

• Rusted inventory is not good - screws, nails, drill bits etc ... on building sites screws that have gone in once and are taken out are thrown -by the time laborers are around anyway!
  

• Keep long, large, thick bits of ply, fibro, wood - throw out small, thin bits 

• Old cloths that are oily, torn too dusty etc ... can be thrown out and replaced with proper cloths later
  

• Keep straight edges and flat surfaces - throw out warped edges and uneven surfaces 

• Non-painted and non-treated wood can be used for firewood

• Expired paint might be able to be used especially if it colour matches with existing walls - really shake it, strain it, watch for lumps, use thinner etc ..

• Bricks and tiles which have bits of set concrete on them should be thrown as it is so difficult to get rid of set concrete vs. grabbing leftover bricks and tiles from another building site
• Use a hammer to smash them so they don't wind up making holes in your bin

• Store heavier items such as paint and fuel towards the bottom to save your shelves from warping

• You can store garden items on grass (in suitable outdoor containers) rather than keeping them in limited under cover area or worse still inside the house 

• Non - working appliances may be revived with minor repairs by a Test & Tag place but they can only repair a broken or frayed chord -  nothing with the actual appliance itself!

• Electrical appliances, extension chord, power boards etc ... if they are to survive outside the house need to be ruggerised -they are then tested and tagged - if they have become damaged not much point holding onto them! 
  

• Be wary of storing 'double' packaging e.g. paint cans which are undercover generally do not need to be also stored in a box

 

 

Cleaning up creates space;

1. Get rid of excess leaves, mulch, soil etc ... and having them use up precious covered storage space
2. After having cleaned up as above do sweep out of all dust, stones, remove cobwebs with a broom, etc ... 
3. Due to the large amounts of space building materials take up the volumes that get thrown out make household waste look insignificant ... you can save a bit of $$$ on household trips to the tip if you throw out some of your (dry) household waste when you start doing a building project!

DIY - Organising Tools & Building Materials - before you begin ...

 

Organisation by Functionality

 
Definitely worthwhile to keep building materials separate from other types of items:

• Not good to let children's toys, fishing gear, camping gear, furniture etc ... get mixed in with them ...
• Stationary mixed in with tools is not a good idea - biros are poor at marking surfaces - builders use carpentry pencils, crayons, markers
•  On that point aim to keep functionally related building materials together e.g. gas bottles, sprinkler parts, gardening materials etc ... can assist in assessing your inventory and what you may do with it etc ... unfortunately management accounting doesn't spell out everything down to a tee in terms of classifying fixed assets!  
• Where Management Accounting finishes you can then look to the domain for Classifications and Taxonomies

Invest a small amount of $$

Being prepared to pay a bit of $$$ is always helpful as it gives you the freedom to purchase from ever decreasing prices and improving quality ~ rather than having to persist with old items which are damaged, no longer in good condition etc ...
 

---

Bear in mind construction sites use up significant amounts of electricity, water, land area etc ...
This does pale in comparison to the $$$ involved in Property!

 

It is usually the time items hang around for, not so much the absolute space

For most people - whilst a lot of building materials don't take up too much space they have can hang around for very long periods of time >10 years 

Hence this is where an unnecessary cost creeps in.

The String Line and Augmented Reality

Replacing the bricklayer's line or the string line with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_line_level

Way to go! 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality in action!

No more bumping the string line when you want to carry stuff over or worse it been hit before you do a concrete pour!

And your labourers are not going to be all equipped with HoloLens!