So I’ve started a new hobby, making labels to organize things.
It’s a tedious hobby…
Oh god, is it tedious…
I do this to myself…
Too Many Things!
So I’ve been making various RepRaps and robots and buying the parts and tools for them. I recently inventoried all my items, and I’ve come to a few conclusions:
- I’m rich in hoarded Allen wrenches. If a Fallout-esq apocalypse happens, I hope the actual currency is Allen wrenches and not bottlecaps, because then Imma make it rain!
- The world has too many screw types. Between metric and standard, and all the diamters, lengths, purposes, materials, finishing, caps – there’s just too many types. And people never use the same ones as everyone else when sharing their plans. All screws should just be hollow grub hex screws that are sold as long bars (like a meter long) of a few select diameters. And you have to slice off off whatever length you want as you need them.
- I have way too many tackle boxes. Like, an overwhelming amount.
It seems like nothing I want (especially the metric stuff) is at the hardware store, so I buy them online; usually on Amazon. And I figure as long as I’m waiting for shipping, I might as well buy various things as assortments. And when I buy assortments, they arrive in tackle boxes. But as the number of various tackle boxes has accumulated, it’s gotten hard to manage them and their various contents.
A System of Bags and Stickers
So I’ve ditched the tackle boxes, and have switched to zipper bags with stickers on them. Don’t get me started on these cheapo tackle boxes:
- Parts always seem to jump over or under the dividers and get mixed around.
- I’m clumsy, and I pay a heavy price when I drop a tackle box and everything spills out.
- It feels weird when I “overuse” one of the items and have an empty compartment.
- Compartments can only hold so many parts. So when I get refills, only so many can go back in the tackle box. So where do I put the rest?
So I set fire to them all (not really, just dumped them in the recycle bin), and I’ve started converting things to bags that have sticker labels on them.
[wleu 06/05/2022, while disposing of even more tackle boxes, I noticed these boxes don’t have resin codes. I don’t even know if they’re recyclable…]
Anyways, it’s all drawer systems and ziplock bags now. I’ve been making icons of things and printing them out to label paper to make navigating them easier. I’ve created a blog category where I’m going to start talking about it – because I’m weird, and this is my idea of what passes for interesting.
