I am almost finished organizing my van. I have kept it clean and in order for several weeks now, and I think I can do so indefinitely thanks to some new, easy systems and Adderall.
I spend more time in my van than almost anywhere else due to my job. Therefore, keeping clean and organized not only makes me more effective and efficient, it makes me feel better to ride in a van, rather than a rat's nest.
Here is the "before" shot of the passenger side, which has been the normal state of my van for the last 4.5 years that I have held this job:
I added a trash can with a bag that I empty often--it is easy to do and makes the van so much better to look at. The trash can alone is a tremendous difference-maker. However, I am also making sure to empty my van of boxes and parts that I do not need to keep in there on a daily basis if possible. One thing I never do anymore is to throw something in just to get it out of my hand and out of my mind. I think about what it is and place it in a logical place to be dealt with one more time when I get back to my office.
This is how my van has looked for almost a month:
Where the trash can is now, last month there was a basket in its place. This is a Dodge Caravan, and Dodge includes this webbing to place between the seats as a basket to hold items in place. I would fill it with parts, tools, papers, pens, gum, cd's, books, and anything else that I no longer wanted to hold in my hand. I think Jimmy Hoffa was at the bottom of the pile. The "catch-all" is not a good idea in my van, and it is gone.
As I said, I have had this job for 4.5 years. The box below has been in my van the entire time; I inherited it from the last engineer. It has always looked like this:
When I put the lid on it, it is not so bad to look at, stacked with several other containers. However, if I need a part that would be kept in this box, I have a lot of digging to do. Oftentimes, it takes two or three passes to find a tiny and rarely used part in this box. It never occurred to me to organize this box any differently. Before Adderall, my brain was probably incapable of viewing this situation differently. However, yesterday I had the bright idea of making it look like this:
You may say, "Duh." I say, "Wow." It was an "Ah-ha!" moment for me, and I am really excited to try it out in the field.
This new system will keep the parts from being damaged in storage, it will look better, make it easier to find what I need, and help me keep a more accurate inventory.
I had no idea that containers and labels could make me feel better than drugs, sex, or cheesecake.
2 comments:
On second thought, I may hove gone a little too far to say that containers and labels make me feel better than cheesecake. It is probably a tie on that one.
;)
I'm impressed. I like to scrapbook and I have many tiny pieces I use in this hobby. I am constantly organizing and reorganizing--simply to remind me what supplies I have, but sometimes it seems that I spend more time organizing than I do scrapbooking. I too have used little containers like you show here.
I have noticed my husband organizing and reorganizing his workshop in a similar way. He uses beer flats!
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