For those starting out and experienced guys alike the process of organization can be quite overwhelming. I'm going to share my process that works for me and I hope that helps. 1. Brain dump- The idea with this is to not put much thought into it. Just start listing things that you can think of that you use or need to store, categories etc...Don't worry if the items over lap or are redundant that will get worked out later in the process. IMO this is a critical process becuase it gives people a starting point and gets th ball rolling on an otherwise daunting task. Example: Boilers, motors, combustion, refrigeration, PPE,etc... 2. Sort- This means sorting the brain dump. Just start taking the things you listed and creating sub categories within them. This is a good time to start thinking about whether you prefer to organize by category not task. I tend to develop a hybrid of this. For instance I keep refrigeration controls and combustion controls separate yet I keep all my motors together including inducer motors. It works for me so don't get caught up on the details. Time will sort out the kinks. Example: Boilers- couplers, pumps, expansion tank, vents, spirovent, PT gauge, relief valve, reducing valve Refrigeration- time clocks, thermostats, pressure controls, filter dryers, fittings 3. Take pictures of you're spaces and think about what will be the best use of space AND not cumbersome to use. So if you have a tall shelf and a short shelf it probably doesn't make sense to keep a ton of fittings in the tall shelf and waste the head space while put motors on a short shelf that will be hard to see what you have and hard to remove the part. This is what makes the truck get messy. 4. Think through some typical tasks you perform and consider what items are used in that task and if you should keep some of those items together. An example of this for me is keeping pipe fittings with the corresponding glue and item I use to cut it. Like PVC, PVC glue, and my ratcheting cutter. Another slightly different approach that I have adopted recently and it works for me is to keep my water copper working tools in a kit. It's a mid size tool box that has pipe cleaning cloth, gloves, rags, solder, flux, reamer, torch, channel locks, pipe dope etc... It's large enough that I can throw pipe wrenches in as well. This is because 99% of the time all those items are used at once. 5. TAKE ACTION- This is the fun part for me. And through this process you're bound to realize some stuff won't work and some stuff changes. That's okay and realize that it's going to take a good year for you to realize what works and what doesn't. What you need and what you don't. Good luck.

Posted by Dick. C at 2021-04-25 23:43:03 UTC