Organization Tips and Tricks

NWDBayArea

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Hey everyone!

Im looking for some helpful tips and tricks for keeping my workstation organized moving forward. I have a mixture of white cardboard boxes, plastic bags, and cheap plastic dividers, but they all seem to be on the verge of exploding. I would love to get some inspiration from any/all suggestions or photos detailing your clever organization tools. (Hopefully they are on the cheaper end)

One thing I really struggle with is keeping track of things I need/have purchased. o_O

Thanks!
Nick
 

bavbob

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IDK, besides bagging and marking things, I put little hints on the bags, like " this goes before chrome molding". I think resto shops delegate different areas, whereas when solo, it can be overwhelming. I have a visual photographic emery and this car still challenged me.
 

Honolulu

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My somewhat OCD/hoarder neighbor photographer Mrs. C. has several dozen translucent plastic filing boxes for all her stuff, with printed labels on the inside of each.
 

boonies

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I am no expert, others have deeper experience I am sure. So far my approach is bagging items, along with either the reciept or part information so that someday when I am gone and my wife sells the car the next buyer will know what they are getting:).

Not specific to the parts, but I am also adding receipts for the larger purchases to my binder. I was fortunate that along with the purchase was a binder that included all the vehicle records going back to 1973. I feel that it is my duty to keep building the history of the car as I am really just a caretaker until the next owner and my hope is that they will appreciate it as much as I am.
 

Peter Coomaraswamy

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A picture of an organized workspace..

shop1.jpg
 
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Bert Poliakoff

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Plastic containers of various sizes, starting with 3X5 on up, all with lids, from Storage Solutions. Easy to stack and label on the outside You can put your bagged parts in them but being able to stack them and label them is a big plus. Large tubs for the big stuff if needed
 

deQuincey

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i find useful to dedicate a space to each car subsystem, i.e. brakes, engine, trim interior, trim exterior,...
tyen a dedicated area to yearly maintenance, oils, filters,...

there are blurred boundaries here and there, but it works

you always start with a blank space, and you turn it into a mess,...



....you pile up things until no more can be done , and then you stop,...

you throw things away, and you reorganize,...


...add something to the equation...to re-create a new chaos...



....until the next cycle...
 
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jpg10

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Not quite on that level Rick - it sounds like you're not far off running your own parts department :) , but agree on keeping an eye out for parts when they come up.

Still learning about different bits, what they do better than X or Y or instead of Z, what tools you need and how to use them. I'm always bemused about what I'm willing to do and learn about for the car (the time I willingly spent learning about spring washers types???), although I'm grateful to the members on here a lot of whom will have forgotten more than I'll ever know.
 

jpg10

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I am assuming the "tar pit method" is better left unseen haha

Well its probably not that bad, but space is tight so things can get put in a safe place whilst I'm working on something and then 3 other jobs crop up to do before I can get back to them. Had the bonnet off whilst I did some tidying in the engine bay as I had to test fit new torsion arms anyway.

IMG-20210407-WA0002.jpeg
 
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