Tuesday, August 7, 2012

The Great Re-Organization of 2012

Back in June of 2011, the article "The Bitz Box, a Hobbyist's Best Friend" addressed not only the reason for the need of a good Bitz Box, but also some options for you to choose from and at the end, my recommendation and product of choice for my own Bitz organization.

A little over a year later, my wife decided I needed to readdress my organization of my hobby. The picture above should give you a decent reason why.

Did I stick with my tried and true Bitz Box from a year ago?

The short answer is "no". But what to replace it with, and how?

The long answer involves a very productive year of hobby-ing, a collection of trades and purchases, as well as a discovery of far more plastic crack than I thought I ever had. The end result is my wife very generously opening up some space for me in an upstairs closet, then very sternly giving me an ultimatum to organize my "mess". So off to the hardware store we went!

Unfortunately, the new organizational plan for all my kits and Bitz called for a more in-depth storage solution than my old friend, the Bitz Box. I needed a much more label-friendly product than a folding carry case. Enter the Stack-On line of organizers.

I ended up buying 3 of the 22-drawer units and 1 of the 30-drawer units. I like these because I can pull out drawers as I need them and then put them back when done. Once I began to separate my Bitz, I pulled out my label maker and went to town.


Believe it or not, I'm actually going to be doing away with every box I have with this organizing method, and I'll have a folder of all the instructional manuals for reference. I'm labeling each drawer with what's in it for easy reference and ease of assembly even. Obviously I have a ways to go and this will eat up a solid week or so of hobby time, but it'll be worth it in the end.

And my wife will be happy. See? Worth it.

I will most likely be purchasing a single-sided organizer to use as a much more portable Bitz Box than my current two-sided unit, and only taking what I need on the road as I need to, relaxing the Bitz back to their respective drawers once over back home.


One year later and my hobby ran away from me, outgrowing my previous Bitz Box beyond how I could have imagined it would. Has this happened to you? How have you solved the encroaching waves of plastic sprues?

- Tim

 

11 comments:

  1. Remind me to find out where you live so I can raid your bits. :)

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    1. Ha ha ha...ha... No ;)

      Though I'm happy to share if I have something you need for a project :)

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  2. One bits box? Oh, how I recall those days. Your wife may not know it, but surrendering a portion of a closet has sealed your fate. You my friend are on your way to your very own Closet of Doom (ominous horns)! :)

    About once every year I'll go in and prune back the mayhem, but for me the battle is lost. The real killer is bits on frames - there are a dozen good sized boxes in my own CoD similar to your first pic that could likely be collapsed down to a tenth their current size if I took the time to clip all the remaining bits from their sprues. Finding the time/inclination to do so is the real trick! I really do need to take the time to get clipping, it would undoubtedly free up a lot of space - twenty years of bits is a lot to go through though, it's more than a little daunting at this point...

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    1. My bits are stored the same way- on the sprues. It's terrible and takes a lot of space, but I'm too lazy to remove all of them. I have everything organized by army though- so at least there is that.

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    2. Hmmm....I think I like that Tm, Closet of Doom :). This is me, not telling my wife of my impeding fate ;). We'll see how it turns out once I'm done, but I'll try not to take over the whole closet...try...

      Well, like you said, Reid, you've got them organizedby a,ry at the least :). My only problem is that if I leave them on spathe sprues, then I forget what bits I still have on them :(

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  3. Yes Mordian is right that's a good start.I also started with one bitz box. Now it's more like one for each army/ species/ system/ individual bit...

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    1. Hey... S farce early got over 30 drawers just for space marines alone... So we're getting there :)

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  4. I think we need to do some bits swapping!

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    1. Right... So before Adepticon next year, shall I take requests on what drawers to bring up to Chicago with me? :)

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  5. Ugh while a great article also a reminder I am starting to have a similar issue that I need to deal with. lol

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    1. Hah!! Yes, join me in my frustrating, yet rewarding chore my friend!

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