Storage issues

[fsn]

Good luck Old Man.

It's a tricky mission.

Some might say your chances are slim. But we have every confidence in you.

Tally ho!
 

[Steve J]

Hope it all goes well and it is a nice feeling when you do finish that clear out cum tidy up.

[Genom]

I have 3 current storage options,
Storage 1: my bigger 28mm skirmish forces are in KR Multicase. (I do need to get more trays to alleviate storage method 3)
Storage 2: all of my 10mm/15mm Multibased armies are in magnetised box files, alongside my 28mm unit based armies which I eventually got round to magnetising most of them.
Storage 3: Everything else sitting in any old box I could find that vaguely fitted.

My eventual plan is to shift everything over to KR and magnetised box files depending on scale and function, but that's a lot of planning time away.

[paulr]

Good luck Norm, I hope the Force remained strong long enough to make some progress

[Norm]

Didn't want to leave that story on a cliff edge :-)

I am amazed, the Force stayed strong !

Everything is off the floor and the shelves look fairly orderly and there is spare space. The look is good and the sense of order good for the soul.

The downside is that pretty much everything that was on the floor is now sitting in the garage, though a shed load of cardboard has gone to the junk. I am allowing myself one area of wargaming to come back in, so I need to think where to place the emphasis. My boardgaming stuff is a big bully and it is on the shelves already and I want to expand my boardgaming activity, but focus it more on series games - so which figure element to bring back in;

very small scale, perhaps 6mm and do large pinboard type gaming, perhaps with squares, everything will live in a few boxes.

Do 4 x 3 gaming on open table, can be in 10mm, needs a few more boxes

Do 4 x 3 gaming on my hex tiles (6 or 10mm), two large boxes of hex tiles and several more boxes of varied hex terrain does add surprisingly quite a bit more to the storage stakes., but I am comfortable with hexes.

Do 20mm WWII and 28mm everything else, but just smallish armies on 4 x 3, but most likely 6 x 3. Buildings are big and pretty varied (so plenty) to cover my fave periods.  Much deeper boxes needed for trees. My eyes say yes, but my other senses are tingling.

[paulr]

Well done, that man 

The first three are all good options, the fourth is rightly setting off storage alarm bells

[Leman]

My solution has been quite radical and won’t appeal to a certain type of hoarder. I have ditched many of my books. I have kept the major reference books but novels have gone and other books I will not read again have also gone, thus providing more shelving space for my RUBs,

[steve_holmes_11]

I've found that most boxes are far too deep for the painted figs, meaning the finished stuff requires a lot more space than the bagged "lead mountain".

I've foudn 2 solutions.

Some while back Ikea sold an upright bathroom cabinet with a 400mm square  footprint and steel shelves (also available in glass and plastic).
I got one and about 24 steel shelves which were ideal for a growing collection of magnetic bottom based armies.
The shelves are easily removed for transport to battle sites.

Unfortunately the good Doctor saw it as more storage an filled most of it with it with crap like scented candles and and other trinkets that will be given as gifts to friends.

I've recently solved the problem of transporting multiple shelves with some 16" square Pizza boxes.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B075CLTXBV/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


The Pizza boxes stack nicely on a shelving system, rendering the Ikea cabinet almost redundant.
I'm now looking at getting some 15 3/4" steel inserts for the boxes to do away with any requirement for the Ikea cabinet.

[paulr]

Those Pizza boxes are an interesting idea

I'm pretty sure one of grocery warehouses sells them, I must do some measuring to see if Pikes will fit

[FierceKitty]

It's laborious, but you can cut down the corregated cardboard boxes used for storing sheets of A4 copier paper; the lid needs to be cut down too. The result is light and sturdy, and can be made just the right size.

[Norm]

I agree that the greatest inefficiency of storage is the use of boxes that are too deep for their need. They use to do Box files that look about an inch or so deep. I only have one and have not seen another in years. Surprisingly they were no cheaper than the deeper 3" boxes, which may have ben the reason for their demise.

[Leman]

RUB sell inserts that provide two layers within a box, whilst Warbases now produce Mdf inserts for the four litre and nine litre RUBs that can provide two or more layers. A little more pricey than cardboard, but remarkably sturdy.

[fred.]

I got  inserts from http://www.commission-figurines.co.uk  these are also sized for 4L and 9L RUB. They come in a good variety of heights. I think I went with 20mm and 35mm ones. The 20mm are great for more modern troops who don’t have flags and spears etc. You can get loads of layers these in to a box.

I too have used the shallower box files in the past, but they dont seem to be available, and they were normally more expensive than the deeper ones.

[Leman]

One of my friends puts an extra layer in his box files by putting four wooden supports in each corner, half the depth of the file, and then lays a piece of thick card on these with two opposite corners cut away for ease of removal.

[Norm]

I think if I were to that that, I would also glue a block in the centre for support and then glue a block directly above it on the card insert, using that block as an easy way to lift the insert out.