Tuesday 19th January 2010
by admin
CoachingU2Win asked:
My husband does so many different things. He will do electrical, plumbing, anything. He has too much of a mess in his vehicle though. Are there just basic tools he can keep in his van. I just want him to get organized cause he spends too much time now organizing. Any tips are appreciated.
My husband does so many different things. He will do electrical, plumbing, anything. He has too much of a mess in his vehicle though. Are there just basic tools he can keep in his van. I just want him to get organized cause he spends too much time now organizing. Any tips are appreciated.
Tags: Basic Tools, handyman, Many Different Things
For someone who is involved with only one trade the tools are simpler. When you start crossing trades the number of tools required increases. The offsetting advantage of course is that you have more potential work. This is made even more difficult as the vehicle has the other task of transporting people and materials. Naturally things easily become disorganized.
“Organizing” is not necessarily a bad thing. Everytime you touch a tool it helps to remember where it is. It is far worse to have to stop in the middle of a job to hunt for a specific tool, buy another one, or try to make do without.
There are several ways to organize the tools. Big tools and little ones, hand tools and power tools, sensitive tools and rough ones, but my personal favorite is by the trade. Electrical tools in one or several boxes, rough in plumbing for drains in another, supply lines in another, framing tools in one and finishing in another. As you might guess, having many different types of boxes helps so you can easily see the difference. And there will probably be one box that has commonly used tools, perhaps a drill box.
This type of organization is more helpful when work is also organized by similar trades so that all the drain work is done and then all the electrical work is done… In this way the vehicle can have mostly tools of one trade in it at a time. But this will also require some off vehicle storage. A folding hand truck is very helpful to move from one to the other. Developing a good amount of intuition is also very helpful to knowing what you will need in any particular day.
Any organizational system is mostly destroyed by helpers who will not abide or understand it. It is also very difficult to maintain an organizational system that is not organic but suggested from the outside.
I fought that for years, finally bought a 10 foot box trailer and all that mess is in there now, truck is still full too, good luck.
OOH Honey,I’ve been in the const. trades the last 22 yrs. Does he have shelves?,if not help him by building a cubby hole shelf system that tiers up.Does he have totes that are open at the top midsize perferably. Load for different jobs.Come on hun get him organized so he cann make more money.Peace
Doing construction and keeping tools perfectly organized is pretty mush Mission Impossible. With all the tools I use, from hand to power tools, most end up in a certain area of the tool boxes on the truck, but not a specific spot. I tried, but had to raise the white flag on exact.
Besides, “organizing” for me is kind of relaxing.
Nealy a ton of them. Really. When I weighed the truck it show over 2,100 pounds above empty, but I was sitting in it too.