Moving My Shop - Within 100 miles

Retired. Moving late springish/summer 2021

I have a 3 bay shop full of "stuff". This was supposed to be temporary 15 years ago.........so it never got a good start on organization.

I am tossing the junk. Maybe had value at some point, not now. Gone.

I have two business inventories to move, that will be a separate effort. Partner and I will use our trucks and move boxes of stuff (most all on pallets)

Mainly the reason for this post is looking for tips on moving personal tools and thousands of fasteners in bins.

I have tools all over the place, and am now getting them organized. My DeWalt 20V collection is already well organized in DeWalt boxes and bags. Pretty nice that part. I had an unused long poly tool box that I managed to get ALL drill bits and driver bits in there. Again, feels good to have one place to go to, even if for the convenience of moving.

But I have 2 locations for hammers and hatchets of all varieties, 3 separate drawers in rolling cases/carts of screwdrivers, two for pliers type tools of all varieties, etc. I maybe may just move them in situ. As long as they don't tilt/fall over. Open to ideas about cases, etc

Then come the fasteners. Last time we moved my company paid for the move which just means some amateurs threw fastener bins in boxes. Resulting in a HUGE mess.

I have drill presses and several floor jacks and a 20 ton press as heavy items, plenty of racks, a bunch of folding tables (which serve as work and kitting tables/benches), a large JOBOX which will be empty, a regular workbench not bolted, and a workbench that is a very solid core flat door on solid factory sawhorses that was just leaning in the shop when I moved in. Et cetera.

No - lucky guys I am NOT asking for help moving my shop. Just pointers and tips learned. TIA

 

When I move all my bolt bins and cabinets I take the time to put them in zip lock bags and write on what they are with a sharpie. Sure makes it easy to set them back up.

 

So simple. Good IDEA!!!

 

Tools, hammers, hand held stuff, I'd get some milk crates. I often get old/cracked milk crates for free at my local creamery.

Bolts, fasteners, in either cabinets, or open drawer lockers, I wrap the cabinets in movers plastic wrap so you're able to move the entire cabinet and its fasteners without worry of spilling. You can buy a 100' x 2' roll from Uline for $25. If this isn't doable, get sandwich bags and start transferring bolts and fasteners into the sandwich bags. Get a lot of sharpies to get things labeled.

Get your larger equipment (drill press, end mills, etc) and other larger/bulker equipment on pallets. Rent a bander to secure stuff to the pallets. Stack your milk crates onto the pallets, wrap in pallet wrap/plastic wrap, and secure with the bander, to the pallet so you don't loose anything in transport.

Get/rent a fork lift, hand truck, and/or a hoist to help shuffle things around and load onto a flat deck trailer.

Post equipment you don't want to keep for sale or for free at the end of your move so that thieving eyes can only come back to an empty warehouse, not one filled with equipment in convenient to grab crates and cases.

If you have time, then you can do a lot of this yourself, but it will take a while. Here at my ranch, myself and a co-worker reorganized two of our small shop warehouses (25'x50' and a 30'x60') in the above fashion in 3 months. We did about 4 hrs/day, 3 days/week for 3 months.

 

I have some milk crates and some super HD totes, just need to find more. This will work. I have basically until the wife quits working in March. I have a decent start and if feels count for anything, just the forced organization is a good thing.

My wife says I am "so disorganized" - I do know where most everything is, it's just a damned mess. Funny thing is she is Miss Japanese organizer, but she lays crap everywhere. Any flat surface, but when she gets to it, sure. I guess we are similar!! Hahahhaa

 

Scored some (6) milk crates today. Those will be super handy!

Broke down and bought a mess of long tool boxes, plastic and metal. Loose tools and such, inside.

Didn't do any really cleaning or packing today, but one more small step.

 

I feel your pain !!! Moving sucks no matter .

Label and know where everything is nothing like needing something special and having to dig through piles of stuff.

Think long and hard what would be easier to sell and just replace rather then pack haul and unpack .

I still have boxes from my move back in 1989 never opened the same with my move 5 years ago.

Coming from Two families of pack rats it is a curse I bare.

Best of Luck

 

Slim down the inventory, if you haven't used it, sell it.

 

You do understand that is all most impossible for some of us to do.

 

Crazy talk, I may need that 2’ piece of pipe one day

 

Or that 7.2" piece of fir 2x4!

 

I’m horrible for hanging onto scrap steel pieces

 

I've been in several shops relocating over the years and for the bigger stuff we either got the snap on guy with a lift in the back or the really big tool boxes and shop equipment we had a flat bed tow truck come in.

 

I just moved from Illinois to NC, company paid for move but I insisted on packing and moving most of the garage. It's not a 3bay shop, but I had a TON of tools and stuff packed into a 2car garage. I first got a 30yard dumpster and had a come to Jesus moment and threw away a ton of stuff, like scrap metal and spare parts that I was never going to use. I went from this:

To almost my entire garage packed into 8 totes, I'm excluding the things moved by the movers like the tool boxes, air compressor and larger tools like my miter saw.

I got those 30 gallon totes that are black and yellow from home depot. I left 2 with the movers and drove the rest down when I drove the tacoma down to NC. Worked out pretty good. Throwing stuff out is huge, really pared it down. Those totes are surprisingly weather tight, 10 of the 13hr drive was in heavy rain and no water got into my tools.

 

So little stuff...............trying to get there. Have been throwing stuff out for sure. One angle:

 

I cleaned some more today. I will post more embarrassing pictures tomorrow, and do some vacuuming as well.

 

Complete fail on taking pictures, but I did score a new (used, but unused) 28" decent plastic tool box. Craftsman. Cheap! And perfect for moving tools. I cleaned and vacuumed one corner. Put most of the Christmas stowage upon some shelves I made 15 years ago.

 

Ha Ha Ha I can so relate !!

 

Hit it hard for a couple hours this AM. Many things stored/stowed. YES!