Warehouse racking systems are designed to accommodate large volumes of goods on either pallets or in a loose stored way. These are typically designed to be modular systems so that the shelving can extend to great heights where necessary and can easily be extended should you business need to expand storage at a later date. The variable height for shelves also means that space can be utilised in many different ways. Even with palletised goods it is possible that some goods will be stored on smaller pallets than others. It would be a foolish waste of space to use a fixed height shelf separation if many goods are stored on much smaller pallets than others.
Installing warehouse racking does benefit from forward thinking. Modular systems do provide the facility to amend the shelving arrangements in your business but, a business that is forever re-arranging shelving due to poor initial planning is potentially wasting a lot of effort.
Ideally your goods will be stored in your warehouse so that the most commonly used goods are quickly accessible whilst the occasionally used items, or goods in storage, are utilising the space in the darkest recesses of the warehouse. Some computer controlled warehouses may have detailed workflow reports and analysis tools that can arrange goods for them to maximise efficiencies in the picking operation. Even the most simple of systems that relies on human management will quickly make it evident that storing the most commonly used item in the furthest corner of the warehouse, simply because it was the only location to take a 6 foot tall pallet, was a mistake.
Archive for the ‘storage solutions’ Category
Shelving and racking is available for many different purposes such as domestic and industrial settings. Even within one of these settings, there is a broad range of the types of shelving used. An industrial setting may be for archive storage that needs to be accessible to a person using a kick stool whilst another may be pallet racking with a requirement to extend some 40 or so feet vertically whilst also supporting much heavier loads.
A need for a racking or shelving solution may typically also be accompanied by a requirement for additional storage extras such as boxes, trays or fittings that will provide a customisable and bespoke shelving solution for your particular needs.
When sourcing a shelving or racking solution it is beneficial to identify suppliers that offer a broad range of solutions. This will typically enable you to compare the many different specifications that are available and to also see examples of storage solutions that you may not have considered.
If you are simply looking to extend or replicate an existing racking solution that works for you already then a supplier with a broad range may be sufficient for your needs. Perhaps where a market leading supplier is able to offer most benefit is in new solutions. You may well have some very good or even creative ideas about how to best accomplish your aims. No matter how good these ideas may be, it may prove unnecessary to re-invent the wheel. A large supplier may have already found a solution that you have not considered. An existing solution is quite possibly more cost effective.
When you sell your house, you will find that most of the people who are interested in buying will hate clutter. Even the things that nobody would give a second thought to seem to bother them. CD and DVD collections, kitchen accessories and so on are very distracting. Let us take this room by room:
• Living room – try not to create open storage for books, ornaments, photographs and so on. Keep your bric a brac to a minimum and if you have a pelmet, put some ornaments on there. If you have a large collection of books, store them away in a box
• Kitchen – a Welsh dresser overflowing with china or pots, pans and cooking implements hanging from the ceiling. While this may appeal to you, it may feel to some too crowded. Set out a few plates of similar design or colour on the dresser, store the other crockery and pans etc. away in a drawer or a kitchen cupboard
• Bedroom – store clothes out of the way, in a spare room if possible. If not, under the bed storage boxes would be ideal, just be certain they are hidden from sight using a valance
• Bathroom – make use as far as possible of ‘closed storage’, cupboards with doors in other words to create a sleeker look. Open shelves, no matter how tidily arranged, will still look cluttered
• Halls and landings – keep these as clear as you can, shoes and coats should be stored in an under stairs cupboard.
If you have made the decision to sell your house, there are many things to be organised. One issue that needs to be addressed is the appearance of your home and the first aspect of its appearance is the outside. A prospective buyer, obviously, will not be impressed by a weed-infested garden and a lawn that has not been mowed for over a month. Decent storage space for gardening tools will also be a bonus.
Basically, there are four different types of garden;
• Gardens for entertaining – their focal point will be a large terrace or an expanse of decking, providing room for alfresco dining. A small lawn and a couple of token flower beds will generally suffice as long as the terrace has a few planters.
• The ‘statement’ garden – consists of mostly grasses, bamboo and topiary. The focal point is often a small water feature.
• Low maintenance, country style – with minimal grass area and plant beds closer to the house, the majority of this type of garden will have wild-flowers and trees.
• The blank canvas type – little more than turf encircled by a fence.
The last two types of garden tend to be suitable for most people. A garden shed for the storage of a lawn-mower and other garden tools will meet with approval. If you have a greenhouse and the potential buyer is not that keen on gardening, it would be a good idea to point out its possibilities as a storage area for things like tents, skis and bicycles as well as garden furniture. Garden furniture racking will maximise the effectiveness of a good storage shed.
Wherever you’re working, be it at home, the office or the factory, storage is at a premium. You may have storage cabinets for important documents, or mobile racking for tools, but it seems that you can never have enough, especially for things like office stationary.
The storage of pens, paper clips and pencils, for example, is easily achieved by using a desk tidy. These can be made from household objects or bought online.
Making a desk tidy is fun and individual to you. One idea worth considering is to use the lid from a spindle of DVDs, turn it over with the cover resting on the desk. A small, empty plastic bottle cut to the appropriate height could then be fixed to the centre or to one side of the lid, and you have a pen and pencil holder with a space for paper clips or staples in the inverted lid.
Alternatively, if your desk has drawers, it might be a good idea to use an old cutlery organiser to keep pens and so forth tidied into one place. The organiser would also be a good place for the storage of USB sticks which can be a nightmare to find once they have been misplaced.
Stacking books on the desk’s top may look fine, but when you want to consult one particular volume and it is at the bottom of the stack it can be problematic. Try to store them across the back of the desk, possibly with two small stacks of books as bookends.
Even small additions to your house can, at times, make a real difference to your lifestyle, and may be able to ease the finding of storage space inside the house.
A porch, for instance, serves more than one purpose, despite its comparatively small size. If it is well built and blends in with the décor of the rest of your home, it will add value to the property. Another benefit of a porch is that it will help to prevent cold air from getting into the house through the front door. This will also be a way of saving on your domestic fuel bills. The porch is also the perfect place to leave muddy shoes, wet raincoats and umbrellas, so the fixing up of storage racks to hold these items would be wise, as soon as its construction is finished.
If you need somewhere to store the kids’ bikes, for example, gardening tools and other implements, then building a garage is probably not the best idea. A garden shed would be a lot less expensive, and several sizes are available so that you can select one that will suit your purposes. Once the shed has been built, you will be able to use relatively cheap shelving, as long as it is still suitable for the job. Use one of the shed walls as a place to hang garden tools, and do not forget to keep them safe from rust by using grease and / or oil during the winter months.
There is an old saying, used worldwide, about a place for everything, and everything in its place. This mantra does not have to be only used by people who are fanatical about tidiness. The tidying away of all your possessions can sometimes bring a feeling of almost clinical sterility. Storage does not necessarily have to mean hiding everything away.
Storage units can be used in a functional and decorative way at the same time. There are shelves that resemble picture frames, for example, to help make whatever you store on them into a work of art. Vintage shop fittings made from dark or light wood, add character to the kitchen / diner. Still in the kitchen, try running strips of wood from wall to wall, or between wall and cupboard side, to construct a framework upon which sauces, herbs, pulses and spices can be arranged.
Another unusual idea is to use backlighting behind shelving units, that otherwise seem rather utilitarian, with coloured Perspex sheets as backs. This will transform your collection of crockery and glass into a masterpiece.
If you decide to use cabinets or units fitted with glass doors, try to match their colour as closely as possible with the colour of the wall against which they are to stand. The blending of the framework into the wall will focus the attention on the contents of the cupboard.
Unusual storage ideas, such as these, will make your house feel like a home, and will also stamp your individual personality on it.
Although the travel pouch is meant to be used as its name implies to store DVDs or CDs and carry them when travelling, there is another potential use for them.
They can also be utilised to help solve storage problems in the home. A typical travel pouch or a ring binder container measures about 15 x 20cm and will have a capacity of 24 disks held in 12 sleeves.
The storage pouch can be used in several ways. For example, you could use it to store TV programmes and films recorded from the television, PS2 games and CDs. You may want to keep a particular TV series in one place so you are more easily able to access it. Or perhaps you could organise by genre – science-fiction, detective or comedy. Alternatively, films and TV series’ may be kept in separate pouches. The options are endless.
If you were, for instance, to record from TV using even the LP mode, you could store four hours of viewing on each disk and this in turn would mean that it is possible to have 96 hours of films or TV programmes in each pouch. If you decide to use the SLP mode on every disk, you would increase this to 192 hours per travel pouch.
Now we turn to the storage part. The DIYer might decide to build tall, narrow shelving units, possibly on castors so that it be easily slipped in and out of a small unused space in one of your rooms.