Pretty big day for SecondMoonshot! My daughter got into an accident (minor in the end, but put her vehicle out of commission). Turns out she needed to borrow my car for a few weeks, and so when she came to pick it up, she dropped me off at the local Public Storage for me to swap out another car. I asked her to hold on to let me look to see if any new units have come available as they are at a premium over summer months but what!!!! Finally got a 10x20 foot storage unit climate controlled. Mike at the Stickman St, Wake Forest location was awesome as always and what I truly love about this sight, seems simple, is they have LIGHTING! I have called around to practically every storage facility in the 30 mile area and this is the only one….likely due to initial construction and Public Storage probably acquired them. But either way, works for me. Even better, this is where I also store two of my cars (technically just 2 in a 10x30 foot unit), point being..I am familiar with the location and it is my preference and the unit I got is on the same row…not super close, but not complaining).
So, what I did next was reached out to my business partner, aka partner, aka not quite a wife yet (domestic partners…another story). Anyway, she is an organizing freak of nature, but thought I would give her a run for her money developing an optimal shelving solution for the unit. We both took a piece of graph paper, charted out the space to work with, and diligently worked to see who could get the best use of spaces using a 10x12 space (leaving an 8x10 space for work area). Well…I am not terrible, and after a few iterations, came up with a plan to have 12 2ft x 3ft shelves, which I honestly thought was the limit. She turns to me and says “Well…non-Asian boy, I have 24 shelves”….I crumbled (she is Phillipino). Turns out she has 2 blocks on her graph paper per foot vs my 1 block. She went back to the drawing board and … lo and and behold we both came up with the same optimal foot print.
Mind you I came up with it a few drinks prior than her, but whose counting. I won (well, technically we tied)! Yes, my work was the messy drawing on the right, but does it matter so she thinks she gets points for neatness….whatever.
Move in day is tomorrow and I have to buy 12 more shelving units and get to work. Pretty exciting day. Thank you, Jesus!
Setup
Today (Sunday, Aug 22, 2021), went and setup the general layout and shelving. It’s pretty close to the original layout, but we found out that the dimensions are a little smaller than advertised. 9’ x 19.5’. I can still get in the target 12 shelving units, although only will initially do 10 and see if that can last a while so that I can have a nice work area for packing. Easier to explain with pictured.
I went with the Blue Hawk plastic shelving which are 5 shelves at 72” high and are 24” x 36”. Got them at Lowe’s. Harbor Freight only went up to 18” x 36” and I wanted the extra depth (stability and flexibility). Also these can be lowered on a unit if I have tall items and I could move that removed shelf to another unit and use it for flats. You will notice that 2 of the units are in perpendicular, the reason was both to maximize storage capacity, but also to handle things like large posters and packing supplies. Not to mention the cost of wood is crazy right now and I just built 3 bookshelves. Granted I could have used cheaper lumber for this type of use, but the flexibility and when I move into a larger space, these will be easy to move and quite sturdy.
Before and after and some in between:
I put in a socket adapter for the light which allows me to plug low voltage items like chargers, fan or radio if needed. I went with 100w LED bulbs. They don’t get too hot and these are shatterproof and if I accidentally break it, less to worry about. Temperature in it was pretty good, probably somewhere between 72 and 74 degrees, the fan wasn’t critical but nice while I was putting up the shelving. I have labels to affix to each unit and shelf for location which I will update on the eBay listings. Additionally I used zip ties to tie some of the shelving units together for stability.
I will do some additional insect and rodent protection while I am at this phase. In my other unit, have never had an issue, but prevention never hurt.
Another nice thing about this unit is that it is the highest unit and unlikely to get any flooding. Additionally, the floor has a channel along the edge just in case to flow the water out and keep it off the floor….another good piece of mind item which I didn’t think about but appreciate now.
I thought maybe I should starting looking over all types of YouTubes and Google items like this on how to setup an eBay warehouse. Where is the fun in that? Sure will make a few mistakes, but the fun is in the learning.
Next will be to start moving new listings to this location. May just slowly move the stuff in house and attic over time but haven’t made a final decision.
Update on August 25, 2021: Almost have everything moved into the unit and only thing really remaining are a large number of vintage books and a bookshelf I will be moving over through the week. Coming along nicely and when all is done, will already be 85% filled with about 45 square feet of shelf space remaining of the 300 square feet present. Will start tracking Public Store on Stickman for the next available climate controlled unit. I have 2 more shelving units in the attic I can move to the storage and put in this unit if I have to and get a 60 or so additional square feet of shelf space.
Filling up!
John
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