Who remembers when……

Your spares could fit in IKEA drawers.

Tidying up in the garage today and while moving these the writing on them made me remember a time about 25 years ago just after I had shifted most of my original bike stuff, was in to my first cars and hadn’t yet started on Retrobike!

The only bike I had in that short period was a brand new Hardrock.

The IKEA drawers came out of the house a few years later.

I struggle to keep it in a single garage now let alone a set of trinket drawers!

I have 2 bedside cabinets stacked ontop of each other full ........ not from Ikea.

and I still hang stuff from the rafters

Never found a likeable way to store wheels, never found the right bin. My garage is more akin to an archeological dig: if I want to find something, I need to think about when I had it last, and try to figure out how many layers to excavate to get back to that period.

My workshop resembles a bad day in Baghdad mote these days, boxes and bits all over, start too many things and never get round to putting stuff away. It was simpler when I had one mtb and one bmx......oh the nostalgia haha

...exactly this. My garage used to have a recliner sofa, flat screen TV, Xbox, stereo in it. Jeez, now there’s ten bikes hanging from the ceiling, a work surface, tool chest and boxes upon boxes of parts, wheels, tyres.. And the thing is, I wouldn’t change a thing, hours spent in there are the best (and cheapest!) therapy I could imagine.

The biggest issue I have is having enough space to store the boxes that stuff arrives in, as sure is eggs are eggs that when i come to sell the odd part, I can never find a box to post it in!
I had a revelation recently that I could actually store spare wheels INSIDE wheel boxes I've got set aside for posting wheels in!

Boxes live in a bike box in the greenhouse though I do have a storage box full of jiffy bags for sending stuff out. I had a fair few bike boxes out there but accidentally left the door ajar and the cat got in there, made sure we knew he considered them his property with a certain aroma.

I also wouldn’t change anything other maybe I’d like more space for more bikes and maybe get rid of some wheels. Rafters already full of wheels and I don’t really need any of them. I’ve got my digital radio, work desk/bench built in to my racking and a comfy chair to sit on at the bench. Many happy hours have I spent with a cup of tea and some greasy bike parts. It’s a great stress relief from working with people all day.

At the moment I’m off work with an injured leg and it’s the perfect amount of work to keep occupied without being too much. Hoovering, some gardening and cleaning unfortunately too much at the moment………pretty much any of the jobs I don’t fancy doing!

That’s the tidy end.

Glad it’s not just me then..

all my spares are in jars screwed to the bottom of shelfs. I've been informed it's the best way. not really, but it made me smile.

all my spares are stored in a very specific way, much like how I used to store my records. the system is really easy, say you know you want a 9 speed cassette, you look for an 8 speed one and odds are you'll find the 9 speed one first. need a 26x1.95 inner tube, look for a 700x23c instead.