Adventures in Organization (or the story of a shipping container)

Ok, so I am quite possibly one of the most unorganized people on the planet- Seriously y’all it’s embarrassing. HOWEVER, I am making a true effort to really do things differently in the new house. The workshop helps but it’s full of stuff that I need to work on, doesn’t’ fit in the house right now, should go in the garage (we don’t have one now). It is increasingly more difficult to get anything done in the shrinking space so I decided to do something about it.

 

Ugh, moving is stressful and denial can be ugly….. between the contents of Brian’s father’s home and all the project inventory, I am paying for 2 storage rentals. TWO! OY! They’re totally full and without and entire day or rearranging adding anything to them is a lost cause.

 

Thinking through what I have to find a solution I came up with space. Why am I paying for space on someone else’s property when we have plenty of our own? I have absolutely no time to build something … so my solution? I ordered a FORTY FOOT shipping container. I am not even kidding. It’s 8 feet wide so that would give me 320 square feet of floor space (2.560 cubic meters total) to fill up! That will hold everything, right?

 

While it seemed like a fabulous solution when I initially instituted it and started my research, I will now tell you this is not as easy as it sounds. Maybe my story will help one of you with something similar. Trust me, at the very least you can join my family and be completely amused at my ridiculousness.

 

I had a friend give me a great starting pace for where to find one (because why would I know how to get one before I decided on this fabulous plan?) and I found a few other sources. Prices can vary by crazy amounts based on availability and time of year, so it’s a very good idea to shop around and maybe even more than once.

 

I found a great price and was even able to get the company to add an additional door and some wind turbines on top to help me be able to use as much space as possible and keep from having a build up of humidity.

 

Everyone I talked to had a completely different idea on how to level the ground for this thing. It’s solid steel, it weighs EIGHT THOUSAND POUNDS. It isn’t going to buckle, but if it isn’t level, it can move just enough to make the doors rather hard to open. I got suggestions of railroad ties to concrete blocks and a poured slab (Of course… but at that point, I might as well build a shed).

 

I settled on concrete blocks and I laid them out, used a string line to level and poured concrete in them.

When it came time for delivery, the delivery was a bit tight.

 

 

The driver was a complete magician and managed to nearly put it EXACTLY where I had it imagined.

Ok, so here at the issues: concrete pillars are completely unnecessary. It would have been SO much easier for me to just have all the blocks there and stack them up as he lowered the container with a general idea of how many I needed to come close to level. The direction I had thought it would face wasn’t possible as I forgot to account for the additional 40 feet the truck would need as it was sliding the container off the truck bed- DOH! I could have tweaked them if I hadn’t poured 150 pounds of concrete in each..

So now, it isn’t level. Arghh… and Brian doesn’t think it’s stable enough to use yet… so I have to find house jacks to fix it.. Worse than that? I have been expressly forbidden from doing it myself. :/ he says he’s not ready to collect on my life insurance yet. (I might find that a bit romantic if I wasn’t so frustrated)

 

<Sigh>

 

Here is how it sits…

 

 

just there, BEGGING me to fill it… I just bet I can paint it or something while I wait to get it fixed.

I am still crazy excited about what it will mean when it’s all set. This is year I get it together y’all…. <snicker more softly please, I can hear you>

I just got back from Haven so I will tell you all about it soon. In the meantime, are you on Periscope yet? It’s a new social media app by the people who brought you Twitter (I know…. another one). Live video streaming.. it can be kind of fun though.. so head on over and check it out. I’m of course @savedbyscottie. I posted just this morning about the new deck. I’ll be showing off the camp too when we get to NY in a few days. Come on over if you want to check it out.

XO!

 

Scottie