Wire scrap-baskets in the shop

Most of the scrap storage in the shop is bin-based, and, as such storage goes, it's quite effective, but the scrap buckets under the shop tables and the wheelbarrows under the workbench never have worked well for the thin, long, and often flimsy stuff that gets left over from ripping, not to mention the small stick-like stuff that seems to accumulate when no one is watching.  The wire baskets not only accommodate these leftovers, but are surprisingly convenient for searches because it's easy to see what's there.  If nothing else, the baskets have proven invaluable in terms of strips and pieces that can function as veneer.


I have always been more than a little uneasy about ideas that say its wiser to throw leftovers away than spend time and money keeping them.  Such wisdom not only assumes the availability of money, but the availability of things to purchase with it.  Far too much of life occurs in circumstances where neither money nor commodities are available, or wouldn't do any good if they were.

When to buy and when to re-use, when to save and when to throw away are the questions that life seems to be made of.  For example, to be effective, saving leftovers has to be approached as a way of life.  It is not an event, but requires constant thought, constant attention.  It's like having a garden and is just as magical.  We could not begin to enumerate the solutions and delights that have emerged from the scraps in the shop.

Tags: 2011, Inspiration and creativity, Tools supplies and operations