Monday, September 26, 2005
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Ikea
I hate Ikea. Its popularity astonishes me. Never have so many bought so much crap from so few. Most of the time, the crap doesn't even have the decency to look like crap: it's veneered. Any craftsman worth his table saw takes one look at this shit and gasps in horror. Douglas Coupland said it best when he described it as "semi-disposable furniture".
That ranted, I like exactly one Ikea product: "Gorm" shelving. Don't get me wrong: it's crap too. But it's crap that suits a purpose: cheap, extensible, modular bulk storage. I own probably a couple thousand bucks worth of it, which is a lot of shelving. It fills my basement and my garage. Put end caps on the posts to guard against rot (the entire thing is made of cheap softwood, held together with brads) and it's actually reasonably durable. Make sure none of the pieces you buy are split, and it's a bargain. Throw a hex head bit on your drill and crank the torque down so that you don't drive the screws right through the posts and you can put together thirty-six feet of deep shelving in under half an hour. Make sure you anchor it to walls or other convenient points, cross brace it where necessary, and it'll stay standing. Barely adequate engineering and construction: crap that works. I'll take it.
That ranted, I like exactly one Ikea product: "Gorm" shelving. Don't get me wrong: it's crap too. But it's crap that suits a purpose: cheap, extensible, modular bulk storage. I own probably a couple thousand bucks worth of it, which is a lot of shelving. It fills my basement and my garage. Put end caps on the posts to guard against rot (the entire thing is made of cheap softwood, held together with brads) and it's actually reasonably durable. Make sure none of the pieces you buy are split, and it's a bargain. Throw a hex head bit on your drill and crank the torque down so that you don't drive the screws right through the posts and you can put together thirty-six feet of deep shelving in under half an hour. Make sure you anchor it to walls or other convenient points, cross brace it where necessary, and it'll stay standing. Barely adequate engineering and construction: crap that works. I'll take it.
Tools
I have a lot of tools. I mean, a LOT of tools. Of some tools, especially hand tools, I have duplicates and triplicates and whatever plicates come after that. I have my dad to thank for most of them. He never misses an opportunity (birthday, Christmas, President's Day, third Sunday in August) to give me a new tool of some sort, usually something he found at a garage sale. Part of it is motivated self-interest: he can always borrow my tools, which meanwhile are kept neatly organized in my workshop; this spares him the trouble of storing them and then having to find them. It's telling that making the one-hour drive from his house to mine takes less time than finding, say, his 11mm wrench (I have five of them).
I love organizing tools. When I was young, my present to my dad each Father's Day was the reorganization of his workshop. It would only stay organized for about a month, of course, but he always loved the state of it during that brief time.
Last night, I finally got around to putting up a sheet of pegboard over my workbench. The previous owners of my house had never bothered to finish the wall there (they got as far as the vapour barrier), so it was only about twenty minutes' work. I had a 4' by 3' sheet of heavy pegboard that I bought at a local surplus store (judging from the pricetags adhered to it, it used to belong to a grocery store). It fit perfectly, so all I had to do was sink a bunch of 1 1/4" wood screws into the strapping. Then, I inserted assorted pegs (more gifts from my dad) and within an hour many of my hand tools had a new home. I liked it so much that today I cut out a section of drywall next to it to make room for another sheet of pegboard, only to find that the previous owners had forgotten that the vapour barrier goes up before the drywall. So, this afternoon I have a good excuse for driving down to Rona to pick up a roll of vapour barrier, along with some staples to secure the new 14-2, CAT5, co-ax, and phone wire that I've run throughout the basement. And while I'm at it, maybe I'll pick up a new backsaw. After all, I've only got one.
I love organizing tools. When I was young, my present to my dad each Father's Day was the reorganization of his workshop. It would only stay organized for about a month, of course, but he always loved the state of it during that brief time.
Last night, I finally got around to putting up a sheet of pegboard over my workbench. The previous owners of my house had never bothered to finish the wall there (they got as far as the vapour barrier), so it was only about twenty minutes' work. I had a 4' by 3' sheet of heavy pegboard that I bought at a local surplus store (judging from the pricetags adhered to it, it used to belong to a grocery store). It fit perfectly, so all I had to do was sink a bunch of 1 1/4" wood screws into the strapping. Then, I inserted assorted pegs (more gifts from my dad) and within an hour many of my hand tools had a new home. I liked it so much that today I cut out a section of drywall next to it to make room for another sheet of pegboard, only to find that the previous owners had forgotten that the vapour barrier goes up before the drywall. So, this afternoon I have a good excuse for driving down to Rona to pick up a roll of vapour barrier, along with some staples to secure the new 14-2, CAT5, co-ax, and phone wire that I've run throughout the basement. And while I'm at it, maybe I'll pick up a new backsaw. After all, I've only got one.
So Organized
"So organized". I hear this phrase a lot from my wife, usually prefixed with "Damn it, you always have to be". My wife is my opposite in this regard. Some people question why we married, considering that her entropy is constantly clashing with my enthalpy. She generates heat, I generate light. The answer, I've come to realize, is simple: she gives me something to do, and I give her something to undo. At least we're not trying to organize in two different ways. I think that would be worse.
So I'm an organizer. An organized person. Orderly. I don't consider this to be a problem. In fact, I consider it to be a solution. The universe is big on disorganization -- there are three laws about it that you may have heard of -- and it poses a lot of challenges. I'm just trying to keep my little corner of the world in some semblance of order so that I can accomplish a few things before I die.
Some people confuse organized with clean. I'm clean, but not ridiculously so. I think my perceived cleanliness is just a byproduct of my organization. Countertops tend to stay clean when they're not covered in crap so that you can't see them, and when there are paper towels conveniently at hand. Et cetera.
Another point of confusion concerns the effort I put into organizing. True, it's not inconsiderable. But it's a net savings. I'm confident that my wife, for example, wastes more time and money overcoming the consequences of her disorganization than I invest in my organization.
Last year, my wife and I bought a beautiful old Craftsman bungalow in southern Ontario. We've been restoring it ever since (its previous owners were investors, who rented it out and abused it). I'm enough of a handyman to have tackled most of the work myself. A big chunk of the work has been getting the place organized. We have a lot of stuff, my wife and I. Mostly my wife. She doesn't like to throw things out, but she's a big fan of collecting things that other people are throwing out via selling them inexpensively.
Hence this blog, which I've created as a place to record my thoughts on organization (there's certainly no one else around here who wants to hear them -- well, my two year old daughter will listen, but I suspect she's just humouring me) as well as my progress on the house. It's really just for myself, but since you're here, I hope you find it interesting, informative, or at least amusing.
So I'm an organizer. An organized person. Orderly. I don't consider this to be a problem. In fact, I consider it to be a solution. The universe is big on disorganization -- there are three laws about it that you may have heard of -- and it poses a lot of challenges. I'm just trying to keep my little corner of the world in some semblance of order so that I can accomplish a few things before I die.
Some people confuse organized with clean. I'm clean, but not ridiculously so. I think my perceived cleanliness is just a byproduct of my organization. Countertops tend to stay clean when they're not covered in crap so that you can't see them, and when there are paper towels conveniently at hand. Et cetera.
Another point of confusion concerns the effort I put into organizing. True, it's not inconsiderable. But it's a net savings. I'm confident that my wife, for example, wastes more time and money overcoming the consequences of her disorganization than I invest in my organization.
Last year, my wife and I bought a beautiful old Craftsman bungalow in southern Ontario. We've been restoring it ever since (its previous owners were investors, who rented it out and abused it). I'm enough of a handyman to have tackled most of the work myself. A big chunk of the work has been getting the place organized. We have a lot of stuff, my wife and I. Mostly my wife. She doesn't like to throw things out, but she's a big fan of collecting things that other people are throwing out via selling them inexpensively.
Hence this blog, which I've created as a place to record my thoughts on organization (there's certainly no one else around here who wants to hear them -- well, my two year old daughter will listen, but I suspect she's just humouring me) as well as my progress on the house. It's really just for myself, but since you're here, I hope you find it interesting, informative, or at least amusing.
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