How do you store your computer junk?

Lord Evermore

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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I'm basically just looking for ideas for getting my spare computer parts sorted. Right now, they're essentially all just tossed into several boxes with very little sorting or sitting on a shelf (yes, a dozen or two dozen expansion cards stuck in a box at odd angles with no protection other than my half-hearted attempt to not drop them on each other). I've got a box labelled "cables and stuff" which has all the IDE, floppy, USB, power, SCSI, parallel, CD audio cables, plus some fans, case bay covers, old backup tapes and some other random things. Another box has some motherboards in boxes, old hard drives and CDROM drives (in motherboard boxes), an inflatable tube thing for sliding on snow in place of a sled. Another box has a keyboard, some keyboard wrist wrests, a speaker set, some heatsinks, some cables, some fans, a dry-erase board. On my shelves I have hard drives and CDROMs stacked up, plus some more expansion cards and memory modules.

The most organized way I can think of to deal with them is to sort everything and use a small Tupperware-type container for each individual type and have those stacked on a shelf, but that's a lot of plastic containers. There's not enough of any one thing to fill a cardboard box unless I can find a bunch of small ones (hmm...it'd be illegal to get boxes from the USPS and use them for this, right?). I could tie cables together based on type with string, zip ties or twist ties, but then I'd have to undo that every time I wanted one cable. On the other hand, most of this isn't stuff I need access to very often, just often enough to want to get it sorted out and easy to reach (plus so I can rearrange my room a bit.
 

weezie

Member
Dec 3, 2002
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I feel your pain. I had the same problem for a long time and just recently found a solution. I stumbled across a kit that is supposed to be used for a fishing tackle box. It's eight seperate boxes with adjustable dividers so you can resize them from very small to fairly large. The whole thing attaches together for carrying. It look something like this ( except that one has less comaprtments. You can't store anything big in it but it's great for all of the smaller items.
 

KF

Golden Member
Dec 3, 1999
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A big pile works. Why waste good cardboard boxes? ;)

Buy hanging folders and put them in a hanging folder box.
 

weezie

Member
Dec 3, 2002
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Originally posted by: KF
A big pile works. Why waste good cardboard boxes? ;)

Buy hanging folders and put them in a hanging folder box.

Hmmmm....I like that idea too
 

chizow

Diamond Member
Jun 26, 2001
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Get one of those plastic tupperware type hutches from Target or Container store. They usually have 3 or 4 drawers and look OK, not great. They are meant for odds and ends like this, but aren't as bad looking as those crates I used to store stuff in during college. It actually looks like a piece of furniture. You can get em for less than $20.

If I can't find a home in one of my other rigs, I usually give it away, so I usually don't hold onto stuff for too long.

Chiz
 

Lord Evermore

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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Well, I'm a packrat. I can't stand to throw anything out, and I only give things away if I have a definite point that I know it will get used (gave away a few motherboards and processors to a guy building cheap, slow computers for people that couldn't afford them) and if people ask for it. I still have 4 year old birthday cards in a drawer, and email from 7 years ago. Some of the expansion cards I need to store are ISA serial and parallel port cards that I pulled 2 years ago from a machine that I tore apart to use the case from. Will I EVER find a use for those? Not likely.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a hutch-like object like you describe. I'll keep an eye out for it.

A box with dividers may work, if it's very large and deep. It'd be hard to put piles of cables into any sort of drawers that are only an inch or so deep. I already use two small divider boxes for all the screws and connectors.
 

KF

Golden Member
Dec 3, 1999
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>I'm not sure I've ever seen a hutch-like object like you describe. I'll keep an eye out for it.

I think he is talking about plastic carts with drawers. They usually have 4 drawers and wheels, and actually are made in sections so they can be redone and stacked. About 18 wide, 4- 8 inch drawers. Office Depot has them. Target, Meijers.
 

HGC

Senior member
Dec 22, 1999
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I keep stuff I might use in two dresser drawers, and sell the rest to a used computer shop. If they won't buy it, I trash it.
 

techfuzz

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2001
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Lord Evermore,
Sounds like your situation is a lot like mine. For some reason I can't stand to just throw the stuff away or give it up either. I went to Staples/Office Depot/Office Max one of those kinds of stores and got 2 similar to these plastic storage bins.

Just browsing I also saw some interesting ideas here for some plastics carts with bins that would work well too.

I like the clear plastic ones as it allows me to see what's inside them without taking them off my shelves in my closet.

techfuzz
 

Lord Evermore

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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I guess I'll go through all my stuff tonight and see what exactly I need space for and use some sort of plastic bins for it all. For some reason I just didn't want to do stacks of tupperware in my room. Even cardboard boxes seem like a better thing to me on an emotional basis; maybe plastic bins just seem to organized and that is an assault on my senses. :)
 

techfuzz

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2001
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Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
I guess I'll go through all my stuff tonight and see what exactly I need space for and use some sort of plastic bins for it all. For some reason I just didn't want to do stacks of tupperware in my room. Even cardboard boxes seem like a better thing to me on an emotional basis; maybe plastic bins just seem to organized and that is an assault on my senses. :)

Unfortunately some of us are predestined by way of genetics to be organized. Damned parents!!! ;)

techfuzz
 

labboss

Junior Member
Dec 2, 2002
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I was forced to reconsider my storage options when I ran out of room in my small home office. I gave away/trashed what I felt was totally unusable by having a rumage box at work. That's how I got rid of some old 486/Socket 3/Socket 4 mobos, vid cards and stuff. Kept the CPUs, memory and HD for nostalgia and for the IDEA below. Also trashed any else that couldn't be used in anything remotely modern.

Here's my idea. I took all the CPUs and hotglued them in a shadow box (deep wooden box with a velvet backing). I did the same with several ram sticks to document the evolution of the computer. The best one was the HD. Take the cover off the unit and you now have instant art. Now my unusable parts are stored on the wall and office is junk free. You can always pull the CPU and memory off the frame (if you ever need a 486 with 256 Kb memory) but you can write off the Hard drive.

 

Technonut

Diamond Member
Mar 19, 2000
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Get one of those plastic tupperware type hutches from Target or Container store. They usually have 3 or 4 drawers and look OK, not great. They are meant for odds and ends like this, but aren't as bad looking as those crates I used to store stuff in during college. It actually looks like a piece of furniture. You can get em for less than $20.
I have 2 that I use. I picked them up at the Dollar Store. They suit the purpose very well, and are inexpensive. I do tend to forget about what I have in them sometimes.... :)
 

mikable

Senior member
Sep 23, 2000
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Get a 10X20 storage unit at your local storage rental place!

I have several dozen monitors like Roger's photo, a few dozen cases, several dozen boxes of misc. parts, Hmmm, takes about half of the unit up! maybe I'll clean it out one day....


My brother had a short lived new/used/custom built/for trade/used software/hardware store. When he bailed I kindly purchased his "stock" to help him out. As soon as he's back on his feet I'l make him clean it out. Hmmmm, I should live that long....
 

mrman3k

Senior member
Dec 15, 2001
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I have a box in my closet with all of the parts divided into smaller boxes. I have all the software in a small box.