Storing your kit

[Richard W]

Having recently become more active in terms of photography, and added a lot more items of kit to my already substantial collection, I'm now finding that I have bits and pieces here there and everywhere in a range of drawers and cupboards, so that whatever I need always seems to be at the back, under a lot of other things, if I can find it at all. My basic kit, 2 bodies, four lenses plus a few filters etc., lives in a photographer's backpack, so no problem there. It's the plethora of other stuff that's the problem. This is partly because I'm loathe to throw out older stuff that has no resale value, including film bodies, my first digital EOS (D30, 3.25 megapixels), three Sigma lenses that don't work with the later bodies, flashguns that can only be used manually, and so on. In addition, as a lot of my work is macro indoors, I also have loads of bits and pieces for my "indoor macro studio", clamps, mini-tripods, four small slave flashguns, three ring flashes, bellows, extension tubes, wireless controllers, an insane number of adapters and connectors, dozens of cables, numerous batteries, four battery chargers ........... etc., etc.

Has anyone solved the problem of storing stuff like this? I'm thinking that the best idea might be to empty a wooden chest of drawers I have and use cardboard parts bins (which fit neatly into the drawers) to divide everything up, at least the smaller things. Unless anyone has a better suggestion?

Some things will just have to stay out, such as the copy stand, lighting stands and the 80 cm. light tent which came packed into a tiny package but which I've never managed to fold up again since it exploded out to full size, it's like wrestling with a very springy octopus.

[digiman]

Re: Storing your kit

A chest of drawers? I think you need a 40' shipping container Richard

[Longshot]

Re: Storing your kit

Your hoarding what's the point, someone someday will be faced with sorting it out and what else have you got !!??!! I sold a Nikon EM bought about 1980, put on ebay for a fiver-made £73 two years !!
I have a late friend who would never throw anything away, impossible to list-like Mini in garage for 30+ years. In 2 years of ebay selling for his wife I've made over 2K for her and the house is still chocker block and will take years to clear or a dealer will come in and make big bucks !!!

[the black fox]

Re: Storing your kit

I have a set of ikea malm drawers ( there very deep and sturdy) fitted with ikea drawer divider boxes ,it started out neatly but as you look for a specific item it gradually becomes a mess.so I know what you mean ,most of the bits in them wouldn't even be sellable on the bay but they all have there uses.
And thanks to you I will now probably spend all day Saturday sorting them out

[Tigger]

Re: Storing your kit

it all goes in a shoulder bag that I assumed I could use whilst out and about until I tried to pick it up when fully loaded!! but its not a wasted bag as it keeps everything in one place

[AlexR!]

Re: Storing your kit

My 'payment' for building the fitted wardrobes in our spare bedroom was that I got a whole section of it for my bits and bobs, so I put in internal shelving to suit my needs, including power for charging etc. That said, I have nothing like the amount of stuff that you describe, and I am somewhat in agreement with Longshot; I just about understand the keeping of old bodies for old times sake, but any accessories that I know I will never use, I am pretty ruthless about disposing of.

[Nathaniel]

Re: Storing your kit

My rule is that if I don't use an item regularly, I will dispose of it. Sometimes I am given items FREE from friends and others who know my photogrpahic interests and I have been given several flash guns which used to be part and parcel of the film Canon EOS period. These flash guns still work fine but I never use them on my digital bodies, and they are in one camera holdall in my wardrobe. Apart from these, I only have got the kit that I use. I myself downsized to a smaller place due to ill health and now I will not get anything that are superfluous to my needs.

[Stan]

Re: Storing your kit

I use our spare bedroom as office cum computer room where I built a unit wrong one wall a few years ago plus an odd tv unit and shelves eats along another which got in such a mess that at the end of last year we decided to clear that wall completely and replace with shelving units from the IKEA Kallax range, which are divided into square boxes to which you can add drawers, doors or various coloured boxes or just leave open for storage of files. So we installed a few doors and boxes and behind one door we keep all our lenses when they are not being used and in a box all the bits and pieces of filters etc flash guns, and backup bodies. There is also a shelf for the printer and space beneath behind more doors to keep the various papers and spare ink tidy. Can't believe how we lived with such mess for so long. The best part was it was so cheap too...less than £150 all inc I think

Stan

[rcarca]

Re: Storing your kit

Your hoarding what's the point, someone someday will be faced with sorting it out and what else have you got !!??!! I sold a Nikon EM bought about 1980, put on ebay for a fiver-made £73 two years !!
I have a late friend who would never throw anything away, impossible to list-like Mini in garage for 30+ years. In 2 years of ebay selling for his wife I've made over 2K for her and the house is still chocker block and will take years to clear or a dealer will come in and make big bucks !!!

I am slightly ambivalent about this. We have disposed of a lot of stuff that my father had collected over the years - usually papers and gadgets that he collected. BUT, he also had letters sent between his great, great grandfather and his father - which I now have - as he travelled from Scotland to India. They really ought to be the basis of a mega photographic project! So I suppose somethings should be kept! I also have my grandmothers bellows Kodak camera...

So as I say, somewhat ambivalent, although I understand where you are coming from!

Richard

[@imagesBV]

Re: Storing your kit

I also have Ikea Malm drawers for my kit...plus the floor of a double built in wardrobe for studio flash kit, a camera rucksack and Domke bag, several Lowepro bags....Oh...I think I need another trip to Ikea too!.
I'd recommend decluttering and dump what you can't see of being of use in the next 6 months. Take it to a charity shop....they will probably know how to dispose of it usefully. There is a shop in Northallerton full of old film kit, lenses etc...don't know their name though.

[tigerburnie]

Re: Storing your kit

I have a set of ikea malm drawers ( there very deep and sturdy) fitted with ikea drawer divider boxes ,it started out neatly but as you look for a specific item it gradually becomes a mess.so I know what you mean ,most of the bits in them wouldn't even be sellable on the bay but they all have there uses.
And thanks to you I will now probably spend all day Saturday sorting them out

Sturdy Ikea Jeff??

[El Sid]

Re: Storing your kit

Having recently become more active in terms of photography, and added a lot more items of kit to my already substantial collection, I'm now finding that I have bits and pieces here there and everywhere in a range of drawers and cupboards, so that whatever I need always seems to be at the back, under a lot of other things, if I can find it at all. My basic kit, 2 bodies, four lenses plus a few filters etc., lives in a photographer's backpack, so no problem there. It's the plethora of other stuff that's the problem. This is partly because I'm loathe to throw out older stuff that has no resale value, including film bodies, my first digital EOS (D30, 3.25 megapixels), three Sigma lenses that don't work with the later bodies, flashguns that can only be used manually, and so on. In addition, as a lot of my work is macro indoors, I also have loads of bits and pieces for my "indoor macro studio", clamps, mini-tripods, four small slave flashguns, three ring flashes, bellows, extension tubes, wireless controllers, an insane number of adapters and connectors, dozens of cables, numerous batteries, four battery chargers ........... etc., etc.

Has anyone solved the problem of storing stuff like this? I'm thinking that the best idea might be to empty a wooden chest of drawers I have and use cardboard parts bins (which fit neatly into the drawers) to divide everything up, at least the smaller things. Unless anyone has a better suggestion?

Some things will just have to stay out, such as the copy stand, lighting stands and the 80 cm. light tent which came packed into a tiny package but which I've never managed to fold up again since it exploded out to full size, it's like wrestling with a very springy octopus.

Here, are you just me in disguise?...

I'm pretty much exactly the same situation right down to the D30 and old Sigmas albeit without the macro stuff.

Sad to say all my stuff is spread over various cupboards, cabinets, draws and camera bags so I feel your pain...

[JayJay]

Re: Storing your kit

This is perhaps a little off topic but it is not too far removed. After my current boring saga of the moisture in a lens, what do you guys think of as extreme variance of temperatures for the storing of equipment?

I ask because I'm now moving my 'stuff' from the spare and small bedroom to the sideboard in the living room. The spare room, upstairs does tend to get a little cold, probably down to 7-10 degrees, but it rarely gets above around 15 even in the summer as it is north facing.

The living room. on the other extreme can vary from 7-10 in winter without heating on and from 15-20 with heating on, in the winter, that is. Does anyone know just how much these temperature differences can/will affect my equipment?