Ever since I got my container I haven't been making very efficient use of the space it provides.
When I first got it I used it to store the timber for the posts and beams. I did some cutting and work on those in the container but mostly outside and when I finished with that I just sort of piled things up on the bearers and bits of timber left over without ever sorting things out properly. Consequently, it got to be quite a junk pile and I was sometimes losing things. E.g., I wrote about a sunset trip specifically to get some more stitching screws when actually it turns out I had plenty in another, somewhat concealed, box. A few weeks ago I was looking for a pack of small paint brushes which I knew I had but couldn't find so decided on a major clear out and re-organization.
I put a lot of possibly useful off cuts of OSB, rolls of vapour membrane, battered but usable tarpaulins, etc, in the loft over the main bedroom, burned a lot of wood scraps (and have more wood and paper to burn later in rubble sacks), and bagged up a lot of scraps of plastic packaging, etc, to go to landfill.
I got five racks of shelves to keep tools and miscellaneous bits of stock on.
I also made up a work bench which gives a more useful area to work on than my pair of workmates and helps with standing up straight to preserve my back. I'd actually started this years ago but it all got a bit lost in the mess in the container. I originally cut the posts at the back of the bench (posts from the house which I'd messed up) assuming a bench top made of 18mm ply but I actually used some 22mm chipboard flooring. When I ordered the flooring sheets for the loft over the main bedroom I calculated on just over 4.5 sheets for each half so needing 10 sheets in total but actually it was just under 4.5 per half which was lucky because one of the sheets delivered was not in a good condition: very battered tongue and grove along both long edges (I'll try another supplier when I need more) so ideal to trim down to make the bench top. This gave me an opportunity to practice using my router to widen out the slots in the posts.
I don't have any “before” pictures as it didn't occur to me to take any but even if I had I'd be embarrassed to post them. Here's what it looks like now.
