A Storage Story

Robin King shares the lessons learned from his experience of workshop moves

- Robin King

The editor’s recent mention of an impending house move and need to put his workshop into storage has reminded me of two such events that I’ve undergone in the last twenty plus years due to domestic upheavals, one involving short term storage, the other much longer term, and the lessons learned from them which may be of use to others. In short, I got it both right and wrong and realised that better planning would have avoided a lot of problems, unnecessary work, and cost.

After twenty years in one home I had a small workshop 6’ by 9’ in the back of the garage with bench, Myford ML10, bench drill and stand, Adept shaper, bandsaw, and the usual collection of castings, part built loco’s, tools, materials etc. The first move was into a three month rental property pending the permanent move locally. While the rented house’s garage could accommodate some items, I had to find somewhere else for a large proportion, solved by the kindly offer of a friend of the use of her summerhouse down the back garden. That all worked well until I had to retrieve everything and discovered that wheeling a wheelbarrow uphill through the garden, loaded with an ML10 in a crate, took a great deal of effort! The whole job took several car trips, fortunately over no great distance.