Lockers versus Totes

Space and infrastructure
1

Hi all,

I’d like to revisit the discussion of personal storage at VHS. I’ve been working to establish ownerships of our lockers so that free ones can be made available to folks.

Over the years there has been a bit of debate on this topic:

We’ve tried charging for them, but we gave up on that. Some of the problems with the lockers are:

  • lockers are quite expensive, even used
  • it’s been first come, first served with new folks losing out
  • not all lockers are sized equally
  • cost and space constraints suggest that not every

The recently dissolved Space Organization committee was looking at a proposal to replace lockers with totes.

Here are some examples of bulk totes for sale on Craigslist

https://vancouver.craigslist.ca/pml/for/d/totes-bins/6494245820.html
(These totes: FP182 Plastic Stack-N-Nest Container - ORBIS)

https://vancouver.craigslist.ca/pml/bfd/d/storage-shipping-totes-bins/6498119894.html
(These totes: https://www.uline.ca/Product/Detail/S-9745BL/Totes-Plastic-Storage-Boxes/Round-Trip-Totes-252-x-155-x-11-Black?pricode=YF531&gadtype=pla&id=S-9745BLQ&gclid=CjwKCAiA-9rTBRBNEiwAt0ZnwwIedAP3rDunFM3Hoxy5_q60dtFXD9b8V35nkx6tNJ_iYaZ63D3MMxoCd-IQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)

Here’s the ask:

  1. Would you be willing to give up the lockers for totes?
  2. Would you be willing to loan them from VHS for a deposit?
  3. If every member got a tote, can we justify the space?
  4. The tote interior would be the ONLY personal storage at VHS. If it doesn’t fit in a tote, too bad.
  5. One tote per member.
  6. If VHS moves, you would have to take your tote home

This is not a concrete proposal, but a serious discussion. You can see the dimensions in the provided links. We have over 100 members. Can we do it?

Potential problems with totes:

  • stacking them means continually loading and unloading of totes to access ones in the bottom
  • totes are lockable but by their nature are also “tote-able”
  • substances might leak out of totes into other totes
  • plastic is less secure than metal

Please participate in the poll so we can get an idea of numbers.

  • Keep lockers the way they are
  • Replace lockers with a tote system
  • Abolish ALL personal storage at VHS
0 voters
2

As per QGM proposal, we’ve already voted that we’re transitioning to bins:

https://talk.vanhack.ca/t/accepted-member-storage-bins/3800

3

Thanks @tyisi, I missed that.

Here’s the wiki page on the topic: http://vanhack.ca/doku.php?id=memberbins

So, what’s a reasonable number of the bins to purchase from Craigslist? 50? 100?

We’ll also need some way to transport them.

4

The idea is that members purchase their own bins and VHS simply outlines exactly which bins are acceptable. This way we don’t have the financial and administrative burden of managing bins or having an inventory of available bins. Additionally, members own their bin so it is fine for them to take it home and keep it and we don’t have to worry about a deposit or management situation.

That said, we could get a nice head start by doing an upfront bulk purchase to kick start this transition but I really would like to avoid us over purchasing bins that will sit stored in the space. 50 or 100 of these bins unstacked is a lot of volume and, I’m guessing here, but I don’t think we’ll have 50 members wanting to buy a bin and store it at the space right off the bat here.

2 Likes
5

If my math is correct 50 totes would take up 21 sq foot of space if they are stacked 5 high (~ 5 foot)

1 Like
6

From discussion on slack, this is my opinion:

buy the S-9745BL bins (the second craigslist link: craigslist | canada) they are the correct bins for member storage bin policy http://vanhack.ca/doku.php?id=memberbins

We can use them for moving and sell/deposit them to members for their member storage bins. I’d recommend buying ~30 bins and no more than 50.

7

We’ll also be using for the upcoming move and we can use them for general storage.

8

According to the members storage bin policy each member is allowed a bin.
We are currently at 130 members. At 5 high this is 26 stacks. Not sure if we’d have the space for this now or later. Realistically this means that not everyone can have a box.

Thoughts?

Mark

9

How about to sacrifice a personal space a little and share one tote for 2 people, maybe 3, depends on personal needs. We can make simple inside partition. You won’t be able to store big items there, but still better than nothing.

10

It’s hard to get proper metrics on how many people would want storage space, but “active on Slack” might be a good proxy for “in-tune enough with the community to know or care about storage space”

image
image1542×463 34.1 KB

Two or three years ago, I helped @laftho do some deep analysis through Nomos too, and I think the number of members that had been to the space in the preceding 3 month period were around the same 50-60 mark.

All of this is extremely theoretical, of course.

3 Likes
11

Alert: Very limited time offer:

Okay all, owner called me back

This is the address, he has 40 left but he will only be there at 3pm
It’s too much to carry out in my hatchback, and he won’t hang on to them
The address is #17-1780 McLean Ave (facing onto Brown)
Guy’s name is Chris, phone number is 604-618-5695

Do we know anyone who can get out to the Poco area with a vehicle sufficient to pull them out? Apparently 40 totes will fill a truck bed.

1 Like
12

Update: A deal has been stuck. Further details are pending.

Please don’t buy any more totes.

4 Likes
13

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.