What do I do with all this STUFF!

[pbjwilson]

As I sit at my computer this is what I can see. Box of Bachman H.O. track with a transformer on top. Marx Streamline set in the box. A Lionel milk car. An old Am. Flyer transformer. Six MTH construction flat cars in the ir boxes. Box of MTH track. That is all within six feet of me. If I go out to 10 feet I can include, LGB freight cars, H.O. plastic structures, Lionel operating accessories - the list goes on. I'm overwhelmed. In all seriousness how do you organize your stuff. In boxes?, on shelves? HELP!

[daan]

Do you guys know IKEA in the US? Ikea is a swedish firm who has a very priceworthy wooden shelf which you can make and build the way you want to have it. It can be extended, build tablehigh or all the way up with all sorts of smart add ons.
It is ideal to sort and store your things you can't keep on your layout. Even straight 4" tracks can be stored in hanging bags etc.
Of course you can build it yourself too.

The whole thing about storing is organization. Make a shelve to store only h0 plastic buildings. Next to it a shelf with 0 gauge plastic buildings then a shelf with operating structures. Beneath the h0 buildings you can store the h0 trains and under that trackwork and powersupplies. Trackwork in a hanging bag, power supplies on halfsized shelves next to it. Idemdito on the 0 gauge and LGB things.
If you don't plan to use the things anymore, and you're not addatched emotionally to it, sell it.
Make it look sorted and simple. If you have a shelf with sorted things it looks much better than a bunch of things lying around everywhere and you keep space more practical and limited to what is really needed.

[pbjwilson]

Thanks for the tips. And yes we do have Ikea in the states.
Think I'll check them out - see what I can find.

[cnw1995]

Paul, the Ikea in Schaumburg is fairly pricey. I would recommend also looking at your local Home Depot, Lowe's or Menards - I know there's one in Glenview. I'm presuming you may not have a layout. Maybe you could put some of this stuff to good use on one. Heck, there's always room for one - I had a 3 by 5 ft one on folding table legs for a few years. But these are good questions I recently wrestled with as well. One of my solutions was to radically simplify my life - getting rid of clutter. I decided I'm staying in one scale - O, and I would only buy / keep what I could park on the layout. I really cleaned out the basement so I could use our entire crawl space for a larger layout which I would gradually build over the years. I got rid of most of my old Model Railroader and Trains magazines (gave them away - sent them to vet hospitals - now I'm leaving them 'strategically' behind at the end of my daily commute), got rid of all my old N scale stuff (engines, scenery, buildings, rolling stock, track) - had fun giving them away to trainless families... I'm keeping my year's worth of CTT and OGRs and will eventually cull them down.

[eZAK]

You could sell what you don't want or need!

Try the various buy/sell train boards on the net

Try ebay .... OR.................

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