Ok, I did some searching for plastic totes (bins) to use on our new shelves.
My wife said she'd like to have clear totes.
I looked at Rubbermaid.com and decided that the "Snaptopper" bins would work very well.
Now I'm trying to find a source for them. I can't buy then from the Rubbermaid site. I found suppliers where they might have a few of one, but none of the others. Or they have one size in clear, and another size in color. Its crazy.
Ray's link back to that site gave me hope again. They have a live chat so I talked to a rep. I gave them the quantities I was looking at and she said "With this many, let us make up a quote for you, we can probably save you some money over buying them individually in the shopping cart on the site."
So, I am now waiting for that quote (she said 24-48 hrs)
Well, now you have an excuse: "Totes cost too much"
We talked about it this morning and it really is a lot of money for some plastic boxes, but I think it will be worth it in the long run. When I got it all figured up what will fit best to maximize space, I ended up with 132 bins ranging from 60 quart size to 12 quarts.
They should last as long as we do and if/when we get ready to move some day, it will make moving it all and storing it again MUCH easier. I'm sure over time, we'll be glad we spent the money to do it "right".
I feel like if we're just going to store this stuff forever, then why even keep it? But, there is more to it than that. A lot of the stuff we may have room/use for some day when we get a bigger house. Some of it is her mom's stuff that she wants to keep but not really display right now. Also, our plans are to use them for temporary storage to get some of the clutter picked up but still have those things easily accessible.
My vision is that I'll be doing something and need something that I know we have. Then, just go down to the basement, pull that bin off the shelf, and grab that thing. The hard part for me will be to then go put it back when I'm done . . . I'll have to work on that.
I know they can be costly. I have redone the Christmas decorations for my mom. Stuff used to be in old, falling apart cardboard boxes. I got the totes around Christmas, so they are red with green lids. I was able to save money by getting them when they were clearing them out after Christmas. After I moved, I did the same thing with all my Christmas decorations. Before I moved it was a great way to store my toys and the items I was slowly gathering for my house. And you are right, it makes things easier to move. I just took a piece of masking tape, wrote the main item and location for the tote. I even use one in the garage. I have fertilizer and grass seed in it. We all know how those types of bags can be messy when kept around for a while.. so that keeps it from spilling or bags rotting form age. I mainly have Rubbermaid containers.
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Stop trying to be what you see. Be what you ought to be.
I got my quote back from that same site Ray linked to.
The quote is the same as the shopping cart so that was a waste of time. I think I'm still going to go ahead and place the order though. I think my credit card was feeling neglected lately. Maybe this will help it.
Try wal-mart. Sterilite makes some very inexpensive totes. If you can afford to wait, keep checking wal-mart. You will frequently find the tote you want on a close out at 1.00 to 5.00.
As a former plastics man, totes are expensive because they are a petroleum based product. I know when I got out of the business I was paying 72 cents a pound.
Yes, I did say wal-mart. I can't hate them anymore because I need every penny I can get.
Oh, yeah . . . JR . . . about that . . . If you see a big charge from US Plastics, don't fret it, just pay the bill and feel good about helping out your old buddy, Web.
Thanks, CP, but this is the cost of being a little anal. My wife and I both want these to all be the same type, color, etc so they will look nice. It seems like every time we've gone back to a store to get more bins, they never have the same one we bought 6 months ago . . . or even last week. Another nice thing is that in these, they are only two different width and length sizes but vary in height. This way, even different sizes will stack nicely.
I was ready to do the online order form. I still have it filled out and open here.
The lady I talked to said we should do a quote to see if we can do it any cheaper. The quote was no cheaper.
I called to order and one of the sizes is back ordered. She said we can do everything but those 12, or we can wait and ship complete. She said they are expected this coming Monday or Tuesday. I asked if I would be charged a 2nd freight charge and she said I would so I told her to wait.
We got done and I asked for a shipping quote. Since its so many, its coming motor freight, and its like 350 lbs. She said it would be like $320 for freight. After I got my mouth to close I said well, just cancel the quote then and I'll go back an order it online. The cart shows me $140.00 shipping. She said that in the case, the cart is wrong and I would have been called by a rep to tell me that they couldn't ship it for that price anyway. She said she could call the mfgr. and see if we could get a better rate which she was able to do. It still wasn't down to the $140 the cart shows, but about 1/2 way in between.
IF I could get them local, the sales tax would be about $90.00 so I'm saving that which helps offset the shipping.
Sheesh, why does everything have to be so difficult (and expensive).
You're not really saving the $90 in taxes web because when you do your taxes next year I'm SURE you'll do the right thing and pay the usage taxes
As for shipping, HOLY COW, those things are heavy, I figured they'd be about 2 lbs each!
Is the price on their cart cheaper than the price if you found them in a store? You're sure you can't find a store that carried their brand who could just get them in for you?
That is a huge amount of freight. I would have ordered it online anyway. Then if they called me and said the freight is wrong, I would have threatened to cancel the entire order.
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Stop trying to be what you see. Be what you ought to be.