We’re planning to do a snug clean-out next weekend, on Feb 29 and March 1.
I haven’t been able to prepare for this as much as I wanted to, so it looks like it’ll be a similar approach to last time where we wing it on the day, but we should still be able to make a good dent in things.
If you’re up for helping out, be it with carrying, photographing things or messaging people on discourse about their stored projects, please add yourself here!
Hi
If my membership is up and running I would be happy to help. The direct debit is set for the 27th. If that works then let me know what time you are starting.
Thanks
Same situation as Giles, happy to help with carrying and organising stuff 
Amazing! I think I speak for everyone when I say that you’re extremely welcome to join no matter if your membership has actually gone through or not 
Welcome, and perfect!
I think we’ll do some planning together in the morning to figure out the best way to get things out of the snug, give the people they belong to a chance to claim them and then make them available for generally consumption if unclaimed. I expect a fair amount of photography and moving things from A to B and then back to A again 
What start time are you thinking on Saturday?
Do we have the necessary things for this operation ready ?
Bumping this – all hands needed to #SaveOurSnug/create some useful project storage space and free trapped projects from their limbo state!
@kirberich do you have a start time?
We’re happy to fund pizza/lunch for the work crew
Let’s meet at 10am on Saturday, but of course dropping in later is also fine!
During the members meeting on Tuesday it was discussed that during last years clearest of the snug there might have been too much thrown out.
Can we maybe think of a time line how long things can be stored for people to claim or respond to regarding what is going to happen to it before they get discarded?
The spring clean is happening on the 28th of March so maybe we can have that as the deadline everything needs to be claimed by or it will be removed?
Maybe we have 3 categories on Saturday: labelled, unlabelled and rubbish.
Labelled: catalogued and contact person to see what will happen with the piece.
Unlabelled: catalogued and added to list for people to claim
Rubbish: can go
Then people have 2 weeks to claim their items and either remove, give a expiry date or say when should happen to it.
Then 2 weeks for anything unclaimed to be either moved to general consumption, someone else to use or the original owner still pick it up.
On the 28th of March everything that is still unclaimed can be removed.
Just thought I put this here for anyone to comment and everyone to have an idea what will happen.
Let me know what you think!
See what @kirberich thinks…but members have already had about six weeks’ notice about the clearout
Last year’s system was laid out excellently…but the presence of a skip seemed to encourage a few people to skip the reuse/repurpose/share widely phase…which was a major disappointment and led to useful gear being thrown away
In terms of members’ gear: we should be kind, but two week of storage for abandoned stuff is very generous!
My major concern is where the stuff is all this time
Some links:
Last year Spring Clean/Snug clearout were the same thing:
https://discourse.southlondonmakerspace.org/t/snug-clear-out-items-claim-it-or-lose-it-or-say-if-you-want-to-take-it/12893?u=dermot
We have the opposite problem as well - there are still shelves of people’s stuff from last years clearout without storage requests that never got taken home. Is a years notice good, can we repurpose that stuff now?
It’s not fair to other members to have a few folks have semi-permanent storage when they cart their stuff back and forth all the time as we are supposed to…
I definitely agree with you @asander1 and @Dermot.
What happens to any of the stuff that does not get claimed but is too good to throw out? Can members just help themselves?
Also, as a suggestion going forward, can the storage requests here on discourse be connected to a reminder system and once the deadline runs out it needs to be renewed (within reason and with a reason) or it can be removed and go to communal use?
Yes, we try and redistribute as much stuff as possible
The automatic nag system is a nice to have: I think @kirberich and others had some thoughts about a fair system for this… there’s talk of automatic charging for late removals too…
Sorry I haven’t been really involved in this discussion, I’ve had a bit of a hectic work week!
@Julia I don’t think we need anything really special for the clear-out, though provisions are definitely a great idea I think labels to make it easy for us to mark things for removal in a more-or-less permanent way would be really useful too, I’ll try and bring some.
The categories you proposed seem great to me, especially being able to distinguish between things where we’ve been able to contact people and where we haven’t.
I do think realistically we need to give a few week’s time for people to pick things up or at least shout loudly that they can’t make it down in time, but that does seem plenty given all the notices that have already gone around. I think the trickiest thing here is to actually make available/throw away things once the deadline is up!
@Dermot where to store things in the meantime is something I’ve also been thinking about - I think putting things back into the snug is really the only realistic way as there just isn’t enough storage elsewhere. I’m thinking we take over the shelves, which will make it relatively easy for people to find their things. Again, I think the trickiest thing is actually going to be removing abandoned things after the collection deadline. (This also lets us just completely reset what’s stored on the shelves, which have turned into a bit of a first-one-to-claim-one-owns-it situation)
@asander1 I think anything that’s still there from last year’s clearout without having moved or having been claimed should really be on an accelerated schedule, ideally we make those things available for reuse after this weekend, a year’s notice does seem plenty.
I didn’t really have any ideas for this, but I think @Gawain suggested that really the important thing is just following through with the rules and removing things when their storage expires + a bit of notice, which I fully agree with. If the rules aren’t enforced, no one follows them, as they’re clearly not important. I think once we start enforcing the rules and find that things still get left behind, that’s when we should start thinking about reminders/charges/etc.
See you all tomorrow!
That sounds all great. Let’s see how much we’re left with tomorrow and then see what the best way to deal with it is.
I am sorry I’m running about 15 minutes late
I’m running a bit late too!