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Sunday 2 December 2012

A tricky problem resolved

Some years ago a friend of mine – who thought of himself as a bit of a linguist – was travelling in Spain. He was staying in a small, cheap hotel and was experiencing problem with the draws of the chest-of-draws in his room. They kept sticking … so he went to the front desk to ask if someone could come to his room to sort the problem out.

The problem was that although his knowledge of Spanish was good, his pronunciation was not. What he though he said to the receptionist was ‘Please can I have some assistance. My draws (cajónes) are stuck.’ Unfortunately his pronunciation was not very good, and the receptionist thought that he said cojones … which means something very different, and resulted in my friend having a very awkward conversation with a very attractive young man who arrived at his bedroom door some fifteen minutes later!

So what is the point of this story? Well some months ago I had a major sort-out of my wargames/toy room and began using some wooden IKEA draw units to store some of my wargames stuff in. I bought the disassembled units some years ago, and they had languished unassembled in the loft. I built them – with a degree of unintended self-harm in the process – and began to use them … and they were not very good. The draws (cajónes) stick.

I have been looking around for something to use in their place, and have finally decided to use some more 4 litre-sized REALLY USEFUL BOXES. They are A4-size ...


... and can hold two separate divided trays.


The latter are perfect for most 15mm and 20mm-scale figures, and so far I have been able to store a lot more stuff in less space. Yesterday I managed to buy another dozen in the local branch of MAKRO, and they are already being used.

16 comments:

  1. Good choice Bob, I have quite a few of these!

    Jim

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  2. Jim Duncan,

    I suspect that many a wargamer has at least one somewhere in their wargames room ... and probably have quite a few more.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  3. I have switched over to Really Use Boxes a while ago and love them! Also, if you are placing 15mm foot troops in the box (no pikes or flags), you can also buy from Really Useful Boxes the plain lip tray which sits with more than enough room and place whole another layer of 15mm troops in! (I don't have photos of that, but it works).

    See my following blog entries with some pictures of them:

    http://sapperjoeswargamingtoys.blogspot.com/2011/06/gamers-of-world-organize.html

    http://sapperjoeswargamingtoys.blogspot.com/2011/10/ghosts-from-my-past-part-3-15mm-wwii.html

    http://sapperjoeswargamingtoys.blogspot.com/2011/10/ghosts-from-my-past-part-4-wwii-15mm.html

    Cheers,
    Joe

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  4. Sapper Joe (Joe),

    I intend to gradually replace almost all of my existing storage units with Really Useful Boxes. They are strong, reasonably light, stack without problem, and come in so many useful sizes.

    I do have a couple of the lip trays but the divided trays allow me to stack two trays in each 4-litre box.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  5. I seem to recall these 'Really Useful Boxes' being recommended on another blogspot. Could there be a pattern here?

    For the rest, the story of your pal offers such a powerful temptation to indulge a fondness for rude punning, I thought it best to resist it... :-)
    Cheers,
    Ion

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  6. Archduke Piccolo (Ion),

    I have recommended them in at least one earlier blog entry, but they have proved to be such an ideal solution that I thought they were worth mentioning again.

    It is amazing what can result from a slight mispronunciation. My nephew is learning Chinese, and he tells me that its is full of potential gaffs when it comes to getting a word slightly wrong ... and ending up saying something very regrettable!

    As for puns ... well without them 'English' humour would be a lot poorer.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  7. I've never understood why so many people groan at puns. I enjoy a good pun myself.

    I've bookmarked the US site for the Really Useful Boxes. Hopefully any transactions will be charged as domestic and not international, with the added international fees my bank/credit card company tacks on.

    Although, right now I'm more in need of bookshelves! (somehow I always seem to have more books than shelf space. Forget about stuff expanding to fill available storage space! ha! Something tells me I'm not alone in this...)

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  8. Fitz-Badger,

    Puns are the basis of some of the best humour in the English language ... and we would be lost without them!

    Although the Really Useful Boxes are made in the UK I should imagine that the US prices will be comparable to those in the UK.

    You can never have too many bookshelves ... or books to fill them!

    All the best,

    Bob

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  9. I just splashed out on a bunch of these as well. It transpires, usefully, that the standard 15mm WW2 bases from The System That Must Not Be Named fit two to a compartment in the Hobby Tray. :D

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  10. Mike Whitaker,

    It makes you wonder whether or not the boxes were made to fit the bases ... or were the bases made to fit the boxes?

    Is this a wargaming conspiracy?

    All the best,

    Bob

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  11. Bob,

    *grin*

    I don't know - usefully, the trays are also 35mm deep, which means that even allowing for an excessively deep base and an optimistically-sized 15mm figure, the trays will stack with infantry in and possibly even some cavalry.

    Not of course, that I'd want anyone to think my 15mm WW2 stuff is for anything other than I Ain't Been Shot Mum :D

    Mike

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  12. ..and not only that but you can use the dividers in an standard A4 box file if you want a slightly cheaper solution.......

    ReplyDelete
  13. Mike Whitaker,

    Whoever suggested anything different would be a bounder and a cad!

    All the best,

    Bob

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  14. Steve-the-Wargamer,

    I am sure that you are right ... but my wife actually thinks that the Really Useful Boxes look tidier than file boxes ... and that makes for an easier life for me and a better chance of domestic harmony.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  15. This post may be too late if you have thrown your drawers away Bob, but I use candle wax on wooden drawers to stop them sticking. It works a treat.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Chris Kemp,

    Thanks for the suggestion but I am going to move over to using Really Useful Boxes for almost all my storage needs.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete

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