schlepping milk crates

I am now the proud owner of at least 44 milk crates.

I took the day off to transport most of my earthly possessions to my new apartment, with Calista's help. Early in the day, we stumbled upon a haphazard pile of milk crates behind an Indian restaurant, next to a dumpster. A short debate ensued as we weighed the relative merit of asking versus simply taking. In the end we asked, and quite astonished, we received. Seventeen fit easily in the back of her VW Golf, whose cargo capacity proved surprisingly sufficient throughout the day. I went back to pick up one more, just to make an even number.

I have a fetish for milk crates. Before the new acquisition, I owned at least 26, each purchased for $10 at The Container Store. While I'm long past the stage of life where they make socially acceptable furniture, I've nevertheless continued to find them to be an invaluable organizational tool.

At work, I zip-tied 8 together to form shelves that surround my workstation. All of my office doo-dads go in them. When the ~annual office rearrangement happens, I cut the zip-ties, stack the crates, and slap moving labels on them. The movers transport them to the new location, then I re-tie them. So fucking convenient.

When I last moved, I fit most of my belongings in 18 milk crates in the back of my Subaru. After the move, half became closet shelving. A few stayed in the back of my Subaru, as a trunk-organizer. The rest became shelving in my storage locker. The new 18 will help with this move, then they will land in the storage locker, too.

Milk crates are also good for (gasp) transporting liquids. Two 2.5 gallon jugs, four 1-gallon jugs, nine half-gallon cartons, and some undetermined number of pint cartons all fit perfectly. As you would expect, all of the common jug and carton sizes are made to be packed snugly in dairy crates. When my youngest brother went to Burning Man two years ago, he brought 30 gallons of water in 6 crates, wedging them into the back of a tightly-packed uhaul.

I love modular storage. I love when the real world produces physical objects with the same simplicity, efficiency, and utility that I see in really good software.