Keeping surgical instruments clean, organized, and accessible

The sterility of surgical instruments can make the difference between life and death, so nurses and other staff need to efficiently pack, store, and retrieve surgical kits in a way that keeps instruments clean and organized. At the same time, hospital space is at a premium: every foot that’s taken up with storage is space that could be dedicated to patient care.

Learn how Spacesaver helped this Los Angeles-area hospital.

Improving efficiency and protecting collections

This private museum’s collection includes movie props, costumes, and scale models, as well as framed posters, paintings, and first-edition books. Because the objects are delicate and vary widely in size, staff often need to construct custom housings to protect them. Staff also prefer to work as close to the objects’ storage locations as possible.

Lacking an effective workspace, the collections managers told their local Spacesaver consultant about their desire for a large, movable, all-purpose work table. They wanted compartments to store projects in progress, and they also wanted drawers for cutters, materials for making conservation mounts, and other supplies.

Learn about the Spacesaver solution here.

FAQ here

Shelving doubles as work surface in a university library

When this university built a new library and learning center, the planning team wanted to provide researchers with convenient “desks” among the reference stacks. But to save space, they wanted to avoid the need for tables and chairs in the area.

The local Spacesaver consultant worked with the university and the project architect to design a solution that:

• Serves a useful function
• Saves space
• Integrates with the library’s interior design

By specifying counter-height cantilever shelving and casework that coordinates with other design elements throughout the library, the consultant created built-in “stand-up desks.”

Contact Spacesaver for pricing information.

Saving space and maintaining the chain of custody

Because evidence technicians typically don’t work on weekends and holidays, and because officers seize a lot of evidence during those times, some police departments can actually run out of compartments for temporary evidence storage.

Most evidence is small, like witness statements, bags of drugs, and camera memory cards. That’s why officers at this police department asked to have one compartment fitted with a drop slot in the door.

Learn more about this Spacesaver solution.

Offering visitors a glimpse behind the scenes

Visible storage is an increasingly popular solution for museums and other institutions that want to maintain optimal preservation environments, while also allowing the public to view collections.

For instance, this facility uses Spacesaver art racks to compactly store framed works of art. Interior walls made of glass allow visitors and staff a chance to view the collections as they walk along passageways.

Learn more about this Spacesaver solution.

Doubling storage capacity and improving efficiency 

Like many professional athletic teams, the St. Louis Blues hockey team has a retail store offering a variety of jerseys, hats, and other gear. Although the shop’s storage area was relatively large, the space was used inefficiently. That meant inventory was difficult to track and staff were wasting time looking for items.

The local Spacesaver consultant had already provided storage for the hockey team’s athletic gear, and the retail managers knew they wanted something similar to the system they had seen in the Blues’ equipment room.

The end result is a fully optimized system that doubled the store’s storage capacity.

See the Spacesaver solution.

Custom workstations
Streamlining workflows and protecting botanical specimens

Spacesaver specializes in understanding clients’ needs and creating custom solutions to help achieve their goals.

For instance, the Morton Arboretum in suburban Chicago needed to create an optimal long-term preservation environment for a variety of botanical specimens, including fruit collections, seeds, and flowers.

Botany cabinets were the obvious solution, but long-term storage was only part of the equation: the arboretum also needed to keep specimens organized and protected as they moved through the intake process, from the time of their arrival at the herbarium until they were placed in their permanent location.

See the Spacesaver solution.

• Some researchers also like pull-out work surfaces in their herbarium/botany cabinets. This might be a good question to ask your clients during the planning phase.
• Staff will also be concerned with being able to isolate material when it comes in for processing so pests are not introduced into the collection.
• Contact Spacesaver for pricing information.

Creating a maintenance work area with WeaponWRX® Storage System

Weapons maintenance plays a vital role in law enforcement agencies. Keeping officers’ weapons in good working order helps ensure the safety of those officers and the general public, and routine maintenance also makes optimal use of taxpayer funds by extending the useful life of costly firearms.

When the police department in O’Fallon, Mo., was in the early stages of planning a new facility, one of the items on the officers’ wish list was a weapons workbench. They wanted to keep weapons organized and secure while technicians were working on them, and they needed storage for replacement parts and other supplies.

See the Spacesaver solution.

NOTE: Although not all WeaponWRX components are drawable in Configura, please consult the enhanced Planning Guide for a list of parts that can be added via Pick-List.

The stainless steel countertop was manufactured by a third party.

Dramatically reducing retrieval time

Although business growth is generally a good thing, it can lead to inefficiency if storage systems aren’t re-evaluated periodically and adjusted to keep pace with current needs.

For instance, employees at this ink manufacturing firm had been accumulating small jars of every custom color they had made over the past 40 years. When customers requested a specific color, it took staff upwards of an hour to find it among the 16,000 jars that were stored on makeshift shelving across multiple buildings.

See how Spacesaver helped the firm consolidate, get organized, and reduce retrieval time.

Doubling capacity while restricting access to confidential records

The front office of a National Football League team was storing confidential records in large wire cages at the stadium, but the team needed to free up space in the area to construct new offices.

The local Spacesaver consultant designed a system that:

• Doubles storage capacity
• Provides convenient access
• Secures confidential files with card readers and PINs for authorized staff

See photos of this project and get the full story HERE.

NOTE: Card readers are drawable in Configura. In this case, Spacesaver was able to integrate the card readers with employees’ existing access cards. Contact us to see if your prospective client’s cards can be used with our system, or if we’ll need to design a workaround.