I just love things on wheels.

No, not big fat muscle cars, but, just stuff that moves around on wheels, in my shed.

I love my shed and I have lots of stuff.  To my wife’s bewilderment, I get more stuff to go with my other stuff.  It is hard to explain why I sometimes need two or three of the
same thing and an array of miss matched and appropriately sorted and labelled screws, nuts, bolts and bits of strange shaped things (some of which I have forgotten the reason I saved them – but I know I will need it tomorrow if I throw it away today!)

So all my stuff fills my shed and often I have to move stuff to get to other stuff.  The answer, have everything on wheels!

I have benches on wheels, seats on wheels, shelves on wheels, lockers on wheels and trollies on wheels to wheel things around that don’t have wheels, yet!

I think it is my knowledge that I am the master of my environment, albeit that it is a 20 x 20 shed,  because of the wheels on my things.

I have decided that there are a few things that must be on wheels to have a productive, safe and happy time in my shed.  Incidentally, this is MY shed and the Occupational Health Safety and Welfare guidelines are what I make them – there will be no ‘Hi-Viz’ vests (see my post on this at Better with Hi-Viz).  Safety will always be trumped by fun, if it is more fun to have something on wheels than it is safe to do so then the wheels must be fitted with all due haste.  Fitting wheels immediately upon a new purchase is imperative however, I do not recommend taking the wheels of your wife’s ‘market trolley’ or small child’s trike as they don’t get it!  In these circumstances, it is just another really good reason to go to Bunnings – because I need a reason!

Okay, so the things that must be on wheels:

1. A Seat on Wheels
   Mine is an old office chair that I have removed the broken office seat from and replaced it with a stool top.  This allows me to just plonk down on it to either do work on the low bench or the high bench (must have both!) and also to just sit on and have a beer – which is becoming a more regular shed exercise than actually doing work.  This seat of course, being a recycled office chair has adjustable height and most of all, you can scoot around the shed to get stuff (including beer) without actually standing up.
2. Esky of Wheels
   I have converted an old fridge into my favourite esky (yes I know ‘Esky’ is a brand name but I just hate the word ‘cooler’).  As a result this is a big esky and requires two people to lift it when full but can be wheeled about by one.  Of course having the esky and the above stool on wheels gives you the option of scooting on the stool to the esky or wheeling the esky to you – both fantastic solutions to getting a beer with the minimum of heavy lifting or in fact actually walking.
3. Tool Box on Wheels
   Well my tool box doesn’t actually have wheels but I have a tool box trolley to wheel my tool boxes around.  This is of course only needed when the ‘shed toolbox’ does not have a tool I need and I have to bring the ‘car toolbox’ into the shed or visa versa.  Plus if you have the tool box on wheels and are using the stool on wheels you can actually do all your jobs again by just scooting around on your stool and having your tool box in tow – and getting beer at the same time.
4. BBQ on Wheels
   This is not the big BBQ that sits in the back yard with multiple burners, flat plate and wok burner (whatever that is!) but the BBQ that you take to the river, on the family holiday, to the park.  It is also not one of those little round one’s like our Dads had were we had to have three rounds of cooking just to feed the family.  My BBQ has wheels that are to move it from storage to usage.  It is a big flat plate BBQ for doing the sausage sizzle or the morning pancake parade while trying to feed 100s of our own kids and the 100s that always seem to be hanging around (and recently writing things on our shopping list that they would like us to have in our house for them!).  This ‘family BBQ’ is the next generation with a built in table, it’s own set of tools and I have got rid of the annoying little ‘fat cup’ underneath and put in a ‘fat channel’ that  directs all the fat into beer can that you throw away at the end of the day (my Mother would be horrified as this ‘dripping’ was what she cooked all our breakfast eggs in – usually at a depth of about 3 cms!).

I actually can go on and on about things on wheels and how I love my shed – but it is Sunday morning and I am sitting at my computer writing this when I should be having my second cup of coffee in my shed, just standing there, wondering and actually bearing witness to man’s triumph over maintaining serenity and order in a world of hardware and stuff.

So in the future, when you bend to lift that heavy thing, when you have to stand up to get that beer, think about the wonder of wheels on things ……. and go about installing them immediately!