An old saying that still holds true is ‘prevention is better than cure’. Many emergency repairs around the house could be avoided by carrying out regular maintenance checks of the various items that need to looked at.

Draw up a list of things that need to be checked. Shelving and racking, for instance. Make sure they are still securely fixed to the wall. If one has worked loose, try fitting a larger wall plug and a longer screw.

Plumbing checks.

Stop cocks can jam because they haven’t been used for a while. Two or three times a year, fully close them then open them again. A stiff handle should work loose after a couple of turns. A tap that keeps dripping even after being fully closed needs a new washer.

Electrical checks.

Never work on live equipment. If you are working on an appliance, unplug it first. If it is permanently wired equipment, turn off the power at the mains. Light fittings should be checked for signs of wear. Extractor fans should be cleaned regularly.

Central heating checks.

With gas fired central heating, if a radiator is not heating up properly, there is probably air trapped inside which needs to be bled out. Use the radiator key to slowly turn the valve until the air begins to escape, as soon as the hissing stops, close it quickly to prevent water escaping. A small container such as a bowl will be useful to catch any that does.

In your garage, greenhouse or garden shed you will probably keep all manner of expensive tools, gardening implements, electrical lawn mowers and so on. It is a good idea therefore to invest in sturdy metal storage cabinets fitted with a heavy duty padlock for the tools and implements. A Passive Infra Red (PIR) light outside the house will also act as a deterrent for a potential thief. It is probably a better idea to use the shed or garage for items such as strimmers and lawn mowers.

The keys for the out-buildings can be stored in a purpose built steel safe which has the advantage of a digital lock. You will need to use a four digit number that you can easily remember. Please do not use family birth dates or any other numbers that a thief may know if they have accessed your personal details. Although this is an obvious point, it still happens, do not write the number down and leave it lying about the house.

If you are planning to build a garden shed and plan to make it into a garden office or studio with storage or shelving areas and therefore a habitable building, you may or may not need planning permission. It might be possible to build your studio or office space under Permitted Development laws which permit the householder to make small additions to his home that will not need full planning approval, but these laws vary across the country so be sure to check first.

When spring arrives, however late, it is a good time to have a look around the garden and the exterior of the house to tackle any repair jobs that might need doing. Garage racks and shelving may also be due for a spot of spring cleaning as well.

In the garden, the fence – quite often a close board fence – may have suffered a battering from the winter weather. Not to worry, they are not usually all that difficult to fix. A single board that has been broken could be replaced. You will need to remove the damaged board first. Lever it out and remove nails that have been pulled out with it. If they prove difficult to remove then hammer them flat with the horizontal triangular rail. Slip a replacement board in, making certain that the overlap is straight, then fix in place.

When metal gates and railings for the fence get rusty, they can start to look a bit shabby. The other problem, of course, is that they will begin to deteriorate. Restoring them is relatively easy. Begin by stripping away loose flakes of paint with sandpaper. You may decide to use a wire brush for this operation, in which case, don’t forget to wear goggles for safety from flying particles.

Dip a cloth in white spirit next and wipe them down before coating them with paint especially formulated to inhibit rust. Usually one coating should be sufficient, but it is always a good idea to check the instructions.

Quite a few garages that carry out repairs on cars or motorbikes will make use of various mobile storage racks. Garage storage areas are usually locked up at night and it is more convenient to be able to simply wheel the rack holding the various tools and other equipment needed through the course of a day, into the work area.

During the working day, tools and equipment can be wheeled in one go to any area of the garage where they might be needed. There are many different types of racks available, but in a garage environment, which will be busy and physically demanding, the storage racks must fulfil several essential criteria to comply with health and safety regulations, these include;
• Must be constructed from hard-wearing materials such as steel
• Must have a secure locking system for its wheels when not being moved around the garage
• The storage rack that has been bought must be suitable for the task it is meant to perform
• The rack should be well constructed. A cheaply made rack is not necessarily of poor quality but if it has a flaw then this might not become apparent until an accident occurs

Archive racks are also found to be quite useful for the storage of small items such as bolts, nuts and screws. Clipboards and box files may also be kept here in easy reach so that a mechanic can quickly consult a worksheet if he needs to do so in order to check a repair job or MOT test requirement.

It is likely that nearly everybody would want to store items they need to use in their work vehicles or industrial trucks to make them easily accessible while keeping them safe from damage when being transported to whatever job needs to be done. The last thing an engineer or tradesman wants is to arrive at his destination to find a component or a tool has been damaged or broken.

There are many racks and storage units for use in the interior of vans and are designed to be sturdy and flexible. Some storage racks are designed to be adjustable, making them easy to fit almost every van and have a wide range of combinations of shelves and racks. This will enable the tradesman to pick and choose which combination he finds the most suitable to help suit his carriage and storage requirements.

Heavy duty storage racking is the preferred choice of service engineers, for instance, it is relatively shallow but is still able to store a good number of items with its compact design and also allows a great deal of floor space to still be accessible to the owner should he need to store other items in his van.

There is also a range of strong heavy duty storage racks available on the market that are designed to cope with heavier workloads. This particular system is perfect for van owners who require deeper shelves. The racking units are also ideal for carrying heavier tools and equipment.

There are still some industrial and commercial businesses that use time clocks and time cards. Depending upon the size of the business, different time and clock cards are available to suit most applications.

There is the time recorder ideal for the smaller business. Typically they will be robust and will have such features as:
• A clear, easily readable analogue display
• They will print as many as six columns on a time card which would then be stored in wall mounted storage racks
• The time card will be automatically fed through the clock
• They will be able to automatically adjust forward and backwards for the British Summer Time (BST) and Greenwich Meantime (GMT) changes
• It will be possible to either mount them on the wall or on a table. This is especially useful as wall mounting will be preferred where space is limited

A more expensive model might suit larger businesses and would usually have all the standard features of the cheaper model, including a storage rack for the time cards, as well as:
• A time signal to be used when bells are required
• Multi-coloured printing is available
• The time clock can be programmed to record and print in/out movements of employees

If job costing will be needed, the perfect solution for this is a date and time stamp. This model will typically have features such as:
• A precise record of time and date
• There will be several options for the print format
• A memory backup for five years

Narrow boats, although used mostly for leisure and occasionally as homes these days, were first developed as commercial transport vehicles from the 18th century onwards. Their design enabled them to be used on the extensive canal network in Britain and they were used for the storage and carriage of goods and raw materials around the country. For instance, clay from Derbyshire was taken by narrow boat to the nearby Potteries area of Stoke-on-Trent to be used in the manufacturing of their world famous pottery.

Narrow boats, on occasion, were constructed along similar lines to the much wider river barges. In spite of the similarities, it is erroneous to call a narrow boat a barge.

Until the early 20th century narrow boats were horse drawn, but with the advent of diesel or steam engines, this practice became a thing of the past. The other advantage of powered narrow boats was that they could be used to tow an unpowered boat behind them. This meant that twice the amount of goods or produce could be transported without having to double the number of crew. However the use of narrow boats for the storage and transport of cargo was already dying out.

Narrow boats, nowadays, are utilised to take holidays in and sometimes as permanent homes. Some narrow boat owners use them as a way of making money by offering trips along a canal in them or renting them out. When the weather is favourable, this can be a novel and pleasant day out.

It can be everyone’s worst nightmare when they use a personal computer, finding that a virus has made its way onto your system. Whether you are in business, a student, a writer or simply an innocent bystander who just wants to access the internet – it is a nasty surprise.

Prevention is better than cure is an old but still practical mantra that should be adopted by you. Make sure your firewall is up to date and that you have a reputable virus blocker installed. Since new viruses are popping up nearly every day – it is a good idea to use virus blocking software that will regularly download new lists of these little tinkers and block them. Data storage should consist of saving to the pc’s hard drive and saving onto a CD or USB stick to make sure you have a back up copy.

Sometimes, however, people will forget to make a second copy, nobody is perfect. But there is a possible solution to your storage dilemma known as data recovery software. You will need to exercise a great deal of caution when using any kind of software downloaded from websites. It is essential to note that data recovery software must be run from a CD, DVD or USB drive. If it is installed onto the affected drive it will overwrite the data permanently. If the recovery software needs to be installed, download it onto another drive.

There is sometimes a need to create a space for a home office or a hobby room. If you have a room that has never been used other than as a storage area for odds and ends, it might be time to consider clearing it out and giving it a whole new look and lease of life.

If you want the room to look larger than it is, especially if you are going to be working there all day, you need to examine the colour scheme. Dark coloured walls or wallpaper will make the room feel smaller. Perhaps you will favour the idea of only papering one wall and painting the others. Use plain, light coloured paper and try to match its colour to the paint. Subtle shades of apple white, for example, will help to add some warmth that you may not get with a brilliant white.

The floor and ceiling need to be as light as possible too. Paint the ceiling white and if the carpet is too dark, remove it. When furnishing the room, go for light pine wood if you feel it is practical. Be careful where you place your work desk if using a computer or laptop, as you need as much natural light in front of you as possible.

Make sure you put wall space to good use and install floor to ceiling shelving units for books, files or document storage. Use modular units to enable you to rearrange them if the mood takes you.

Storage space in caravans are created by making use of every square inch of their interiors. A caravan that has recently been developed, for example, has an under-bed storage area that is accessible from the outside of the caravan as well as the inside. This particular model has cupboards and fixings you would normally find in a domestic environment. For example, the surfaces in the living area are high-gloss laminate which is more usually found in High Street kitchen showrooms. Not a conventional touring caravan then, but some aspects of its layout are innovative and may be the trend for future generations of caravan design.

Motor homes are an alternative to towing a caravan and can be surprisingly comfortable. Some modern motor homes have a microwave, conventional oven and a fridge with an extendable work surface that tucks away above the fridge when not in use. There is plenty of storage space which is easy to access. Its washroom has a sink that moves to create a shower cubicle. The kitchen and washroom’s compactness add to the living space in the rest of the unit.

Storage of caravans at home can be quite a nuisance. One solution to the problem might be to store your unit on site at a favourite holiday place as part of a caravanning club. You have the option to store your unit all year round or for a particular season. The fee will typically include two nights’ camping every month on very nearly any caravan club site.