How do I know what to keep and what to throw?

[trishk]

Hi all, I've been a tech for about 6 months now taking over a tech who was here for nearly 10 years, wasn't able to get trained by her much as she left a few weeks after I started which was at the end of the last school year so didn't really get all the information I needed but have been doing pretty well thanks to all the teachers and their support.

I have been slowly going through the prep room and storage cupboards as our stocklist is very out of date and have been cleaning and organising as I go along, but it's all quite a mess (nothing against the previous tech, she was here for a very long time so how it is probably worked well for her) but as someone new to the whole being a school tech thing I think it needed a reorganise and clean.

My question is how do I know what to keep and what to throw away? I'm of course asking HoD before I even think about throwing things away, but the answer is always 'We haven't used that in years but maybe we will need it again?' but the years in question is coming up nearly 6-7 years and some things even longer from 2006 and very clearly not been used gathering dust, broken (I tried fixing) and taking a whole bunch of space very much needed in the cupboards. I recently found 24, 2.5L brown glass containers and had to throw half of them away as there isn't enough space and 24 just aren't needed. Items like that are very easy to figure out but others like melting point apparatus and colorimeters which I've been told hasn't worked for years so I bought replacements which the teachers loved but the HoD is hesitant to throw them away even though they haven't worked in years.

Do I keep these broken/uneeded/unused things in hopes of maybe finding someone to fix it or finally use it or do I need to speak up and tell HoD that it needs to be thrown away and that even the other teachers agree? HoD is lovely but I've been told a bit of a hoarder and other teachers often help me sneak out the smaller not so expensive things out that need to be thrown away.

Thank you, and sorry for the long post

 

[amplitoad]

As a tech in my second year, I think it might be best to complete a whole academic year, then you will get a feel for what get used and what doesn't

 

[CovTech]

If the HoD wants them kept there's not really much you can do apart from work on them until they agree to skip it as it's all "his/her" equipment
I do agree that keeping broken kit for the sake of it is nonsense but it's their call annoyingly

When we had an amenable HoD we put a post it note with the date something was last used on everything in the stores and removed the note when it was next used
Anything that still had a note 12 months later we discussed and either the HoD justified it or we convinced them to chuck it

Worked quite well but the really big clear didn't happen until we moved from old to new building years after that
Now that was a purge....

 

[tp73]

but if it's broken chuck it out (if it can't be fixed )
I love taking stuff to the skip

 

[trishk]

As a tech in my second year, I think it might be best to complete a whole academic year, then you will get a feel for what get used and what doesn't

That's what I was wanting to do aswell as it seemed the smart choice but, theres a science storage cupboard in the pastoral room that they want cleared out so I need to somehow find the space for it, its all very confusing and annoying

 

[trishk]

If the HoD wants them kept there's not really much you can do apart from work on them until they agree to skip it as it's all "his/her" equipment
I do agree that keeping broken kit for the sake of it is nonsense but it's their call annoyingly

When we had an amenable HoD we put a post it note with the date something was last used on everything in the stores and removed the note when it was next used
Anything that still had a note 12 months later we discussed and either the HoD justified it or we convinced them to chuck it

Worked quite well but the really big clear didn't happen until we moved from old to new building years after that
Now that was a purge....

The post it note idea is genius, will deffo be using that, thank you.

The big clear must have felt so good!!

 

[CovTech]

The post it note idea is genius, will deffo be using that, thank you.

The big clear must have felt so good!!

There was a skip, a large skip, what my wife who hires them out for the council would call an 18-yarder
I filled it twice

 

[trishk]

but if it's broken chuck it out (if it can't be fixed )
I love taking stuff to the skip

I love a good throwing out as well

 

[Didgit]

Hi all, I've been a tech for about 6 months now taking over a tech who was here for nearly 10 years, wasn't able to get trained by her much as she left a few weeks after I started which was at the end of the last school year so didn't really get all the information I needed but have been doing pretty well thanks to all the teachers and their support.

I have been slowly going through the prep room and storage cupboards as our stocklist is very out of date and have been cleaning and organising as I go along, but it's all quite a mess (nothing against the previous tech, she was here for a very long time so how it is probably worked well for her) but as someone new to the whole being a school tech thing I think it needed a reorganise and clean.

My question is how do I know what to keep and what to throw away? I'm of course asking HoD before I even think about throwing things away, but the answer is always 'We haven't used that in years but maybe we will need it again?' but the years in question is coming up nearly 6-7 years and some things even longer from 2006 and very clearly not been used gathering dust, broken (I tried fixing) and taking a whole bunch of space very much needed in the cupboards. I recently found 24, 2.5L brown glass containers and had to throw half of them away as there isn't enough space and 24 just aren't needed. Items like that are very easy to figure out but others like melting point apparatus and colorimeters which I've been told hasn't worked for years so I bought replacements which the teachers loved but the HoD is hesitant to throw them away even though they haven't worked in years.

Do I keep these broken/uneeded/unused things in hopes of maybe finding someone to fix it or finally use it or do I need to speak up and tell HoD that it needs to be thrown away and that even the other teachers agree? HoD is lovely but I've been told a bit of a hoarder and other teachers often help me sneak out the smaller not so expensive things out that need to be thrown away.

Thank you, and sorry for the long post

Not an unusual problem !
Decide how many vacated cupboards you need now, and ask him/her to prioritise the offending cobweb-gatherers...
Then arrange removal of the lowest ranked to empty those...
[btw, do ask Labaid if they would want them, regardless of function; they do check/fix stuff before they send onward. Better than landfill !!]

Repeat at a later date, as required !

 

[Didgit]

Not an unusual problem !
Decide how many vacated cupboards you need now, and ask him/her to prioritise the offending cobweb-gatherers...
Then arrange removal of the lowest ranked to empty those...
[btw, do ask Labaid if they would want them, regardless of function; they do check/fix stuff before they send onward. Better than landfill !!]

Repeat at a later date, as required !

Technician who was working with me left last week

Back to doing it alone again. I can already feel the trays of dirty equipment that is about to stuff the room. Sigh Either way I'm planning on working hard until 16:10 and then just go home. I used to stay late (8pm regularly) when I was alone before the new tech joined but I don't want to do...

community.preproom.org

 

[Emma R]

I do a yearly is it crap or is it useful trolley(s). I pile a load of stuff that I don't have a clue what it is, can be equipment, paper work, crap from a random cupboard or filing cabinet, on to a trolley in the prep room and the staff have a week or so to identify it as usable and explain how. If it is still there it gets binned.

 

[Rock Chick]

This won't sort out your immediate problem but will help in the future (hopefully). When I do my annual stock take, I put a yellow sticker on anything that hasn't been used in 3 years. If it still hasn't been used the following year I put it in the "for disposal" cupboard until there's enough to warrant getting a Registered Waste Carrier in. Covid was a weird couple of years because there were fewer practicals so quite a few chemicals got stickered! We are now fully back to normal so I am removing stickers if I use the chemical.

 

[Carys]

IF you have time to test the broken things and reassure yourself that they are indeed useless...then find out where the bins are in the building and sneak the dead things out in a black bin liner at an opportune time (next strike day could be useful).
I promise nobody will ever know they're gone, and nobody will ever ask for them.
"Broken colorimeter..? Oh, it was in a cupboard...here, have this nice new one we got and I'll look for it later!"

 

[Puds]

The post it note idea is genius, will deffo be using that, thank you.

The big clear must have felt so good!!

We had similar idea years ago with sticky dots.
Even after years we still have some stuff
It's the cry of, " But we might need it in next syllabus" that drives you insane.
Accidently " lose" stuff.
They never even know what equipment we have until we make the mistake of showing them!

 

[karen b]

Ask on here to help identify kit. Maybe some of it can be brought back into circulation.
Big ticket items that don’t work might be worth sending to Techlab or similar to get them mended.
If it genuinely can’t be repaired then get rid. We favour the trolley in a little visited store room that is emptied once a year.

 

[Peter Dale]

I definitely sympathise on this one. I started in a similar boat, taking over from a long-time technician with only a week of training, and first time in school to boot.

And to be honest, I'm still deciding whether to keep some things. When I started I didn't know about this place, so I used to fill one of my trolleys with stuff and wheel it into the science office with a note asking teachers to identify items and whether we would be likely to use them. That helped me with quite a few items, but some I decided to leave alone in case it ever came up without being identified. Now I've been here a while, I've made the decision to chuck anything that hasn't been used at all. So far I've freed up a few cupboards' worth of space.

 

[Fallout_Girl]

Never ask the teachers about what to throw away, they'll always want to keep things 'just in case...'
We do a similar system here to others in that we sticker things that haven't been used for a while and if its not used again a year later we deal with it. Sometimes that's by throwing it away and sometimes we offer stuff to other schools in our trust.
Clearing out is a slow and steady job, just take your time with it. Sometimes space can be made just by tidying up or repacking a cupboard so if you need to make space see what you can do with that first.

 

[trishk]

Not an unusual problem !
Decide how many vacated cupboards you need now, and ask him/her to prioritise the offending cobweb-gatherers...
Then arrange removal of the lowest ranked to empty those...
[btw, do ask Labaid if they would want them, regardless of function; they do check/fix stuff before they send onward. Better than landfill !!]

Repeat at a later date, as required !

Thank you! Will check out labaid as well

 

[trishk]

This won't sort out your immediate problem but will help in the future (hopefully). When I do my annual stock take, I put a yellow sticker on anything that hasn't been used in 3 years. If it still hasn't been used the following year I put it in the "for disposal" cupboard until there's enough to warrant getting a Registered Waste Carrier in. Covid was a weird couple of years because there were fewer practicals so quite a few chemicals got stickered! We are now fully back to normal so I am removing stickers if I use the chemical.

I found a plastic bottle of H2So4 labelled 2010 with about 50ml or so of liquid in, was rock solid, tested the pH and it was neutral, nearly had a panic thinking it was conc and would explode if I dropped it, post it/sticker method will be used for sure from now on!!

 

[grumblinggemma]

well the thing about chucking is I asked to remove all the rock stuff as they hadn't used it in years. got told no might need it. This year my fourth its back on the syllabus, so had I we have had to bought it back in. I do have a loads of stuff in the holidays i am coming to purge but only stuff I have never and better versions of. Stuff we have a lot of excess of and I know get used.