Local 831 Furniture

Tag: conference tables

  • Used Furniture

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    Used Furniture

    Surplus, Used and As-Is furniture can get you started and help support you as things grow. Our economy runs on cycles, with highs and lows. There is always a surplus that is not being used and furniture is a long-lasting durable good, that has useful life for many years.

    For Humanity …

    Most of us have had the experience of getting rid of old furniture, not being to sell it or give it away. There is a company that can help you with that and helps others as well. https://www.habitat.org/restores Habitat For Humanity does very good work to help families make a home and take care of children. Their ReStores organization takes in household goods, furniture, building supplies, and more. They, in turn, sell these items to help support their housing programs. They are a great source of used residential furniture, home goods, and surplus construction materials. Sometimes they have office furniture as well. Always call first before donating any office furniture, because they specialize in habitats for humans and not a workspace. Office furniture takes up lots of room and has low sales turnover.

    Used Furniture for work

    The used office furniture market has been growing in large cities for decades and most warehouses are full. I anticipate a major glut of electric height adjustable work tables. Because of the “Work From Home” movement away from large groups of people working the offices. The “Open Plan” for office space turned out to be a major super spreader for Covid and will not be come back for a couple of generations. Check-in with your current or previous employer for surplus items and they might give them away to you. You should be to get a table chair and small drawer set for a low price for a used furniture dealer and if a group gathers together to buy 30 sets the price should be cheap. Lots of white, with bright accents and black chairs.

    Used Furniture for Mid Size to Large Projects

    Get your team together for the Safari, hunting down big game is a group effort. Put your packers and loaders on that text list so they can get there quick. Search for empty parking lots with full dumpsters, may have free furniture and stuff in there. Read about layoffs, Working From Home, and listen for “chatter”. Their signs are there and can be tracked. Many times “empty out before the end of the month” comes down the trail fast. If your marketing team can “pull one-off” you might have an “ON-SITE-SALE” after you purchase the inventory. You get to cherry-pick what you want, sell or give the rest away to valued employees. Make arrangements with the property manager and they might have buffer time for you before the construction starts. Keep in mind, insurance, floor covering for moving carts, and whatever else the property manager might require. Most local moving companies already know what each business park wants and how they want it.

    I learned THE HARDWAY about commercial moving in Frisko Ca, Labor Unions, and elevator time. Grunts cost $250 per hour on New Year’s Eve because that was the only time the elevator was available.

    If you will be using systems furniture or cubicles, you will need someone that understands the furniture to manage the installation for planning and parts. When Systems Furniture is disassembled for packing, loading, trucking, unloading, and staging before installation… Parts are GOLD, and should be inventoried or figure about 20% usage for lost or damaged parts. It is the end of 2021, I think Herman Miller Action Office 2 or AO2 cubicles have the very best and available O.E.M. parts for the cubicles.

    Used Furniture

    I am an  Etsy,  Fiverr Affiliate,  Shelving.com,  StandSteady.com,  SwimOutlet.com,  ZumaOffice.com,  GameFly.com,  cambriabike.com,  Quictent.com,  Crandall Office Furniture,  Jackery,  The New Alpha,  Coinbase,  RVT  , Industry West, Eternity Modern, Walrus Oil, Antique Farm House furniture, Casa Gear promotor and have Bookshop.org/shop/Local831Furniture, and get a small commission from each sale.

     

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  • Surfaces and Supports

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    Surfaces and Supports

    Surfaces

    Surfaces, desks, tables, or benches are what support your equipment and arms while working on it. Some people in the last 10-15 years, work with small data entry devices that don’t need large surfaces to support them. Think about a laptop computer on a cafe table or a tablet held in your hand. But, most long-term work is done with something holding up your device. There are some basics, wood, laminate, metal, poly-fiber-something, or a door. It should be flat, able to insulate you from heat-producing electronics, and be adjustable enough to help your body to be comfortable. This is also part of ergonomics, the mechanics of what your body does while doing your work. The depth of the surface will allow you to be closer or further back from your computer, think about a movie theater and how close you like to be to the screen. Power and Data cables can be routed and organized with grommet holes in the work surface.

    Supports

    The next idea is what is holding up your surface. Traditionally there were tables (without drawers) and desks (with drawers) and machine stands. The bases and legs sat at a fixed height, moved on wheels, and may or may not have been attached to the top. The purpose is to support your work in the best way, to position your body and equipment. It may have been machine stands were the first to be adjustable, to position the item to be worked on correctly near the tools. Further progress keeps replacing human hands with machine supports and keeps human body parts safe. Robotics can be seen in major manufacturing all over the globe.

    Set the furniture and focus on the production

    Back to people and our creative work. Ultimately, the furniture you use should fade out of our conscience as we look through our equipment and into our work, what we are building. Use what you have, innovate/gather what works better later and focus on your work. Much of the technology we use today was created on folding tables, cheap little chairs, pizza delivery, and small cartons of pricy ice cream. Real products may require some heavy-duty bench work, heavy-gauge base supports, 120v electrical built-in, lights, and ESD rated for electronic work.

    Time Marches On

    As time passes and bodies change… hopefully, our brains figure out how to help. The height-adjustable table has become a standard item in many tech workplaces today and many times can be purchased separately. Table bases can be used with almost any surface, screwed, double-stick foam taped, or clamped to keep them together. Drawer units can be used for supports, like a desk or post legs with a drawer set on the other end. Listen to your body and support it how you can. If you have been doing lots of computer work, you may have noticed the surface edge and how to avoid it. My personal preference is to rest my forearms on the surface to get the pressure off my wrists and elbows. Gone are the days of the box monitor on the desktop, because… flat screens RULE. Robotics has given us the ability to use mechanical arms to hold stuff, to bring the screen to “just the right spot”.

    Surfaces and Supports

    I am an  Etsy,  Fiverr Affiliate,  Shelving.com,  StandSteady.com,  SwimOutlet.com,  ZumaOffice.com,  GameFly.com,  cambriabike.com,  Quictent.com,  Crandall Office Furniture,  Jackery,  The New Alpha,  Coinbase,  RVT  , Industry West, Eternity Modern, Walrus Oil, Antique Farm House furniture, Casa Gear promotor and have Bookshop.org/shop/Local831Furniture, and get a small commission from each sale.

     

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    Thank you for your support,

    Charles Bradley

  • How to plan for long useful life for office furniture

    How to plan for long useful life for office furniture

    This post has affiliate links and we make a small commission on any order.

    How to plan for long useful life for office furniture.

    Surfaces – Supports – Storage – Screens – Sharing – Solitude

    The hard surface components can have a useful life for 20+ years. We often planned for growth and who would use the parts from that wall-tracked office in the next cubicle expansion. The work surface can be used supported on a panel, adjustable height base, “T” leg, column leg, pedestal drawer, lateral file, flat brackets, or cut up to make panel legs. Moving beyond the idea of each workstation and looking at an inventory of parts for your team to use for many years.

    Refurbished and used parts

    Old fabric panels can be refurbished with new fabric/paint or use paint/laminate to replace the fabric. This will make them very cleanable and extend their useful life even longer. Purchasing used furniture or parts can be a cheap way to go for Start-Ups or an environmental company effort. Many chair parts can be replaced with new OEM parts. Parts is Parts and your facility person can orchestrate a beautiful setting.

    Update what you have

    We continue to adapt to the ever-changing work environment, new health discoveries, or trendy ideas, and the furniture we use can be updated to support our work. Take stock of what you have, how your people are working, and how can you help. If starting from scratch, plan for the next 10-20 years. Refurbished chairs can be re-worked, fabric replaced, or fixed. 

    Design for Happy Work

    Look at your space, and think about the colors and feeling as you walk through. This can be done in your mind or on sketch paper. This is the start of good design, it matters and should be done with purpose. There is an art to creating the balance between a fun and organized workspace. Considering color, the largest office furniture companies have done deep research into what color combinations work best. Trends come and go, new studies show… don’t fear change. New colors can be brought in with less durable goods, think chairs and décor. Human interaction and focused no distraction work both need to be provided for. Most people need both during their work time, social, group discussion and just get the work done. Some professionals will provide you with ideas only limited by your budget.

    Right-Sizing

    Occasionally the office gets “empty”, or downsized or workers just need to isolate in place. The furniture can still be used, should be configured for a safe distance, and may be upgraded with screens. There is a company in Grand Rapids Mi. August Berres that has no wires for their battery-powered work furniture. Freestanding tables, optional screens, and mobile everything.

    How to plan for long useful life for office furniture

    I am an  Etsy,  Fiverr Affiliate,  Shelving.com,  StandSteady.com,  SwimOutlet.com,  ZumaOffice.com,  GameFly.com,  cambriabike.com,  Quictent.com,  Crandall Office Furniture,  Jackery,  The New Alpha,  Coinbase,  RVT  , Industry West, Eternity Modern, Walrus Oil, Antique Farm House furniture, Casa Gear promotor and have Bookshop.org/shop/Local831Furniture, and get a small commission from each sale.

     

    Get Cash Back with Rakuten

    Mammoth Nation Patriot Store is America’s Conservative Market Place.

    Axiom Commercial Furniture , Local 831 Lifestyle , Local 831Workstyle ,

    Relax with Nature Videos with Sand 831 on Rumble.

    Local 831 Lifestyle Relaxing Nature Videos on YouTube.

    Thank you for your support,

    Charles Bradley

  • How to Buy Office Furniture: The Local 831 Guide.

    This post has affiliate links and we make a small commission on any order.

    How to Buy Office Furniture: The Local 831 Guide.

    Update from 5-2022. Shop online through social media, affiliate content producers, or other people that create helpful information to support your work. There are lots of resources and empty office buildings full of furniture. These same principles are a good way of planning for adding furniture to help support your body and equipment.

    Can we work together?

    Space- what is the space that we will be working in? Also, you should put a list of requirements if you do not already have the building that will be used. Office space selection is very important for many reasons and needs a separate post. This is a short list of thoughts.

    Size, will the space fit, and support the number of people? In other words, will the people and equipment have enough room to get their work done efficiently? Data entry and a production line have very different square foot requirements for employees.

    Time, how long do you plan to use that building, and what changes in growth should be expected? For example, is there planned hiring for data entry, or is that new production line scheduled for next year?

    Logistics, parking, data /power, and tuck docks with warehouse storage. Commuting for employees and traffic patterns for a new location has become very important over the years.

    On-site measure, DWG, PDF, or pencil sketch on paper. Let’s get on the same page and define the walls, columns data/power entry. At Fiverr, some people will do project work and computer drawings are easy to do as a remote task.

    Design Resources

    There are also, office furniture design specialists that can put a plan together for you to send out to bid. You should pay them a per square foot amount or a flat fee. If they ask for an hourly amount, it could be very difficult to monitor. There are many places to see furniture online. My Resource Library has become the industry standard, they also can help you organize the vendor catalogs for specific areas or the whole project. When you use fewer vendors, you can get deeper discounts. There are also Government resources that can help with seeing the bigger picture and then focus on each department. I have compiled an extensive glossary of furniture terms in Post #26.

    Go TEAM

    The main idea at this point is to put a team together, to develop a plan and budget for your project. This will give you “the big picture” early and you will use the floor plans every meeting. Many furniture dealerships offer these “add-on” services, track the value and if you don’t buy from them… you get billed. Read the fine print before you sign, it is sage advice for a reason.

    Scope of Work

    What type of work needs to be supported, company culture, café style, manufacturing shop, or cocoon coding? Most likely there will be a variety of work areas, meeting spaces, and alcoves. Also, plan for the next stages of growth, downsize, or flex work from home. Office furniture space planning and design have a long and valuable history. Good design is good value for workflow, social distance, sound management, and focused attention.

    Style

    Branding corporate culture has become ever more important through social media. Your building, furniture, and office amenities can be a very powerful set of communication tools. The back office is “seen” more than ever and can help potential partners, customers and employees build trust.

    Specifying Furniture

    The hard and soft of it – Furniture Specification? Basic follow up from the above, let’s help the people produce. At this point, we should have a pretty good idea of what and how to accomplish the project. #1 How to buy: office furniture purchasing process

    Final Selections

    The main drivers- style, time, budget? What will filter out the endless options? The lead time might cut right to the shortlist. The budget and style need to be balanced. There are endless images to look at. Take a look at office furniture shopping online and see what you like.

    Wrap up the details

    Nuts & Bolts- parts list anyone? I am still a fan of Excel and use it for job costing, purchase orders, and receiving counts. Let’s figure out power, cabling, lighting, monitor arms, adjustable work surfaces, keyboard trays, chair mats, and steel storage.

    Shelving Inc.

    Comparing Quotes

    How did your office furniture shopping go, is there anything you would like me to change? Make revisions early, Change Orders cost time and money. Savvy entrepreneurs have learned the value of clean, quality used office furniture.

    As-Is Furniture

    We have LOTS of empty office space and vacant furniture due to “Work at Home” during the start of the 2020s. Used furniture is a viable option and should not be overlooked. These items may supplement your project with meeting tables, lobby furniture, or possibly the whole project. Large inventories can be shared with multiple companies through long-term business contacts or social media groups. Skip the warehouse, buy direct, DIY project manage, and get FREE furniture.

    How to Buy Office Furniture: The Local 831 Guide.

    This can go very well or just as bad. Do you have a facilities ROCK STAR on your payroll? They are worth all the $$$ on a project. When a facility is decommissioned, everything goes- I.T. (the whole package), the phone system, copier/fax, surplus toner, and office supplies. Battery / Server backups, furniture, Post-Its, and everything. This has been a GOLDMINE for Start-Ups that have people with “the knowledge about the doing”. Note: when subcontracting knock down (K/D), and removal (palletizing and speed packing) for truck loading, it helps to have the same company deliver, unload and install the furniture. Keeping the command chain of liability is very important and you want that chain short and tight.

    Project Management

    Logistics- schedule subs? Who is going to do what and when? Plan moving, sell surplus items, or send them home for flex WFH.

    Are we still getting along? Let’s load the deposit and pull the trigger. If you are a larger organization a Purchase Order or Purchase Card will get things started.

    Please sign here, so I can start the real work of making your project a great success.

    X _______________________________

    How to Buy Office Furniture: The Local 831 Guide.

     

    I am an  Etsy,  Fiverr Affiliate,  Shelving.com,  StandSteady.com,  SwimOutlet.com,  ZumaOffice.com,  GameFly.com,  cambriabike.com,  Quictent.com,  Crandall Office Furniture,  Jackery,  The New Alpha,  Coinbase,  RVT  , Industry West, Eternity Modern, Walrus Oil, Antique Farm House furniture, Casa Gear promotor and have Bookshop.org/shop/Local831Furniture, and get a small commission from each sale.

     

    Get Cash Back with Rakuten

    Mammoth Nation Patriot Store is America’s Conservative Market Place.

    Axiom Commercial Furniture , Local 831 Lifestyle , Local 831Workstyle ,

    Relax with Nature Videos with Sand 831 on Rumble.

    Local 831 Lifestyle Relaxing Nature Videos on YouTube.

    Thank you for your support,

    Charles Bradley