Storage and organisation of older ThinkPads?

[ThinkDan]

Batteries and leaking capacitors aside, for a moment, what is the general consensus about storage to allow for the machines to be organised and retrieved easily, and protected from mechanical and environmental damage?

Most of my collection sat jumbled up in a number of cardboard archive boxes for many years. A conversation with Thomas at Laptop Retrospective back in March regarding the non-black ThinkPads prompted me to have a dig through to find my white 700's. Actually I was surprised by what I found, having accumulated most of the machines between 2008-2012, and indeed delighted by some of the finds. My hazy recollection of two white ThinkPads was proven correct (700c, 720C), I was surprised to find a total of 5 701's when I thought I only had a couple, a pair of 350's and an N33sx I'd forgotten I had, the 360P was actually two 750P's, and so on.



When I counted up it was well over forty machines, mostly of the 700c - 760 era. Most had survived well in the archive boxes, with little deterioration, I assume because they could 'breathe' through the cardboard. By contrast, an X31 used for vehicle diagnostics went from soft-touch to sticky over the course of about a year stored in a plastic crate in the garage.



Initially my thoughts were to steadily check and dispose of the lot via eBay, since they were just 'old things' that hadn't been touched for years, now filling up a corner of the attic. However, as I sorted through them I began to connect with them again... yeah, OK, I'm a hoarder. So now the plan is to keep one good example of each model of interest. Yes, it's fun to boot them up and see old windows & OS/2 on old hardware, but as much if not more satisfaction comes from handling them and opening them up and appreciating the progression of design and detail.

Currently I'm sorting into IKEA's little clear plastic crates, with ventilation holes added. These are fine for sorting for now, and are a good fit for the A4 models up to about a 560, but won't take a T20 - T60 comfortably. Having found a good size of cardboard box to get my keyboards organised (yeah, squirrelled away old IBM keyboards too when they were just "heavy junk") I'm quite tempted by lidded cardboard boxes, but struggling to find a suitable 'tall pizza box' size here in the UK.

So, I want to organise them into labelled containers, store them where I can see what I've got and easily retrieve a specific model, and generally keep them in good order. What to use?

[theterminator93]

I keep mine either for display on a few wall-mounted shelves in the basement (finished - humidity and temperature controlled) or in cabinets in another room of the basement. I will be interested to see what the consensus is as well. None of my systems have gone sticky or tacky and I've had many of them for at least 10 years, others close to 20.

On another note, nice collection! I'll throw my hat in the ring for copies of rare software recovery ISOs.

[RealBlackStuff]

A few years ago, when I still lived in USA, I got free shipping boxes from the Post Office (USPS there).
https://store.usps.com/store/results/fr ... x4jZ7d0v8v
If you have friends in the USA, they might 'organise' a few packs and ship them over.
Would probably still be cheaper than trying to buy something like that (if even available) in the UK.

You've probably seen this, but a nice storage suggestion: https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.p ... 27#p870527.

When I still had my 'collection' (on average 30-50 Thinkpads at a time), they were always 'parked' vertically on their rear-ends in an (aired) cupboard in my office.
Quite space-saving.
Nowadays I only have 2 'spares', which right now are sitting on a chair under my kitchen table.

[LaptopRetrospective]

What an amazing collection.

[fultontech]

Holy Cow!! I don't feel so bad now about having a bunch of ThinkPad filled Bankers Boxes in a closet.

[nfraser01]

Currently storing them in a cupboard in my office which is fairly constant temp and dry (but getting crowded).

Every TP I've ever seen that as not been stored in an actively used room has shown signs of rusting on the ports or tacky coatings. Not that I'm, an expert on this...

SolidPro recommends "spacing" ,meaning airflow jusdging by his photo in :
https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.p ... es#p870491

Looking forward to you thinning out your collection

[olddog]

Holy Cow!! I don't feel so bad now about having a bunch of ThinkPad filled Bankers Boxes in a closet.

Exactly. Me too!

[Gonzaleitor]

I have them in a closet in my Office. I'm interested in the consensus regarding this topic.

[Tom81]

I need to do an overview of my thinkpads. It would also fit to be placed vertically.

[mikemex]

I hope your hoarding gives you pleasure and doesn't cause your loved ones distress because it's the opposite for me. I regret keeping so many things I end up never using. It only robs me, and my loved ones, time, space and peace of mind. And a lot of money.

[Tom81]

I hope your hoarding gives you pleasure and doesn't cause your loved ones distress because it's the opposite for me. I regret keeping so many things I end up never using. It only robs me, and my loved ones, time, space and peace of mind. And a lot of money.

My wife is a bit nervous, but luckily I have a place to store all these things. I don't think I'll buy any more, I'll be satisfied with as much as I have. It's nice to sometimes disassemble and reassemble such equipment and forget about other problems. He treats it as a hobby for long winter evenings.