Interesting Find

Jen and I have been doing a lot of unpacking and reorganizing lately. In many cases it's like we never unpacked when we moved here four years ago.

One of the things I unpacked/reorganized was my old "House Bin" from my motorcycle racing days.

I had five or seven of these kinds of bins for storing/transporting/organizing all the crap I needed for a race weekend. I had a "kitchen bin" with cooking/kitchen type stuff. I had a "garage bin" with tools and cleaning supplies you'd find in the garage. There were also bins for spare parts, etc. Each bin had a giant letter on top, made with duct tape, to denote what bin it was.

This was called the house bin because it contained things I usually kept in the house - things like my leathers, helmet, sunglasses, ear plugs, lap timers, etc. It had a giant H on top.

For those of you that have raced mt. bikes with me, the next part probably won't surprise you, but under the lid of each bin was a list of the contents it should have.

The list served two purposes. The first was to make sure I had everything in the bin before I left home - a checklist. The second purpose was a list of contents for anyone that may have been traveling with me. Jen pretty much knew where everything was, but my Dad may not have. If I asked him to get me something, he could always flip through the lids to find out which bin it was in.

For my friend Dave (race partner) and me, there was no such thing as being too organized when it came to racing. The majority of our success I think was due to planning (and lots of luck).

You never knew when something would break, foul up or the race schedule would change due to weather, but you had to be prepared.

In the end it all made this

a lot easier and more fun.

- b