Ever since my trainer's program ended and the barn reverted back to the care of the BO, I've felt strongly invested in making improvements out there. Partially because I want caring for that barn to feel as easy as possible for the BOs so they never try to sell it, and partially because I work there twice a month now, and certain things have been driving me crazy as a sometimes employee.
Like this.
That's our command center in the extremely tiny but surprisingly functional feed room (seriously, the wall you see above is the total depth of the room, which is less than 3 feet deep by maybe 7 feet long). With so many different people doing the feeding and stalls now, we needed "If the BM is hit by a bus, here's the instructions"-level information sharing that didn't involve scratching out and rewriting information on a sheet of paper.
After completely normal (for me) levels of overthinking, this is what I came up with:
Everything in black is in permanent marker. Everything in blue is dry erase. At one glance, in one place, you can see everything you need to know to take care of this barn.
But I didn't stop there. I moved the barn calendar out of the tack room and into the feed room, so the feed room (which is open to the aisle in the center of the barn) becomes the centralized communication point.
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| Both of these are getting hung on the wall as soon as I remember to bring my drill to the barn... |
I added a corkboard for farrier receipts and checks, which is on the aisle side so our farrier can just reach around and pin things to it easily.
And then I cleaned the whole damn thing out, because it was full of "welllll I didn't know whose that was so I just left it" detritus that accumulated between the various management changes.
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| This wasn't all of it. Also that's the feed room with the ladder inside it. |
Once I was done, we had a lot of empty shelves, but that's a good thing. I'm sure we'll find things to put on them, but this room is too small to have a bunch of useless stuff in it.
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| Tiny but super functional. |
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| Other side. I also shoved the feed bin up against the wall, added a shelf above it, and used a hook and chain to create a way to keep the door open without having it further out into the open space |
...ahhhhhh that felt good.
Yasssss! My barn has feed charts like that and it makes it 100% easy to step in and feed. Plus I snap photos of my horse's feed schedule for my own records, bc it's just easier.
ReplyDeleteFor sure, that's a good idea
DeleteThis is so important, now more than ever. The morning barn worker at my friend's farm recently tested positive for COVID. The feed chart was way out of date and only a handful of people knew the correct feedings. There was a lot of scrambling going on. It's a big farm, too, easily 30 or 40 horses.
ReplyDeleteI think in terms of "what disaster could happen and how could I prevent it" all the time thanks to work so I didn't specifically think about COVID-19, but you're totally right. It's especially important to have transparent knowledge sharing right now.
DeleteLooks great! I'm sure that makes it way easier for everyone involved!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely!
DeleteYou are a woman after my own heart lol
ReplyDeleteLol hello fellow neurotic organizer
DeleteNice work! Dry erase boards are the best things ever for barns.
ReplyDeleteI had a giggle at how similar those names are to animals I've had/have on the smartpak drawers. Rio, Pita, Aeres... I had Rio, Pia is my dog, and Aeres is pretty close to Eros.
Haha!! I'd say great minds but those three animals all found us. Funny coincidence!
DeleteLol! The only name I picked was the dog's, so definitely a funny coincidence!
DeleteWow. You have inspired me. So this weekend I'll be cleaning out the feed area space to make things more streamlined and functional. Also what kind of feed box is that? And do you like it?
ReplyDeleteI really like it, it's got two compartments in it if you use the optional divider, and each compartment is capable of holding probably 3 bags of feed? We never fill it up that much. That ring on the front is a nice latch that can be operated with one gloved hand in the winter, which I appreciate, and then like I said in the post the ring is useful for holding the door up.
DeleteIt's got a sticker on it that says Horseman's Choice Equipment and is probably 14 years old so I'm not sure where they got it from, but this is almost identical: https://www.southernstates.com/catalog/product/p-8518-behlen-country-poly-feed-storage-container
I definitely agree - it feels great to have an organized barn. I love how you organized such a small space to be so logical and functional. Also I can't believe all that stuff came out of such a small space! :D
ReplyDeleteRight? It was just not being used well before, for instance one of those Smartpak drawers held a bunch of boots that were nearly to the end of their life. This is a lot more functional for what it is, a feed room.
DeleteHello professional organizer? Can I hire you to come to my barn please?
ReplyDeleteUgh, dream job, for real though.
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