Keeping track of light inventory - Lights, Lights, Lights! Read Only. No more posting. - PlanetChristmas! Forums. Read Only. We've moved to http://talk.planetchristmas.com - The Forums of PlanetChristmas have moved to http://talk.PlanetChristmas.com
I'm starting my own "collection" of Christmas lights, rather than putting the ones my parents own up. Therefore, I bought a few hundred boxes of lights this season, and of course there are many different types.
I would like to get these stored before too long, but not sure the best way of keeping track of the lights. I bought a bunch of thick plastic totes that I am going to be storing them in, and am thinking about doing an excel sheet or access database that has the contents in each container. However, after I unpack them, I am going to lose all of the information that was on the box. (# of lights, brand, length, electrical information, fuse size, etc. etc. ). This is also going to be a problem when I put the lights out, and take them back down because I won't have that information. Do people usually put some type of identifier on each strand of lights (piece of tape with a number on or something?), that can be cross referenced back to my spreadsheet/database giving me that information? I'm not savvy enough to be able to look at every strand and determine exactly what the light set is.
Any ideas/suggestions on how to keep everything organized would be greatly appreciated!
I used excel this year being my first year and it worked out pretty well. It takes time to get all the fields how you want them and to setup the enviornment properly so it will do that math for you so all you have to do is enter the numbers. I believe someone on here kindly posted their spreadsheet format.
I keep my lights on this spreadsheet. If you need more than 25 lines you can just move the totals line down.
When the lights are stored, I roll them onto an extension cord keeper < $1 each at Menards, Lowes, Home Depot. I marked each handle with the light location that matches the spreadsheet. Works out well and I hope it helps you also.
____________________ For every spark of genius there are a hundred misfires.
A lot of folks put an ID on the male plug to reference back to a spreadsheet. I use two digits for the year and a letter to identify a particular brand/style, e.g.
Welcome to PC. We have a good number of 'regulars' who are Twin Cities-ites. What's your display like?
To answer your question, I don't do a formal light inventory. I have some lights that get labled for how they are used in the display, the rest are 'generic' and I have some handwritten sheets of how many lights I put where in previous years that I use as a guide the next year. I'm a software engineer and I still do most of my planning with pen and paper .
-Tim
Last edited on Saturday January 7th, 2006 03:51 am by tfischer
I'm starting my own "collection" of Christmas lights, rather than putting the ones my parents own up. Therefore, I bought a few hundred boxes of lights this season, and of course there are many different types.
I would like to get these stored before too long, but not sure the best way of keeping track of the lights. I bought a bunch of thick plastic totes that I am going to be storing them in, and am thinking about doing an excel sheet or access database that has the contents in each container. However, after I unpack them, I am going to lose all of the information that was on the box. (# of lights, brand, length, electrical information, fuse size, etc. etc. ). This is also going to be a problem when I put the lights out, and take them back down because I won't have that information. Do people usually put some type of identifier on each strand of lights (piece of tape with a number on or something?), that can be cross referenced back to my spreadsheet/database giving me that information? I'm not savvy enough to be able to look at every strand and determine exactly what the light set is.
Any ideas/suggestions on how to keep everything organized would be greatly appreciated!
Gary
With mini lights, the only thing you really need to know is what type of replacement bulb to use. To determine the correct replacement bulb you need to know the following 2 things:
1. How many bulbs, and
2. Energy saver or superbright.
You can always count the bulbs but it's hard to figure out between energy saver and super bright. If you don't do anything else, use a sharpie to write "ES" or "SB" on the plug of each set so that you can determine the correct replacement bulb for it. Other than determining the correct type of replacement bulb some people like to know what year the set was bought and that type of thing. I don't know that I care about any of that information. The lifespan of minis is pretty short particularly for blue ones. Why burden yourself with tons of information that you will probably never need. If you can't fix a string because you don't have some vital piece of information then toss it out and buy another for .40 on clearance. (You can determine the correct fuse size by looking at the old fuse if it blows so there's no need to keep that.)
All this "book keeping" is yet another reason why I much prefer the C9 (and C7) lights. You don't need to know anything about what type of bulb, size, length, age, weight, birth place, etc. If the bulb fits it will work. Be sure you grab the right color.
TED
Last edited on Saturday January 7th, 2006 08:42 am by TED
For TED's issues, I use a silver sharpie and write "ES" or "SB" on each string's plug. Also, if the string is not 100 lights, I write the light count on it. That way I can see what each string is at a glance.
I sort my replacement bulbs by color, voltage, and type in zip lock bags, and use large zip-locks to hold the major groups of smaller zip-locks (e.g. all energy saving bulbs are in a big zip-lock, and within that zip-lock there are sandwich bags with each individual color). All these bags go in a shopping bag which I can carry around the display for "in the field" replacement if necessary.
I to made a spreadsheet this year to keep track of my lights. I didn't do as much to keep track of my lights as I did to keep track of my amps I was using. I was more concerned about how many amps and were it was coming from. I am actually in the proccess of expanding my speadsheet so that it is actaullly multiple sheets, The additional sheet or sheet will include a breakdown of what items in my display and what lights they use. This way I not only keep track of the lights I have but make sure I have enough of each color and type that I use. This is mostly because my display grew from about 5k last year to 11k this year and already about 35k next year.
Last edited on Saturday January 7th, 2006 03:59 pm by JR V
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