Community Facility Storage Planning Checklist

Ask each group to list what they need to keep on site, rather than compiling the list from what the committee happens to know about.

Groups store more than anybody realises, and a list gathered second hand is always shorter than the truth.

Note which items travel with a group and which have to stay here, since only the second kind needs space at the facility.

Separating what stays from what arrives keeps the store list honest and prevents planning around things nobody actually leaves.

Record the items several groups use, such as tables, benches, marking equipment or a first aid box, and who looks after each one now.

Shared items sit in the gap between groups, and they are the things that go missing or fall into disrepair first.

Walk the site and note what is currently stored where it should not be, such as behind a building, under a stage or in a corridor.

Displaced items are unmet storage demand made visible, and they are the most reliable measure of how short the current store is.

Note what has to come out and go away as activities change through the year, and who currently carries out that swap.

The seasonal changeover is the point at which a shared store either works or collapses into a heap by the door.

Record anything in the store that no group claims, and treat clearing it as a decision to be made rather than something to get on with.

Unclaimed items occupy the space a new group needs, and disposing of somebody else's property is not a decision to take casually.

Decide whether groups get their own area, their own containers or simply shared shelves, and record the reasoning behind that.

The allocation method decides how a store behaves under pressure, and changing it afterwards means moving everything at once.

Agree that everything stored is marked with the group it belongs to, and decide who checks that this is actually happening.

Unmarked kit becomes communal kit, and that drift is only ever noticed when something valuable disappears.

Write down what one group may use from another and what it may not, and have each group agree to that in writing.

Borrowing without an agreement is the most common source of ill feeling between groups sharing a facility.

Consider whether any group needs a section only they can open, and raise that with the people designing the store.

A single lockable section often settles more disputes than doubling the size of the store would.

Note which groups expect to bring more equipment, and record that alongside the current list rather than folding it into it.

Growth is easier to plan for when it is stated separately, and it stops an expectation being mistaken for a present need.

Ask a specialist supplier and the relevant authority what has to be kept separately from general equipment, and record what you are told.

What must be stored apart, out of reach or under lock is established by suppliers, the relevant authority and the governing body, never agreed locally.

Watch an actual changeover and note where things pile up, who ends up waiting and what gets left outside.

A changeover watched once tells you more about storage than any amount of discussion about shelving ever will.

Note whether two groups would need the store at the same time, and how they would get past each other in the doorway.

A single door serving arrivals and departures at once is the commonest reason equipment gets left out overnight.

Record where equipment can be set down briefly during a changeover without blocking a route or a doorway.

Somewhere to put things down for a moment is rarely designed in, and it is exactly what makes a changeover work.

Consider what packing away is like once the light has gone, and whether anybody can see what they are putting where.

What lighting a store or its approach needs is determined by qualified professionals and confirmed locally before anything is arranged.

Note who is still on site when the last group packs away, and whether one person is regularly doing it alone.

The final pack away falls to whoever is left, and naming that pattern is what allows it to be shared out.

Record what routinely does not make it back into the store, and ask the group why rather than reminding them again.

Repeatedly abandoned items point at a store problem rather than at carelessness, and the users can usually name the cause.

List everything already on site that is not ordinary equipment, including cleaning materials, part used containers and machinery.

Sites accumulate these quietly over the years, and nobody has a complete picture until somebody sits down and writes one.

Gather the supplier instructions for anything of that kind and keep them where the store is, rather than in somebody's own file.

How any material, fuel or cleaning product is stored follows supplier instructions and local requirements, both confirmed before anything is kept on site.

Ask the relevant authority and the governing body what has to be kept out of general reach, and record exactly what they say.

What must be kept away from children or general users is established by the relevant authority and the governing body, not by a committee.

Note what machinery lives on site, who uses it, and whether it is stored alongside equipment groups reach every session.

Machinery kept with general kit is worth raising, and separating the two is usually simpler than it first appears.

Record how part used materials and broken equipment leave the site at present, and whether anything is simply accumulating instead.

How materials of any kind are disposed of is confirmed with the local authority and the supplier before anything is taken away.

List anything on site that plugs in or holds a charge, and treat any supply to the store as a question for suitably qualified people.

Any electrical supply, socket or charging arrangement in a store is work for suitably qualified people, and what applies here is confirmed locally.

Note where bags and coats end up during a session at present, and whether that is anywhere anybody actually chose.

Belongings gather at the first available surface, which is usually a route, a bench or the edge of the playing area.

Record whether belongings can be seen from where people are, and note anything that has gone missing here before.

Whether people can watch their own things decides where they leave them, whatever provision is made elsewhere.

Consider what happens to bags left out when it rains, and where people take them instead when it does.

Wet belongings push people into spaces meant for something else, and that is how the awkward habits form.

Record what the group currently tells users about valuables, and treat any provision for them as a question for others.

What provision should be made for personal property, and any responsibility that follows from it, is a matter for a suitably qualified adviser.

Decide where lost property goes, who looks after it and how it is eventually cleared, and write that down where users can see it.

Lost property accumulates in a corner of the store until somebody owns it, displacing equipment that has nowhere else to go.

Note the larger things people arrive with, such as pushchairs, scooters or bicycles, and where those currently stand.

Large personal items block doorways and routes more often than equipment does, and they are almost never mentioned in a brief.

Give the store a standing owner instead of leaving it to whoever happens to notice, and write down who holds that responsibility today.

A store nobody owns fills quietly with everybody's leftovers, and one named responsibility is the simplest remedy available to a committee.

Agree a simple habit for checking what is present, and decide who does it and where the result gets written down.

Missing equipment is otherwise discovered by the person who needs it, which is the worst possible moment to find out.

Decide how a group reports something broken or used up, and make sure that route is visible inside the store itself.

A reporting route posted anywhere other than the store is a route nobody uses at the moment they would have used it.

Agree how and when things are cleared out, and how groups are told before anything belonging to them is moved.

Clearing without warning is how a willing volunteer ends up in a dispute over somebody else's property.

Photograph the store as it stands, including the parts that are overflowing or damp, and keep those images with the brief.

Photographs make a storage case far better than a description does, and they are the quickest evidence to gather.

Record what has been spoiled in the current store, such as damp, rust or pests, and pass that to whoever advises on a new one.

What conditions a store needs to keep its contents in good order is established by suppliers and qualified professionals for the items involved.

Write down how the store is divided, what each group may use and who holds a key, and keep all of that in one place.

The arrangement currently exists across several people's memories, and combining it into one document lasts for years.

Keep a current list of who can open the store, and decide who reviews it when groups join or leave.

Store access spreads more quietly than site access, because a key gets lent for one session and never comes back.

Decide where supplier instructions, manuals and warranties are kept, and make sure that place is not one person's home.

Documents kept at home leave with the person, usually just before the equipment first needs attention.

Set out what passes to the next person along with the store, including keys, the inventory, the reporting route and the agreements with groups.

A handover list is what keeps a store working through a change of committee, which is when most of them deteriorate.

Agree how a group joining the facility is told how storage works, rather than leaving them to discover it for themselves.

New groups adopt whatever practice they find, so what they are told at the start sets the standard for years afterwards.

Mark the storage matters that are not the group's to settle, and put those to a specialist supplier, qualified professionals and the relevant authority.

Storage looks small enough for a committee to answer on its own, which is exactly why the wrong things get decided around a table.