Best tip for equipment managers: how to have complete equipment kits

Picture this nightmare scenario: you arrive at the shoot only to realize that you didn’t bring one vital item. You swear at the gods, shake your fist at the heavens, but to no avail. You messed up. The equipment kit was not complete.

Or at least somebody did, leaving you with an incomplete equipment kit you forgot to check. Luckily, a trick of the trade exists to make sure that never happens in real life. Here is Cheqroom’s number one tip to keep equipment kits complete.

Prefer watching a video? Here you go. 🎥

The carabiner method

Credit where credit is due: our awesome customers brought the carabiner method to our attention.

It’s tried and true, and amazingly simple to boot. All you need is colored plastic containers and carabiners with matching colored tags that snap on and off easily.

This is how it works:

1. Someone enters the equipment room looking for an equipment kit. The first thing they check is the tag.
2. Kits without a carabiner tag are complete. Grab it, run out the door, and get that work done!
3. Kits with a carabiner tag are missing one or more pieces of equipment. Those pieces of equipment can be found in plastic containers with the corresponding number and color. Take them from the container, add them to the kit and remove the carabiner tag. Good to go.

As you can tell, this is a straightforward and foolproof system. It works just as easily when dropping off equipment.

For example, if you’ve used the batteries in a kit, place them in the charger when you return and leave them to charge in an empty container. Attach the container’s number to the bag and poof! Your work is done, and responsibly too.

Now all you need to do is get your colored containers and carabiners, share the tip with your team, and rid yourself of this common frustration.

Anything to share?

Have you tried this method, and what did you think? Do you have equipment tips for us? Or would you like to hear more about a certain topic? Let us know, and perhaps we’ll tackle it in the next blog or video.

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