Cases, Shelves, and Storage | Practical Solutions to Maximize Your Storage Spaces

If you’re reading this article, then you can already envision how things would improve with an effective backstage and greenroom. It’s common knowledge that decluttered workspaces significantly enhance effective workflow and reduce stress. Gear gets damaged less and lasts longer. Tripping hazards are minimized. Distractions are diminished. But in the urgency of the moment, piles accumulate and become part of the landscape. Let’s transform these areas into launchpads to build something great.

Clean workspaces also communicate important information to three distinct groups. They tell financial decision makers that you responsibly steward the resources they allocate for your ministry. They tell potential volunteers that their investment of time and energy likewise will be honored. They tell the congregation that what happens in those spaces is significant.

Likewise, clutter is a neon sign that shouts, “I am unorganized. I plan poorly. I am irresponsible. I lack maturity.” Who wants that on their resumé?

Instead, set yourself up to succeed even in the continual urgency of preparing a worship set. Read on for some helpful tips.

Before Getting Started

Tips for Backstage

Cases & Shelves

Cable Management

Workspace

In the Greenroom

Onstage

For Portable Churches on the Go

Keep the Victory Going

Get Advice from a Pro

Before Getting Started

Rather than immediately rolling up your sleeves and jumping into the midst of the clutter-cutting fray, pause. A good plan will dramatically increase the impact of your efforts. You’ll have a better opportunity to maintain the work you’re putting in now. Then you can get to work.

Learn from your clutter. It reveals your work habits. It gives you clues about which tools are most important and need to be readily available. It paints a picture of important events you have impacted. It may reveal old plans that now need to be put aside or gear that might have been important at one time but is no longer helpful. Sometimes it’s tempting to associate an item with a significant moment and fear that eliminating the item will dishonor or diminish that experience — so our spaces become dust-covered museums rather than workshops for new growth. In such case, consider creating a more space-friendly, clutter-free way to honor those moments. Yet perhaps the clutter simply indicates a need for a better method to address the many tasks of worship ministry. Identifying your root needs builds toward long-term success.

You don’t have to address everything at once — keep this in mind and you’ll breathe a bit easier. Time and resource restrictions may require that you declutter one step at a time. For example, you may need to begin by creating zones for certain gear and then schedule the management of each section incrementally. Permit yourself to scale up.

Take a practical look. What space do you have to work with? What are the primary traffic paths on and off the platform? What gear must be immediately accessible? What stackable containers and sturdy shelves do you already have? Are there resources elsewhere in the facility that can be repurposed to help? How can your current resources be leveraged to simplify your workflow? If your plan is complicated or adds steps, then it won’t last. It will work if it can be maintained when you’re in a rush.

Tips for Backstage

Cases & Shelves

Avoid the clutter that accumulates on top of cases stacked on the floor by using affordable heavy-duty shelves and sturdy bins. When possible, keep the bins unstacked, especially for frequently used items. Having to unstack multiple bins to access or put away contents discourages their use and promotes clutter in the heat of the moment.

When you organize your containers, give special priority to those with items you use most. Place them within fast, easy reach to eliminate searching or adding extra steps when things get urgent.

Label all sides of your containers with large, legible print for quick identification. Colored spike gaffer’s tape works well — it’s visible in low light and can be written on with black marker — plus, it leaves no gummy residue when removed. Also, label the space where the containers live so volunteers can easily identify where to replace the container if it’s moved.

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For items commonly taken on and off the platform, consider wheeled storage units. Just roll one out, remove everything you need, and wheel it back to its designated area. You’ll regain significant time by not repeatedly walking back and forth to the storage area! Check out these professional-quality, heavy-duty wheeled storage options from ProX and Gator.

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Get your items where they need to go with these wheeled utility and specialty storage carts from Hamilton, Manhasset, and Gator.

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Cable Management

No more rats’ nests! Consider using slatwall panels if you have many different types of cables. Label them by type and length or anything that will make finding and replacing them fast and easy. I teach all my volunteers the over-under cable wrapping method and instruct them where to get and put away the cables they use. Slatwall can also accommodate display accessories such as sliding guitar hangers and movable shelves, bins, and item holders.

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Workspace

Give your tools a single home. One home; no hotels, no second house in the Hamptons. You’ll reduce frustration and save time with an easy-to-see, grab-and-go setup rather than a catchall tool bag that you must rummage through every time you need something. A section of wall is a great place to start. Add some long magnetic strips or pegboard, and voilà! You’ve created an efficient tool-storage solution. See-through desktop containers help organize small items such as batteries, connectors, adapters, in-ear tips, and small maintenance tools.

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Speaking of tools, a label maker (along with spare label tape) is worth its weight in gold! In addition to cables, label your tools to designate their location, e.g., “Worship — Backstage.” This helps them return should they go on an unexpected field trip. Like the rest of your tools, always keep the label maker in the same location!

Near the tools, have a well-lit workbench type of space for making emergency repairs or for use as a temporary desk. It needs to be sturdy and long enough to hold a guitar or keyboard. Posting a “nothing goes here” sign can help keep the space accessible. If the workbench is against a wall, then consider attaching magnet strips to the wall for your tools.

Designate one container to hold damaged gear. I recommend tagging everything going into it with green or yellow painter’s tape and a permanent marker. Include the issue and a date. Not only will the description remind you of the problem, but the date indicates that if you haven’t been able to fix the item within a reasonable time frame, then you don’t need to keep it anymore. Just like scheduling time for organizing sections of your workspace, schedule a regular time for sorting and repairing damaged gear.

Have a designated location for long-term storage so that such items do not encroach upon your regular workspace. If you’re new to your position, then ask if there is a storage space already designated — I worked at one church for over 10 years before discovering that there was a collection of old stage sets and gear stored above the gymnasium! If something remains in long-term storage for over a year, repurpose it or sell it to fund current needs. A great time to clear out long-term storage is in the lull following Easter.

Consider including a lockable cabinet, shelf, or drawer for items that need to be safeguarded, such as microphones and IEM packs. Avoid the temptation to hang the key nearby.

An inexpensive hanging shoe rack is a low-cost, DIY backstage solution to manage people’s IEMs, phones, keys, and such or to organize mics and transmitters/receivers assigned to people for a service.

Provide an accessible trash receptacle and assign the task of emptying it to a rotating schedule of volunteers who have lighter stage-strike responsibilities.

In the Greenroom

Maintain an appealing and functional aesthetic in your greenroom. While RAB Audio is known for studio furniture, their modular shelf systems are even sturdy enough to handle amp heads and come in a variety of scalable options.

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For wheeled rack products and storage units that also serve as functional furniture, check out these highly rated offerings from RAB Audio and Gator.

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Pro Tip: Although lining the greenroom walls with shelves is a practical use of space, consider reserving some wall space to inspirationally remind your teams about why they do what they do. Hang large photographs of team members being effective, laughing and connecting, or worshipping with the congregation. Rotate the photos occasionally. An online or local sign company can create custom vinyl wall lettering you can apply with your message.

Onstage

Reduce visual clutter by hiding cables (or using cable protectors or throw carpets). Lessen the sense of a wall of music stands by angling them sharply to reduce their visible profile from the congregation’s line of sight. When possible, keep guitar and microphone stands to the sides of the platform, out of view. Place personal IEM mixers below the congregation’s line of sight. Have a designated space backstage for personal items and instrument cases so musicians are not tempted to leave things on the platform wings where they’re visible, may impede traffic flow, or cause tripping.

For Portable Churches on the Go

Take it from someone who spent years as a megachurch campus tech director loading and unloading several semitrailers’ worth of gear for every service — weatherproofing, intelligent design, and durability matter! Whatever you want to keep dry and mobile, from instruments to drums, rack gear, wireless systems, hardware, mixing consoles, speakers, and pedalboards, consider SKB’s line of over 750 cases with wheels, pull-out handles, stackability, and convenient features to maintain your workflow and maximize your storage capacity.

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ProX creates wheeled storage systems that a single person can set up and strike.

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Keep the Victory Going

One reason many churches never start managing their clutter is that they suspect it cannot be maintained in the long term. This is not true, especially when you share the work. Make it a team effort. Empower a small group of volunteers to spot-check the platform at the end of each rehearsal or service to ensure all unnecessary mic stands, coffee cups, water bottles, miscellaneous gear, and personal items have been removed. It only takes a moment and communicates contagious respect for the good things occurring in that space.

Follow a simple “clean up after yourself” rule. Bring something into the building? Take it home. Get something out? Return it properly so it’s ready for the next person.

When you train new musicians or interview potential volunteers, walk them through the greenroom, stage, and backstage areas to reinforce from day one that things have a place and that you value volunteer time and effort enough to make beneficial tools accessible. Plus, it’s simply satisfying when people ooh and aah and appreciate that excellence matters. Including the backstage area in your new-member tour adds a sense of value for all the effort and resources that the church invests in creating significant opportunities to connect through worship.

If a demanding schedule continually urges you to postpone maintaining a clean working environment, then the clutter is winning. You probably haven’t recently said, “I have nothing to do for the afternoon, so I think I’ll clean out the backstage.” That rare opportunity seldom spontaneously presents itself! But you can win the day. Rather than waiting until you have a large block of time to do everything all at once, proactively schedule regular, short time slots to organize specific areas. Don’t give in to the temptation of putting it off. Small, consistent bites will accomplish the job and seem like less of a chore.

Get Advice from a Pro

Your situation is unique. No one else has your exact combination of stage, backstage, greenroom, gear, clutter, volunteers, and that collection of used M&M wrappers growing in the corner that your keyboardist is convinced has begun moving on its own. On the other hand, your Sweetwater Sales Engineer can give you helpful, personalized recommendations to master your specific needs. Reach out today at (800) 222-4700! Ultimately, you’re the expert on the spaces you manage. The clutter stops with you!

If you can’t store it, sell it on Gear Exchange!Empty your gear closet and restock your clean space with the gear you want. When you sell on Gear Exchange, you have the option to redeem your earnings in the form of a Sweetwater Gift Card and pay zero fees — no seller fees, no transaction fees. Selling is safe because all communication is handled directly through your Gear Exchange portal with other Sweetwater customers, and we process the credit card transaction. Plus, we take care of promotion and make listing easy by autopopulating all the info on any gear you sell that Sweetwater carries. All you do is list your gear, answer any buyer questions, and ship (we can help with shipping labels, too). It’s a great way to get the gear you need and defeat the clutter.

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