Seven Tips for Arranging your Lab Bench

Scientists often spend numerous hours at their laboratory bench every day. Keeping a lab bench organized and uncluttered with instruments and reagents easily available will increase your lab efficiency. Experts on dermatopathology in Pittsburgh, PA, offer these tips for managing your lab bench.

Hold tips and pipettes within your reach

It can be useful to keep pipettes on a shelf on the side of your dominant hand and stow boxes of tips in arm's reach on the back of your bench on the same side. Keep your primary requirements on your work surface and hold additional boxes elsewhere. Keep trash cans on the same flank as your dominant hand to remove tips conveniently.

Strategic solution storage

Keep solutions you employ every day on your non-dominant side. Store the ones you utilize less often and stock them on your upper shelves. You ought to aliquote stock reagents to reduce the possibility of contaminating the original. Be sure to mark everything with its contents, the date it was aliquoted or opened, and the expiration date when appropriate.

Keep lab notebooks off your central workspace.

Stow lab notebooks away from your immediate workspace to avoid impairment from spills.

Create designated spaces for general supplies

Specify dedicated space within the lab to keep general supplies so you always know where to find items like scissors, calculators, wipes, markers, and other essentials. Order multiple rolls of different colored tape to hold with your supplies for color-coding bottles and tubes.

Organize lab supplies based on use

Keep commonly employed tubes and racks in easily obtainable locations like on the shelf directly facing you or in the middle back portion of your bench. Store miscellaneous things that you use less than every day on shelves or the external areas of your central workspace. Group them according to experiment variety, so you can easily access anything you require when it is time to use them.

Label, label, label

Once you have chosen the best storage space for your needs, label your cupboards and shelves so you and your lab associates know precisely where tools and reserves should go. Then make an effort to put everything back in its home once you have disinfected it properly.

Perform regular audits

Execute an audit of your lab bench every few months for the best results. Then, stock up on any required supplies and move supplies to shelves or higher up on shelving if you have not employed them in the last six months. This will help you make space for materials you use more often and keep your lab bench area more convenient and useful.

The physical arrangement of your laboratory bench can substantially affect your efficiency in the lab. Every extra step and few seconds will really add up. Use these tips for arranging your lab bench to help increase your efficiency. Contact us today if you need dermatopathology in Pittsburgh, PA. We want to make the world a better place, one person at a time!