Disorganized workplace behavior is something many businesses struggle with, and labs are no exception.
Considering that you’re working with important experiments and hazardous chemicals, it’s all the more important for you to have effective storage solutions. Or else, you risk compromising not only your experiment’s integrity, but also your lab workers’ safety.
One way to mitigate risk is to have proper sample storage options. Read on for effective sample storage solutions you need to have for your lab.
Label Everything
This might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many lab techs forget to label everything. And if they forget to record what samples went where, you’ll end up with mysterious test tubes that’ll have to be thrown out. Not only is this a waste of time, but also resources.
Come up with an effective labeling system for not only test tubes (such as those from chromtech.com), but also storage racks. Have the test tubes and racks located near a computer or even a notepad so it’s easy to make records.
Get Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS)
Even though LIMS have been around for over 40 years, they used to be a solution only available to larger labs. But because the majority of labs in the world are small or medium-sized, this pushed the LIMS companies to expand into this market.
Thanks to that, today, there are affordable LIMS sample and storage management (SSM) solutions that are affordable. This means your lab no longer has to use spreadsheets or simple database systems to keep track of your samples and where they are.
With automated SSM, you can save time and scale up easily!
Consider Laboratory Freezer Management Systems as Well
In addition to a LIMS SSM solution, you should also get a laboratory freezer management system. This software keeps track of 2 key things: where samples are placed and how many spaces are available.
As you can imagine, this means you won’t have to waste time looking for available spaces in the freezer when conducting experiments. Even if you track these spaces manually with a spreadsheet, there’s always the possibility that someone’s forgotten to update the sheet after placing or removing samples. This can unnecessarily make storing samples a messy and disorganized process.
And when you’re ready to retrieve your samples, it’ll be an easy process, as you can just look it up in the system. As a result, you can keep the freezer door shut and the temperature won’t fluctuate, which can affect your test results.
Get Effective Sample Storage Solutions for Your Lab
Sample storage solutions are vital to the success of your lab. By implementing some of the laboratory sample storage solutions we’ve offered above, not only will you be able to store your samples efficiently, but you’ll also be able to find them quickly.
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