I don't mean matching your socks to your jock strap. I mean: are your detailing supplies organized by color? It's an important part of working efficiently. And there's another benefit: you greatly decrease the chance of damaging your customer's car. I'll explain.
Grab the right chemical for the job.
At my shop, we kept paint thinner, degreaser, wheel acid, carpet cleaner, leather cleaner, tire dressing, plastic dressing, and even mildewcide in the same 24 oz. spray bottles. And when there's 5 people scrambling to detail 8 cars (some of them fresh hires), it's a DISASTER if they grab wheel acid when they meant to get leather cleaner. That's why we bought spray triggers, bottles, and chemicals that were organized by color. My favorite wheel acid was Meguiars Wheel Brightener. It's purple...unlike any chemical in the shop. Plastic dressing was white. Wheel dressing was blue. Even if I had a thousand things on my mind, I NEVER grabbed the wrong chemical because we organized our shop by color. *We bought into the Meguiars line of chemicals, bottles, and triggers and rarely had any "wrong bottle" accidents.
Don't stop at chemicals. Coordinate your towels too.
Something we should have done better was separate our "heavy duty" towels (carpets, door jambs, seats) from our "princess" towels (polishing and waxing). We had an expensive policy: brand new towels for paint only! You can of course separate your glass, polishing, and all purpose towels by use, but there's a new wrinkle: all purpose towels can now be bought in 3 colors. This means you can actually categorize your "heavy duty" towels: red for carpets, yellow for seats and door panels, and red for door and trunk jambs. Why bother? Because you can separate the truly filthy towels (leaves, dog hair, pine needles, mud) from the delicate towels (seats and door panels) when it's time to wash. No more picking through the towels manually. Just load them up by color!
Learn more about color coordination at my car detailing blog.
Grab the right chemical for the job.
At my shop, we kept paint thinner, degreaser, wheel acid, carpet cleaner, leather cleaner, tire dressing, plastic dressing, and even mildewcide in the same 24 oz. spray bottles. And when there's 5 people scrambling to detail 8 cars (some of them fresh hires), it's a DISASTER if they grab wheel acid when they meant to get leather cleaner. That's why we bought spray triggers, bottles, and chemicals that were organized by color. My favorite wheel acid was Meguiars Wheel Brightener. It's purple...unlike any chemical in the shop. Plastic dressing was white. Wheel dressing was blue. Even if I had a thousand things on my mind, I NEVER grabbed the wrong chemical because we organized our shop by color. *We bought into the Meguiars line of chemicals, bottles, and triggers and rarely had any "wrong bottle" accidents.
Don't stop at chemicals. Coordinate your towels too.
Something we should have done better was separate our "heavy duty" towels (carpets, door jambs, seats) from our "princess" towels (polishing and waxing). We had an expensive policy: brand new towels for paint only! You can of course separate your glass, polishing, and all purpose towels by use, but there's a new wrinkle: all purpose towels can now be bought in 3 colors. This means you can actually categorize your "heavy duty" towels: red for carpets, yellow for seats and door panels, and red for door and trunk jambs. Why bother? Because you can separate the truly filthy towels (leaves, dog hair, pine needles, mud) from the delicate towels (seats and door panels) when it's time to wash. No more picking through the towels manually. Just load them up by color!
Learn more about color coordination at my car detailing blog.