Projects Is your shop a constant mess?

HRP - don't members of your club pitch in and help other members with a project that they are working on? this would be a time for unity and a sense of accomplishment by helping clean your shop. wait until they all show up and tell them pizza and beer on the way but, a little delayed. then hand out the brooms, etc. "idle hands are the Devil's workshop". after this you may wonder why no one ever visits you anymore - Ha!

 

I know where everything is.

 

I actually see something on wheels! I hope it is wired.

 

I drove it around last year, plates expired 20 years ago.


Bob

 

Mine's definitely 'lived in'. I'll get after it every so often, gotta be in the right mood. Hard to shit-can those treasures that've already been moved umpteen times...

 

I just added a 16 x 16 addition to my shop. It filled up before I even got the walls insulated and covered. Wont take much to get that done though. Money mostly, insulation ain't cheap!

The exterior is just about done though after 4.5 years.

 

Mine will never be in Better Garages and Asphalt, because I always have a project in the works.
I've seen pictures of some peoples spotless garages, and I can only think they do not work on their cars.

 

Who told?

 

Yes!

 

I can't seem to convince my wife that my shop is not a storage shed! She keeps sending crap out that she wants to save and it's getting severely cluttered...

 

I thought mine was bad until I saw some of the pics posted! Mine is pretty full, there is room to walk by and in front of the car, but that’s about it. I can’t even get right up to my tool boxes because of junk on the floor that I need to move. But I don’t leave tools out that much, maybe a couple of wrenches and a screwdriver or two laying on the car, but that’s about it. Tools go back in their box when I’m through with them, if I don’t put them up, the Grandson is liable to tote stuff off and I’ll never see it again.

I keep saying, when the car moves out under it’s own power again, I’m going to rearrange stuff, just haven’t gotten to that point yet. Maybe soon.....

 

Mine clean neat as it can be with so much stuff jammed in to it!!!!!!!!

 

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EXACTLY!!

 

I just remembered something that happened about 25 years ago. We had a 24 x 30 three car garage; one stall was for my wife's car and the rest was for my stuff.
I had to go to a conference for a week and when I got home, the garage was completely cleaned and organized. I was speechless. Then I thought to ask my wife, "Did you throw away any of my stuff?"
She smiled at me and said, "You tell me."
To this day, I still don't know if she did or didn't.

 

Getting neater, the pile of 2x4's is gone, window will get installed after the outside gets stained. Two pieces of sheetrock will get screwed to the wall, and I'll gain more walking around room.

 

Should be a hell of a meeting.

 

No. Mostly picked up. Will some times get a little messy when really deep into a project. But, tools pretty much always put away and cleaned. Hate grabbing a greasy wrench from a tool box.

 

My shop used to get cleaned pretty regularly. When I'm working on a project, the tools I was using are all placed on a corner of my workbench, then if I need something, its either in the box or on the corner of the bench.
The floor got swept at the end of a project, or at least weekly. Unfortunately, the workbench usually got a small area cleaned up when there was no longer a place to work, or a place to pile the tools. For the most part, the back of the workbench is piled about 2' deep, I really have no idea what is under that pile...

Things were better before I retired because the space was limited and had a regular turn over of stuff coming and going. Since retirement, only my project is in there, and I'm not in the shop daily like I was when I was working.

I thought that after I retired (Oct last year) I would get rid of a bunch of stuff that has hung around here for a long time, but it hasn't happened yet, maybe next year....

This retirement stuff has made me pretty lazy, or I have always been pretty lazy, but not having to work for a living has made the laziness more apparent.

Maybe there are gremlins working in my shop to make it dirty now that I'm not in there making it dirty as often, it sure seems to be more dirty then it was while I was working. Gene

 

3 years ago it was clean. after 17 years i'm lucky it gets cleaned like this every few years. way to many tools and car parts.

 

I used to have a theory about guys that had a sterile looking shop. It was that they didn't do anything. This I know is not true. But..
I have made a point to do my best to clean off every bench once a week. It does make me feel better. I too can not stand having to look for tools so, at times I have to stop, pick everything up, clean up and go at it again...

 

Always cleaning and it's never clean. Still my favorite place to be.

 

I am attempting to get my big, 2 story, 2000 sq ft, garage built, so things are even worse than usual. The worst part of it all, is because the way my mind works, if I move something, even if it is to a more logical place, It can take me 2 or more years to find it.
PS: the power and hand tools always get cleaned and properly put away after every job. It is the fact that my shop has so much equipment in it, that I have to work the vertical. As it is right now, when I need to use the welder, table saw, planer, or jointer, I need a non rainy day so I can move stuff outside.
Life sucks.
Bob

 

I don't have to ever worry about my wife cleaning my shop. It hasn't happened in 51 years, so there is consistency on my side.
Bob

 

Last time I left both doors of my little one car garage hanging open two women from FEMA showed up clip boards in hand wanting to know about the disaster damage.
Actually my little garage suffers extremely from my buying stuff to put in the bigger shop that I am suppose to be building behind it. The proverbial 10 lbs of crap in a 5 lb bag.

 

I could only dream of having a place as neat as that.
Bob

 

You still have an advantage over me right now. I can't even get my vehicle into my main garage.
Bob

 

My wife avoids all the clutter and aggravation and just takes all the money.
Bob

 

I'm a "neat freak" .
Whereas my husband says "when I said I'll tidy up the garage, I will tidy it up. I don't need to be constantly nagged about it every 6 months or so"

He imported 3 x stainless tool cabinets and stacked them on top of each other to make a "Man kitchen" for his "Man cave"
Before:

And After:

He did a build thread on the Garage Journal for this.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=423989

and had enough components left over to build this
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=425442

 

I'm still bouncing back from a major move near 2 yrs ago...my sails have still not recovered sad to say...

I can still drown my sorrow by hopping in the Ole Hotrod and driving away into the wild blue yonder...but when I get back it's still the same......I pledge to get on top of things someday soon.

I'll feel better for it...


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I look at the giant roller toolboxes and think that it would be nice to have enough space for every tool I own and then think about how many cars and parts I could buy with that money.
I was moving crap around yesterday and found a '57 Chevy factory alternator/p.s pump assembly. Bought it two months ago and had already buried it.