After about a week of tripping over air hoses, extension cords, jack stands and other random crap I finally got to a breaking point and spent 4 hours cleaning the shop. All that time spent and I've got about 2 car bays worth of the thing cleared out, not much in a 5000 sq ft shop and the whole rest of the thing is just as bad or worse as what I conquered today. I tend to be a really clean and orderly person but my dad (whose shop it is) and brother are the kind of people who just leave things wherever they fall and look all over the shop to find something the next time they need it. I am always the one who gets fed up with things and ends up cleaning crap up, which is fine, I view it as paying my rent to use the place. But all of this got me thinking: how many people HAVE to be working in a clean orderly area and how many can stand working over and around all the crap? I feel like it's hard to produce quality work if your surroundings are chaotic but I know there are those who find a way to get it done. I'm guessing this will end up being about 1/3 of people being like me and 2/3 being more messy but I thought I'd see what you all have got to say.
I also like a clean shop. I`m fairly ocd about the way I do things and alway clean up and put my tools away before I start another project. I find that it is way more produtive to keep it clean and organized. My shop space looks better than the office, but I like the bays and hate the office.
pretty vlean. especialy if theres a carr truck in thee. a whole llot of bikes at the moment, and its still pretty clean and organized.
OCD all the way. Right now there are shipping peanuts everywhere and it drives me crazy. They will be gone tonite.....
Or you are boozin when you should be cleaning your shop! I wish I had a shop. I do however have a 3 car garage that I keep spotless. Everything has a place and is in it. I have to keep it organized or else my old lady will slip some of her shit in there for storage and encroach upon the last man area in the house.
Ok I'm guilty of another thing that I hate to admit. The only time my shop/garage gets cleaned is when I want to work in it. The rest of the time it is a catch all for whatever is out of place anywhere else on the property.
clean mine once a week. I try to put things back when im done with em, but still find that once a week I gotta get it ALL back where it goes, and sweep and clean it out so I don't go nuts.
5000 Sqft shop, wow you are spoiled, I have a 380 sqft garage with a car port attached, thats all I get. and yes its quite dirty. You figure out how to store stuff accordingly and still have enough room to work on the old heap.
I just got to the point a couple of weeks ago where my garage was driving me crazy. I just gutted it, even taking cabinets off the wall and just insulated, drywalled, taped, mudded and sanded. I'll paint on Sunday then SLOWLY bring back in things as needed. I'm hoping this method will help me stay neat, tidy and organized forever.
I have chaotic organization, My tools all have there place and i put them away when im done. It really grinds my gears when people put them wierd places. I always put tools in plain site on top of stuff so there easy to see. I leave my hoses and cords out untill i get sick of the tangle and clean it up. My shop is open to the elements so it has lots of dirt, trash and random stuff all over everything. Everything is a table. I organize spare parts into groups that i understand but couldnt explain at times. But there just tossed on shelves with similar stuff. Same with the sheds, for some reason i have all me chemicals in the garage where they shouldnt be because there flamable, but i keep my motor oil in my gardening/crap shed. But i know where it all is, and where it should go.
Garage has to be clean. My mind can't stand a mess. Goes for our kitchen as well when I cook. Plus I have CRS if I don't clean up. I can't remember where I dropped it.
I am in the middle. I have to keep my shop (1 car garage) organised. But there are times when tools get left on the rolling bench or side bench. After a while I get fed up and put everything away and start over. My little shop has everything on wheels. It has to, too much in it. From a car project to a big table saw, drill press and all of my other tools for wood working, welder and my auto tools. And the repairs I do on my bicycles and the neighbor kids, and two kayaks hanging from the ceiling. Man I need at least a two car garage, but this is what I have and I make it work.
My projects last too long to take the above approach. I'd only be cleaning the shop once every 2-3 years. Mine is usually an organized mess, but I do take a couple hours every so often to do some general cleaning. Normally my shop looks terrible to the casual observer (wife). I know where everything is, so spending a lot of time cleaning it is time taken away from projects. Works OK for me, may not for some others.
2 sprint cars, 2 street stocks (and their spares), 2 24hrs of lemons cars, my trucking biz + mine and my dad's hobby vehicles all get worked on here. Tends to fill up a lot of space in a big hurry. At any given time there will be enough room to pull only 2 mayyyyybe 3 cars into the place, the rest is packed full of random parts tools and just plain trash. Unlike the sounds of some other places it seems like nothing here has it's own place, just put it where it fits.
True that. I could spend 60-90 minutes at the end of the day, cleaning up and putting everything away, and another 30-45 minutes setting everything back up in the morning, 6 hours later, when I get back in, but then I would have lost 90-135 minutes of work time. Who do I bill for that?
I do a shop clean up every few months or so. It gets pretty bad since I have too many projects going at once. This last time I cleaned up I used an old 15x15 tarp as a trash bag. Laid it out on the floor, tossed all my trash and floor sweepings onto the tarp, then used some speaker wire through the eyelets and cinched it up like a trash bag. Took a miracle to heave-ho that big bastard into the dumpster by myself, but I managed.
my shop is more organized than clean. tools in the box, cords and hoses on retractable reels. I have a cart where I put all the tools I am currently using for whatever I'm doing. extra junk is on shelves or hanging from the rafters, not on the floor. I had 2 10 foot wide, 6 foot tall racks full of junk... I took everything off and stacked the two racks on top of each other, I put everything back that was on there before and still have a bunch of room for more junk. it freed up lots of space... I figure it was time well spent. I worked for a guy a while back... spent more time untangling cords and hoses and looking for missing parts than I did working.
I'm one of the keep it clean guys. It's only a 3 car garage, but I must clean up after/even some times during doing a repair or tune. I want things in their place and hate wasting time looking for or tripping over crap.
all my handles for my screwdrivers have to have the snap-on side up--------i hate the ones that are worn so much you cat see the writing! but my shop is generally clean---cant stand clutter----but then again you have to get stuff done!
Our shops a mess, But then again we have 2 cars and a truck we are building right now. So I guess thats how its going to have to stay for now. Too busy working to clean. 51 Ford, 55 chevy and 34 Ford truck
I'm better now than before. It seems like everytime I transition a project into the next phase I clean the shop. And I'm constantly putting up shelving and thinking do I really need this? About 3 years ago I had sockets and hand tools spread through out all the barns, garages, and sheds on my acreage. I went around with a 5 gallon bucket and collected everything. After I cleaned out all the ratchets, pliers, screwdrivers etc from the bucket, I had about 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket full of sockets. After my "coming to Jesus moment" with tools I've been very good about keeping things together.
I'm working out of a 1 car garage. Clean up is a given even while working. It's still a slight mess since I have no storage.
Mine is clean most of the time but just packed full of shit for the most part and now with a baby I have been storing bicycle attachments for the baby and pedal cars in there that need to be pushed up every time I want to work. I normally will clean after I am done working and then if I have a big work day coming up I'll go out there and clean during the week for an hour so everything is ready for the Weekend!
Mine is clean in my head, with painted floors and cool little diamondplate toolboxes.....but in reality it looks like a tool grenade went off.
That makes me feel better about leaving tools and parts laying around when in the middle of something.
Im rather OCD about my shop, and most of my friends know it. Lately, things have got ahead of me and its a disaster area! My buddy walked in the other day and said "I dont think I know you anymore..." It will be clean by Monday.
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