[AT] Cleaning the shop (or not)

[Mike]

Boy does that look familiar. My problem is when I'm working on something 
I'm usually in a hurry, so I just set tools back on the workbench 
telling myself I'll put away later. Well that never happens.

Mike M

On 3/12/2014 6:15 PM, Steve W. wrote:
> Greg Hass wrote:
>> The last couple of days have gotten to a little over 40 degrees which
>> feels like summer. Unfortunately, Wednesday is supposed to get to a
>> record low of 5 below zero; terrible for the middle of March. Anyway,
>> with the better weather, the last two nights I have "looked" into the
>> shop. It is such a mess I don't know where to start (a lot of people say
>> start at the beginning) but I'm not sure where that is. Everything is
>> where I threw it last November when this weather started. Last night I
>> put away 2 wrenches and tonight I put away 2 wrenches and 2 hand
>> grinders. The rest of the time I spent staring at the mess and trying to
>> come up with a plan. I think some of the problem is I have too much
>> "stuff". Some of it I might only use once a year, but a lot of it should
>> stay in a heating building or it will be damaged by cold and moisture.
>> Before going further, I should say my shop is 24 x24 and 10 feet high. I
>> realize this isn't big but its better than any thing I've had before. I
>> do have a couple of outbuildings to store things like plow parts,
>> combine parts and tillage parts that some rust on them wouldn't hurt. I
>> have run out of wall space and always said I would not build shelves up
>> in the air to where I needed a ladder to reach them, but maybe I should
>> reconsider. My biggest problem is where to put things so I can find
>> them. Bolts I have in plastic drawers labeled by size so that works
>> great. I have sets of plastic drawers, cheap tractor supply type,
>> totaling 200 or so drawers. One drawer has set screws, another grease
>> fittings, another square keys; and the list goes on and on. Many times I
>> spent almost a half an hour opening drawers before I find what I'm
>> looking for. I can't really label in alphabetical order because
>> different sets have different size drawers and I fill them according to
>> the size of the items. Any hints you guys have on how to organize or
>> things you do to make things more efficient  and less  stressful while
>> still being somewhat convenient and easy to do?
>>      Greg Hass
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> One of the Garage Gang guys put this video up on this very topic....
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr-xYySYjSk
>