The War against Clutter
This week I found myself between projects and this is my on call week, so I decided to invest my time in cleaning up my basement shop. I have an on call rotation every other week which means that I could get paged anytime, 24/7. I do not like to do to many projects that require much concentration during my on call cycle because the infrequent paging makes it difficult to have a good stop point where a step is properly completed.
Every 6 months or so, I have a tendency to move things around, try out a different layout, get rid of more garbage, and see what I can do with the space gain. When I first moved in, the basement was a dark and gloomy place, filled with spiders and garbage, lighting was poor, and quickly became the storage location for all things unused, seasonal, or saved just because. I started trying to make a credible workshop out of it 2 years ago, with most of my purchases being within the last year. The last time I organized it, I was able to make the basement half workshop and half storage facility and was at this stage -
Cluttered but usable bench -
Corner table with tools piled on and wood everywhere -
I spent the last couple days cleaning out more garbage (I have to give credit to the trash collectors. They haven't slashed my tires yet..), making a makeshift lumber rack from the joists out of some garbage wood, clearing out most of the garbage wood I had remaining, and organizing what I had. I still have a bit to go, but I really opened up the floor space in the basement and I am now using about 75% of the space for my shop.
Space utilized on the other end of my shop for storage, even have space for a little folding workbench for clamping and gluing -
Clutter free bench where I might actually be able to work on items -
And a free wall within the shop for carts, benches, tables, etc. -
Now I can walk around my machines without turning into a contortionist. Garbage day was yesterday and I already have a full bin for next week. One more load after that and I will be sitting pretty decent. I have a router table on wheels and a portable workbench/tool stand with drawers at the planing stages. Once these are in place, I should be able to just move things where I need them without much sweat. I am looking at the HF 2 hp dust collector system and would like to get one more corner cleared out for it and run hoses above the joists. It would take some time but combined with a purchase of an air filtration system, the basement should be a fairly pleasant place to be.
Happy Woodworking everyone and thanks for reading.
David
This week I found myself between projects and this is my on call week, so I decided to invest my time in cleaning up my basement shop. I have an on call rotation every other week which means that I could get paged anytime, 24/7. I do not like to do to many projects that require much concentration during my on call cycle because the infrequent paging makes it difficult to have a good stop point where a step is properly completed.
Every 6 months or so, I have a tendency to move things around, try out a different layout, get rid of more garbage, and see what I can do with the space gain. When I first moved in, the basement was a dark and gloomy place, filled with spiders and garbage, lighting was poor, and quickly became the storage location for all things unused, seasonal, or saved just because. I started trying to make a credible workshop out of it 2 years ago, with most of my purchases being within the last year. The last time I organized it, I was able to make the basement half workshop and half storage facility and was at this stage -
Cluttered but usable bench -
Corner table with tools piled on and wood everywhere -
I spent the last couple days cleaning out more garbage (I have to give credit to the trash collectors. They haven't slashed my tires yet..), making a makeshift lumber rack from the joists out of some garbage wood, clearing out most of the garbage wood I had remaining, and organizing what I had. I still have a bit to go, but I really opened up the floor space in the basement and I am now using about 75% of the space for my shop.
Space utilized on the other end of my shop for storage, even have space for a little folding workbench for clamping and gluing -
Clutter free bench where I might actually be able to work on items -
And a free wall within the shop for carts, benches, tables, etc. -
Now I can walk around my machines without turning into a contortionist. Garbage day was yesterday and I already have a full bin for next week. One more load after that and I will be sitting pretty decent. I have a router table on wheels and a portable workbench/tool stand with drawers at the planing stages. Once these are in place, I should be able to just move things where I need them without much sweat. I am looking at the HF 2 hp dust collector system and would like to get one more corner cleared out for it and run hoses above the joists. It would take some time but combined with a purchase of an air filtration system, the basement should be a fairly pleasant place to be.
Happy Woodworking everyone and thanks for reading.
David