Organization

M

Metal

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So, my shop is eternally a huge mess, and am in the market to really get organized here as I'm moving stuff around.

I was curious how other folks are doing it so ideas could be pilfered! I don't mean the google image searches of impossibly organized workshops all built around buying 10,000 uline bins or whatever they are trying to sell, I mean real workshops.
 
I had a small stock problem so I made this to hold 6gal milk crates works good for me.
image.jpeg
Steel and heavy stuff in bottom crates ,Welded some loops on one side to keep long stock in.
But I'm still not very organized :distrust:. 6gal milk crates are getting harder to find
 
No matter my best intents there is something at work against me keeping my shop clean and organized for too very long.
 
My problem (and sometimes asset) is that I have a hard time getting rid of anything that has any chance whatsoever of being of future value. Hoarding... Learned it from my parents, who learned it in the 1930s great depression. They taught me well, perhaps too well... It is all pretty well organized, and I can usually find what I am looking for, but it is a lot of "stuff." It is a common American disease.

Edit: As for organizing, it is pretty simple. Use something, and when you are finished with it put it away where it belongs. The job is not finished until everything is put away. For "roundtuit" jobs, put them out of the way, organized, but where they will nag you to finish them.

2nd edit: You do not "need" Lista cabinets all around your shop. Open shelving, wooden shelves, shelves and racks made of scrap lumber, plywood, and/or metal, dressers and cabinets saved from the landfill, whatever. In my world it is a shop, not a candy store. It can be done on the cheap with a bit of scrounging from garage/yard/estate/auction sales, thrift stores, businesses that are closing, etc. A tool box does not need to say Kennedy or Snap On on the label, a scratched and gouged Thomasville or other furniture brand will also work, for a lot less money, for a lot of storage...
 
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for me stuff comes in faster then I can arrange it, I have decided that the ability to make things from all possible discards can be a negative, I can not get rid of anything because it can be use for some future project. It has slowed a bit since I retired but people bring things to me at times, just unloaded a gifted forklift, metal I beams 10-12 ft long 10-12in dozen or so(do you see a larger press in the making) . I am getting better but it is a sad medical condition that I need to be treated for.
 
I think adhesion to a few basic strategies is really the key to effective organization. I can't say I have it completely beat, but a few rules do help me:

-Keep work space and storage space separate. I do not tolerate scrap bins or off-cut storage underneath, beside, or on top of any machine or working bench.
-Stand things up. Unless I get really creative it's impossible for me to put non-stock storage (bags of rags, tins of paint, etc) on top of vertically racked materials.
-Keep things accessible. If I can't retrieve a piece of stock easily, or put it away easily, I'll be tempted to lean it somewhere other than where it belongs.
-Avoid cross contamination. The lawnmower does not have a place in my working shop. Period.
-My bench surface is sacred. Half-done projects do not live there, nothing gets stored on it, drinks don't get placed on it. Period.
-Be ruthless. If I haven't figured out yet that every length of stock generates ten or more off-cuts something is wrong. I don't need to keep them all.
-Be vigilant. I happen to like being in my shop, and I'm always looking around for better ways to hang something, store something, win back some floor space.
-And most of all, have faith. In the last five years I've quite drinking and quit smoking, both cold turkey, so surely I can do this! You just gotta want it bad enough.

-frank
 
While my shop isn't well organized, there's one area that I've not yet come to terms with. I have, as material for projects, about 8 tubes (about 1" diameter, 36 in long) with various sizes of music wire, from 1/32 to 3/32, also a few pieces of drill rod, 1/4" brass, etc., leaning in a corner of the counter top. I'm constantly moving them to get at what's behind them, of stumbling over them or what not. They are in a less conspicuous corner than they were, but still in the way. When I get them organized, my shop will be good enough. "Till then I'll struggle.
 
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