Organization

[stupoty]

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.

Ahhhh material storage , every rack or storage area becomes wrong very quickly, at one moment I will have lots of long bit's of stock then I will have one or two long bit and lots of mid sized bits then this will become some of all sizes. It just does a constant dance around my available space I spent a bit of time today re-locating some long 3/4 inch bar from an inappropriate hiding hole it was in to some ware more accessible

Stuart

 

[uncle harry]

The treatment consists of acquisition of a farm with several outbuildings (in addition to a shop, of course).

I did just that back in '73. There are 5 out buildings that have been gathering stuff since then. The major difficulty has been having two separate shops and moving tools between them when doing projects.
With the "help" of a friend, I've been 'organizing' both areas. So far we've probably spent 10% of our time finding where things have gone off to.

 

[kvt]

Boxes, bins, shelves, shop, yard, (house) wherever can I can find a place to put it. Small shop and to many project gets disorganized organization. I know where things are but other have a hard time finding and knowing where they are. Which at time is a good thing as I do not have to worry about them taking things if they cannot find them, But it hinders when you ask them to get you something and have to explain in detail how and where to get it.

 

[astroracer]

Things get pretty messy and cluttered when I am working on a project but I try to put stuff away and clean at stopping points. The best thing I did for my tooling organization was to get one of those Harbor Freight 44" roller cabinets to set the Smithy on.

Everything has a place now and nothing is sitting out in the open. Having everything put away just makes it "look" more organized.

Mark

 

[rock_breaker]

My father had a small shop and a storage shed that impressed me with his storage ability, not 100% tidy but a lot of same category things adjacent and where you could see them. The most impressive shop storage I've seen was on MSTS ships while going to and from the Philippines. Granted this is an industrial situation but they had more stuff stored and organized than I thought possible.
I quit garage sales because stuff kept coming in and nothing going out. Got to learn to do better.
Have a good day!
Ray

 

[BGHansen]

As much as we hate to admit it, organization can be a wonderful thing. Look under the Our Shops and the Spaces We Work In forum and search for "Bruce Hansen". There are some pictures of my shop; compare the somewhat organized metal shop side to the totally unorganized wood shop. I can locate a 4-40 tap and corresponding fasteners in 2 seconds on the metal side. Would have to look around a while to find the wood fasteners.

My metal shop fasteners are organized in HF wall hanger tubs and/or drawer organizers. Pictures of the organizers are below, pretty good deal with the 30% off discount. Organization of the wood shop side of my shop is on the short list of things to tackle this summer.

Bruce

 

[Fabrickator]

I can appreciate a well organized shop. I too have many bin for screws, nuts bolts and the like. Everything in it's place. I worked for an ol' boy from Tennessee once who used to say " I keep that sh*t around in case I want to do any work" (tools, supplies, etc.) and I still live by that motto today. I HATE having to stop what I'm working on to run to HDepot or place an order for something like common hardware or a tap or something stupid.

 

[planeflyer21]

The most impressive shop storage I've seen was on MSTS ships while going to and from the Philippines.
Ray

I was impressed with how many 50# boxes of MIX, BROWNIE, CHOCOLATE we could stuff into store room on the USS Kennedy.

 

[timekeeper01]

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

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 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.

 

[timekeeper01]

I bought this roller around storage rack and mounted pegboard to one side for frequent used tools, saves some space.