Cleaning your shop

Like most people I seem to have twice as many projects going as I have time to complete them.
Equipment repairs and maintenance. Vehicle oil changes. Another deer blind and so on. On top of my daily full time job.

Hot projects get to go to the front of the line. The other projects continue to eat up floor space.
How often do you have to step back and give your shop a major straightening up?

I tend not to throw anything away, and that has saved me more than once, but at times I wonder about my garbage picking habits.

Rick

I can't convince myself to throw much away. I know when I doo, I'll need it for some project. I try to get the floor cleared and tools all put in their respective places every couple weeks.

I am fanatic about picking up my tools. That is done at the end of each day. I do not care if I am going right back to the same job tomorrow. I hate looking for my tools. They all have a place where they go and that is where they will be. This also includes wiping them off too. My sons are bad about putting tools up but leaving them greasy. Drives me nuts. LOL

As for throwing things away. I am a pack rat as well. I have tempered that lately as I just do not have the room here until I decide if I am going to build a new shop or not. So I have limited space so I am sorting better now.

I finally had mine cleaned up, and organized around the first part of last year. Then Dad and Mom got their divorce mess settled, and almost all of Dad's shop was moved over to mine. Mine is 30x40 (with a 17x40 upstairs), and was full. Dad's was 40x60, and was also full. Now mine is bulging at the seams. I started moving things around, and organizing again last weekend, and will do more this weekend, and will probably still have more to do by this time next year if I am going to be honest about it.

Thankfully I've been able to get things somewhat organized, and start consolidating like items. Hopefully between that and the 40 foot trailer I bought for the overflow I'll actually have some room to move, and actually work inside, by the winter.

about twice a year i find myself needing to clean both sides of my workshop as the area in the middle gets smaller and smaller. i save way 2 much stuff too but it can bale you out on a sat or sunday when most places are closed. i would love to have a bigger shop as mine is 40x45 but i would just end up with more stuff inside.

Someone on here (forgot who) described me to a T when he said.

I know exactly where every thing in my shop is because I have tripped over it so many times.

My shop organizing philosophy seems to be "a place for everything and everything all over the place"

(quoted from post at 08:14:18 08/08/15) My shop organizing philosophy seems to be "a place for everything and everything all over the place"

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I have taken the approach ,that if I don't use it in six months, it goes in the overhead, after that ,I forget what I put in the overhead, so I inventory the overhead ,and lose the list. Then I buy a storage shed, and it starts all over again! ARRGH!

I dont have much for a shop,I did get one old shed emptied and have some good storage now,,,Many weeks ago I started to work on somrthing..left it as a rainy day project,,,never got back to it yet.

i give mine a good cleaning when I can't walk front to back. If I can't get to something I can't use it and therefor it's no good to me.

About once a year I will take everything outside or roll it around and pressure wash the floor. When I move things back I will organize things. It takes several months before it gets too bad again. Mostly what I do may be a little woodworking or light maintenance. Tommy

About one a year or when I can't get through any more, I open the doors and fire up the leaf blower. It's best to have a dust mask on as there is all kind of stuff flying around and out the door. That about does it for me.

I know the feeling.

Rick, my situation is exactly like yours. This discussion was had yesterday at our place.

Im like JD. Tools are cleaned up and put away at the end of the project or end of the day. I try to keep things neat and orderly but sometimes when I am in the heat of the battle doing field work, cleaning up after myself in the shop tends to be put aside. I don't save a whole lot of stuff anymore. The buildings are still fairly full but not a whole lot is added to what I already have accumulated.

My shop gets cleaned before the start of any major job. By the time the job is done it looks like a tornado went through. Lol. When the job is done I'm usually either too tired or out of time to clean so everything just gets piled inside so the door closes. Then I'm po'd next time I get home because I have to organise before I can start.I also can't throw stuff away, especially steel and aluminum scraps. Nothing handier than the corner cut off a piece to use as a gusset. Lol That's why my steel and aluminum piles are epic.

I have a 1950s style garage with garage door on one side and workshop area on other side and half the work area taken up with SWMBO's tack room I have been trying to not save much which goes against my Scottish heritage lol

This is about as clean as my shop gets. Right now I don't have a project in the shop but I do have a few to start on. When that happens it won't look like this!

As JD and others have said, I wipe and put away my tools every night. I learned a long time ago how much time is wasted looking for a tool the next day. With a rolling work bench and tool box, I move them around to each project.

Here is a fall pic, the last two trees of the year. This half of the shop is still clean as the tree spade goes in and out every day. To the left, not in the picture, is the other half of the shop that looks like a tornado hit.

I do pretty well, but there's a pattern. In the north shed where everything gets parked the walls have become a catch-all. Since its tractors and trucks driving in and out there is always a foot or two at the wall to "lean that until I find a spot for it". The other day I pulled the feed wagon out and cleaned it up so I went through its little corner of paradise. I had a pickup full of block wood that had been leaned lots of places. Well, the tire on the disk started to go low so I put 4x4s under it so it wouldn't sit on the rim, etc. sheesh. There was enough cribbing to either start a really big fire or build several really short houses.

The machine shed where I do repairs also doubles as the "garage" for the good pickup and three classic cars. It has to be kept neat so that I can drive things in and out easily. Tractors and big machinery have to come in and out as needed for repairs. I also have some heavy things in the second story area that I don't often use, so I have to be able to pull a loader tractor in there and get things down. I have to have my tools picked up, BUT it makes me crazy if I walk away from a repair for the night and come back the next day and all of the tools I used to take it apart aren't still there. I need them to get it back together! If it is a long term situation that's different.

It makes me nuts to trip over mowers and tillers. They are in the machine shed now and I hate it. They have been parked in every shed on this farm and I still haven't found them a home. They may just get their very own new building. It would help if I didn't have three tillers, five riders, and three push mowers. Each has its specidfic forte, so I guess they all stay.

I do the same thing. I may leave parts and pieces laying on the floor but the hand tools go back in the big Waterloo tool chest. I hate looking for tools!

another that puts my tools away every night before I close the doors. even if it is a days long job.
the shop? every square inch that is not the work bay is full.
If the clutter intrudes on the work bay, I'll do something about it.
two reasons.....
trip over something when I am working....a fall in a shop full of iron, steel and concrete would be messy.
other reason is if something goes wrong working on big, heavy stuff, I need a clear path to get away...quickly