For a Less Cluttered Mind

I just declared my shop a rat’s nest, and shut down operations.  It’s sort of like those games we used to play with the little number pads.  You know, the ones where you are supposed to slide things around and get them in order.  Except, I’m doing it with inboard engines, and band saws, and tons of nuts and bolts and all the flotsam and jetsam of a thousand projects.  Rather amazing how a piece of the floor from Old Salt is stacked under an off cut from one of Roughneck’s cabin arches, and so on. Both escaped the broom for over a year.

So, we are officially shut down for about a week to move “everything”, and figure out how to make things work more efficiently. Just completely amazing, how all those fiddly bits congregated in one room.

Kate caught me looking at one of those dream shops in one of my glossy wood working mags and asked the unanswerable, “How come yours doesn’t look like THAT???”

Sooooo, time for a safety stand down and a Regular Navy field day. 

Even if my shop will never look like THAT…

Day Two

OK, I admit it.  It’s inevitable.  Can’t be helped.  Always gonna’ happen.  Just the way it is.  But, hope springs every now and then.  So, without much warning, or any real preparation; I just started.  Started, to clean, move, stack, change, repair, and generally make my shop over.

The problem is, “where do you put stuff while it’s homeless, and the other stuff hasn’t been moved yet?

Especially, when some of those homeless items weigh between three and six hundred pounds.  Each.

So, I decided to start in the back corner, and sort of change “everything.”

At least, that was the notion.  The results are still awaiting a more precise accounting.  Actually, I still have stuff piled, and stacked, and forgotten in little sand bars and reefs all across the floor.

But, the out feed table is moved over, and re-aligned with the table saw, that got moved and re-leveled.

The radial arm saw was unearthed from about 100 board feet of off cuts and “valuable” sticks.  An entire 25 foot wall of shelves holding thousands of pounds of “spares,” and “important” pieces of motors, door locks, trailers, boats, and every imaginable thing in between got completely cleared and re-figured out.

Oh yeah.  Inevitable. 

It’s inevitable that stuff will grow around the perimeter walls of any shop I occupy.  Sort of like a bath tub ring.  Pieces of plywood, chunks of logs for carving, outboard motors, even paint cans; and every now and again, this stuff has to be “brought under control.”

Maybe you know somebody like that.

Soooooooo, maybe tomorrow.  Or, so.  Maybe, we’ll have some progress, that doesn’t have to get covered up with more homeless stuff.

New bins will have screws where screws are supposed to be, bolts where they are supposed to be.   Shelves for hardwood, even one for deer antlers.   Maybe even paint brushes where they’re supposed to be…

Maybe, even a cleared corner, that doesn’t have to be a homeless shelter for some lost band saw or coil of wire.  Maybe?

I guess I’ll have to see what tomorrow brings…

A less-cluttered shop, for a still-cluttered mind.  Part two.

This evolution took four full days.  Probably worth doing.  But, not anywhere as easy as I projected.  I’ll paint the floor again, over the next few days, and then it’ll be more than time to get back to making a mess!

There are way more boats still to get ready for summer, than winter remaining.  A guy can’t get too worried about neatness.  Maybe, every five years is about the right rotation?

Yesterday’s progress was pretty astounding, especially for me - the only labor force I could muster for this “blood letting.”

Back wall is almost done.

Motors are moved, and that wall is all cleaned up.

The entry area is completely re-done.

The old power tool bay now has fasteners in tilt-out bins, and will soon also have cans of bigger/heavier stuff on the opposite shelves.  You know, stuff like trailer bolts, and deck cleats, and odd bits of hardware and electrical devices.  The sort of thing that accumulates in EVERY workshop.

Most of the regularly looked for mechanic’s tools are all at-the-ready, and by the garage door.

Additional wood storage will go up on the back wall over the radial arm saw.  Just as soon as the pony express brings my Rockler order, that is.

And, then, there were a few “loose ends” still remaining for this morning.  In some ways, “moving everything” turned out a lot like digging a hole in a sand pit.  The faster you shovel, the faster the hole fills back up.

But, then, somehow things started to look a bit more like “progress.”

My old clutter-catching bench got cut down and made into an island (to reduce the number of projects that get marooned on it) to do stuff like carving, grinding, sanding, and generally dirty work.  In a few days, that fresh top should have a respectable number of dents, gouges, and oil stains.

So, if I can remember to not paint myself into a corner - while painting the floor - the happy (er) sound of boat building, repairing, and boats generally being messed with should return to this way-too-clean space in a day or two.

OK.  Kate was right!  A painted shop floor IS pretty cool.  Except now, I’ll probably have to hire a receptionist, er something…

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