Wife's View of My Humble Workshop...

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palmermethod

palmermethod

Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2007
Messages
262
Location
Arvada Colorado, USA
I am a slob. I lose tools and other stuff regularly. My workshop is usually in a state of mass confusion. It drives me crazy.

My better half tells me that I just need to put things back in their proper place. As if there are "places" ideally suited for hand tools. You know, the tools you carry around doing household chores, garage things, yard work.

Now in a perfect (Wife's) world, all portable electric tools would be be in their assigned place(s). Drills on the shelves, tool bits in the drawers, hardware and supplies in their neat, plastic containers, properly labeled and stored. I would LOVE that.

But when I need one of those tools somewhere other than the shop, I usually have to remove them and take them with me. Sometimes to distant places like my daughter's houses. Sometimes for extended projects.

So my choices are:
(1) Return everything to it's "proper" place everyday or after each project.
(2) Keep those particular tools in a workbag or toolbox where I have the project.
(3) Buy multiple tools so one is available whenever or wherever I'm at.

I admit #1 happens if I have nothing to do and nothing planned. And option #2, is what I usually do and can have as many as five seperate, temporary tool bags for different project.

To my great shame, I have on more occasions than I care to admit, resorted to #3 and bought another tool that I know is around somewhere but can't find. Yes. I have about 5 power drills. And maybe as many hand sanders, several jigsaws and many, many tape rules that I can rarely find. And so on.

Years ago I was installing something in the unfinished basement. Laid my jigsaw and top of the furnace duct. After searching for over a year I finally bought another jigsaw. Right. Then I found the first one still on the furnace duct. Geez.

It occurs to me today that (non-workshop oriented) women tend to think of workshops and tools as a huge filing system. Always there when it's needed. Like when it's not being used.

Anyway my basement looks like crap. My wood lather is covered in black acrylic turnings. And I have to hop around stuff to use the bandsaw. And my shop vac system is great when I can actually reach the on/off switch. And the drill press runs at whatever speed I changed to the last time I could change the belts & pulleys.

But my wife still loves me, after 42 years, so I can't complain. Just an old guys observation. Happy turning............
 
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Thats a great story. Congrats on the long marrige. Its the other way around at my house. The wife is a handyman and works bigger projects. She leaves my tools laying everywhere so I get to find them and put them back. But, what can you say, you just gotta love em. We are celebrating our 31st next friday and I didn't forget.
 
palmermethod said:
I am a slob.

Years ago I was installing something in the unfinished basement. Laid my jigsaw and top of the furnace duct. After searching for over a year I finally bought another jigsaw. Right. Then I found the first one still on the furnace duct. Geez.
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Hi, my name is Greg and I'm a slob too! But I come by it naturally. When my dad was putting up drywall in a bathroom when I was a kid he "misplaced" his hammer. Dozens of years later we are repairing the bathroom and had to remove the drywall.... found his hammer.

I was just assembling pens this morning and one of the couplers fell off the pen on the way into the pen press... it fell into the clutter.... I had to open another kit for a replacement part because I couldn't find the one the fell. :mad:

So don't feel bad. You are amongst friends!!
GK
 
Is this where the 12 step meeting is being held ? I'm sorry to say that I too am a card carrying member of "slobs Anonymous" , just ask my wife :biggrin:
My motto is a pile for everything and everything in it's pile :rolleyes:
 
"Slob" is a pretty subjective term! I mean, somebody coming into my shop may THINK I'm a slob, but I know where my junk is. My table saw with outfeed table stores TONS of stuff, and it takes me less than an hour to clean it when I need it, so no, I'm no Slob. The only thing I keep very neat and clean is my firemaker, my gas stove.

Dale
 
my wife says I fit right in the SLOB group.,,,, however,,,,, I know where everything is stuffed, and can find it. she can't find anything in the shop. Just the way I like it.
 
I have always heard that a cluttered desk is the sign of a genuis, so it goes without saying that a cluttered shop is the sign of genuis craftsman(or woman). I keep trying to convince my wife that this makes me a genuis craftsman of unparalled distinction, the degree of which has never been seen in the history of mankind. One look at my shop would immediately make me rank higher than any known genuis since the world began! I mean that I have to keep a GPS unit around to find myself in the shop! One of the neighbors cats was accidently locked up in the shop one night, and by the time it found its way out, it had had it's kittens and those kittens had had kittens!

By the way, I actually have a place for every tool I own, every piece of wood I acquire, every kit or project hardware I buy. That place is a well known place of wherever I put it. :biggrin:
 
Your organizational skills are like mine. I am so "job" and "next step" focused that where I set my tools is not part of my conscious thinking. :rolleyes:

I finally decided that I needed "boxes" and now my tools are organized by "boxes" big enough for those tools. A screwdriver box/bin, a plier box/bin, adjustable wrench box/bin, wrench box/bin; then large shelf - different saws; second large shelf grinders sanders. . . This way, I don't have to think about organization per se, but when I do see a tool laying around here, there or yonder, I know a "general" place to put it. This has been my greatest help!

I do have screwdrivers, pliers and an adjustable wrench in the kitchen, in the laundry room, in the storage closet and master bedroom.
 
leehljp said:
..... I do have screwdrivers, pliers and an adjustable wrench in the kitchen, in the laundry room, in the storage closet and master bedroom.
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Me too. My latest convenience in my home office is a Jeff Gordon lunchbox with whatever hand tools fit in it. The Grandkids love it and it doesn't look out of place. Just heavy.

Life is good..........
 
Setting: Me sitting at my desk in my office with a student in front of me.

Student: Did you read my paper?

Me: When did you give it to me?

Student: January.

Me: That means that it would be in this pile . . . about half-way down . . . AH, here it is.
Nope, I haven't read it yet.

Student: (rolls eyes) Well, would you?

Me: Sure. (sticks it in the "need to read now pile")

Student: (rolls eyes again)

It's messy, but it's a system.

Kyle (StatProf)
 
Well I guess I'll be the odd ball. I have a friend who is an ER nurse and he tells me my garage is cleaner and better organized than most ER rooms. The first choice in the list (Return everything to it's "proper" place everyday or after each project) is my preferred method of working.

It hasn't always been that way. I used to be a true master of organized chaos like most men. A few years ago, I had a serious head injury which left me with short term memory loss. If I set a tool down and turn my back, the location of that tool is gone from my memory. In fact the memory of using that tool is long gone as well. If I don't pull one tool at a time and return that tool as soon as I'm finished using it, it won't be long before all my tools are scattered everywhere with no memory of where they might be found.

After losing numerous screwdrivers, pliers and sockets (I even lost a cordless drill, although I found it a year later), I had to change my ways. As a result, there is a place for every tool I own and everything is neatly organized so I can quickly find what I need or recognize when something is out of place. My floors are epoxy painted and always kept clean. It took a brain injury to get me organized, but I wouldn't recommend it for everyone. The great thing about short term memory loss is eventually everything is new again.
 
My little shop serves two part time building businesses... Pens of course and my custom guitar amps. It's really hard to keep everything organized and sometimes things do get pretty cluttered when I'm multi-tasking. As is there is no way I could do this full time without a serious commitment to being more organized.
 
Lanman said:
The great thing about short term memory loss is eventually everything is new again.
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Dave, nothing funny about what you went through, and not to minimize it in any way, but I think I'd be better off if I looked at things more the way you do! It must feel like Christmas everytime you discover something, and that ain't a bad way to live. Probably makes you appreciate things in general more. As long as you don't get down on yourself and you keep your sense of humor.

Anyway, I liked your point of view.

Dale
 
My biggest issue is organization. I can't organize. I can't remember how many times I've headed to the shop thinking "Today I'm going to get organized" and leaving an hour later frustrated that I can't get anything done. I have lots of plans, but can't get them initiated.

I think I have a phobia. I can't organize.
 
My workshop is a work in progress. We used it as a staging area for many of the repairs we did on the house this last year. We opened walls and put in new floors. In the process we found 12-15 old rusty hammers, that are now all in a pile in the corner of my workshop. I want to build a rack and clean them all up so when I have guest "carpenters" over they can borrow one from the rack.
 
It's good to see so many people with a problem like this. I don't think that ANYONE goes without this problem. It's just that the ones who keep neat shops do so because they make that exact thing a priority and dedicate a good amount of time to it.

I have been spending a tremendous amount of time organizing my shop, and everyone I bring to my shop is remarkably impressed with how organized it is, especially for a young 'un like myself. What I've found is that it takes an extraordinary amount of time to get the shop organized initially, but in the long run ends up saving a bunch of time by not having to search for things. This is totally a work in progress for me still, but with the few projects I've done with the tools that do have places, I find that I'm 10 times more productive since I know exactly where the tools go and don't have to waste the mental energy on searching for anything. It's so motivating to work on a project and have things run smoothly, once you do and you realize it is that way because you are organized, you will be inclined to do it more, even if it's against your nature, like me.:biggrin:
 
Like so many of you, I have had problems with keeping my stuff (tools, materials, consumables, etc.) organized and handy. And to complicate the matter even more, I have to use them on multiple sites. I have an apartment building with three floors and a basement. I don't need no stinkin' Stair Master!

I put a little (very little) brain-time into the situation, as I was finding myself spending more time walking to get a tool then to actually using it. After a few moments, the light in my head came on (and then promptly blew). I came to the realization that I'm really good at two things:

1. Making piles of stuff
2. Knowing what's in each pile

So the real issue, at that point, was to make the piles portable. Roughly at that same time, my office was disposing of a HUGE quantity of archive boxes. I hit gold! These boxes are extremely strong, have handholds, and hinged lids. Perfect! I took twelve of these things home with me.

Then I set out to sorting out my shop. Once again, the light flickered and died. I had the boxes and the piles. Now what? Half a cup of coffee later, I had an epiphany (or a small stroke): I would sort as many items (again, tools, materials, consumables, etc.) as I could by TASK rather than by FUNCTION! "What's the diff?", I hear you say. Well, in my wee brain pan, a pipe wrench is a "wrench" and a "hand tool". And at one point, I would have sorted it in one of those two catagories because that is it's function. However, I only use such a tool for plumbing, so, I put it in the "plumbing" box. (Maybe not the best example, but you get the idea...)

Of course, some tools lend themselves to multiple uses. So I did create the "Hand Tool" box. The only criteria for anything that went in there was that it must be useful for more than one function.

In the case of some items, I would put two groups into the same box as I couldn't fill it up with either one. For example, I put "Clamps" and "Abrasives" into one box. I rarely get the two confused.

So now I have twelve boxes in my shop. They included "electrical, plumbing, abrasives & clamps, hand tools, small power tools, painting" and others that I can't name off the top of my head. If I need to do electrical work, I know that I have a meter, tape, wire nuts, wire strippers, cable of all kinds, and other stuff in my "Electrical" box. I rarely ever have to take more than two boxes to any given project. One trip!

Are there any additional bonuses that have come about? Yep! Dust doesn't get into the boxes, I can return most tools to their box through a handhold so I don't have to take it back off of the shelf, and my girlfriend think I'm a organizing genius! Okay, I made up that last one...
 
I have no problems with keeping track of my tools. I have a great memory and remember exactly when I last used a tool and will go back to that spot to retrieve it.



Then I yell out for LOML to tell me where she moved it to.:bulgy-eyes:
 
Roger, my dad came up with a very similar method where he purchased a bunch of large portable tool boxes from Sears and organized things into electrical, plumbing, etc. The system has worked pretty well for him as it would for many. I have done a similar method for the objects I regularly use around the house, but have several tools that stay in the garage at all times. I do 90% of all my work in my shop, so that works. The few things I need to use around the house all the time (racheting screwdriver, tape measurer, electrical tape, etc) I keep in a drawer I hijacked from my wife in the kitchen after I built her a nice kitchen island. I told her "if I'm building you this whole island, I better be able to at least get one drawer for my crap!".:biggrin:
 
Dave I understand what you went thruogh.....I had a bad head injury back in august and now have a bad case od CRS and can put a screwdriver in back pocket and forget where i put it. I just got back to work about 2 monts ago so Im still trying to get things to start turning pens.
 
StatProf said:
Setting: Me sitting at my desk in my office with a student in front of me.

Student: Did you read my paper?

Me: When did you give it to me?

Student: January.

Me: That means that it would be in this pile . . . about half-way down . . . AH, here it is.
Nope, I haven't read it yet.

Student: (rolls eyes) Well, would you?

Me: Sure. (sticks it in the "need to read now pile")

Student: (rolls eyes again)

It's messy, but it's a system.

Kyle (StatProf)
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That's funny Kyle, I think it was the same system I used for my files when I was working...
Boss: Do you have the Schlumberger file?

Me: Yes, which shipment are you looking for?

Boss: The one to Saudi Arabia.

Me: Okay, it's in the stack there on the corner of the desk.

Boss: Shouldn't it be in the file cabinet?

Me: Maybe, but I might have to refer to it again some time.

Boss: Walks away muttering to himself........:biggrin::biggrin:
 
I got one for you. Was cleaning the gutters this weekend. Got out the ladder, went up on the roof, noticed some gutter nails loose, back down to get hammer, back up, renail loose ones, finish job, put ladder away, very happy with myself that I put the ladder away before wife asked me to. That's right the hammer is still up on the roof. But I know where it is.
 
Your shop sounds like mine. I can spend a lot of time looking for that tool that I know is here somewhere. The wife doesn't come near the shop unless she needs me for something. We celebrated 42 years of marriage today.
 
I found the perfect answer to keeping the shop organized. Buy more stuff. I wanted a bigger lathe but didn't have the room. So, believe it or not, LOML helped me re-organize everything. It took us about 3 hours. Since the only thing I really do is turning I gave all my non-turning tools and stuff to LOML and she organized them in another part of the basement. She is VERY organized. I can even find everything if I need something for around the house. Oh, and she bought me the bigger lathe too!

Now with a lot less stuff in my shop its a lot easier to keep it organized and find what I need. I do usually leave things laying around when I'm using them but at the end of the day I put everything away and sweep up. Mostly this is so I know where everything is the next time I go into the shop. Often it can be days or even a couple of weeks before I get back into the shop and if i didn't put everything away I would forget where i left it.
 
Thanks Dale. My life has been a wild roller coaster of a ride and I'm still enjoying every moment of it. I'm always having too much fun to ever get down about my situation. It's not bad. It's just different. I just wish I could misplace my lathe so I could get a bigger one. Although I'm not sure I could get my wife to believe that one.

spiritwoodturner said:
Dave, nothing funny about what you went through, and not to minimize it in any way, but I think I'd be better off if I looked at things more the way you do! It must feel like Christmas everytime you discover something, and that ain't a bad way to live. Probably makes you appreciate things in general more. As long as you don't get down on yourself and you keep your sense of humor.

Anyway, I liked your point of view.

Dale
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