Stuff everywhere

[Lons]

there are moments of inescapable panic, like the one I originally wrote about, but is usually followed by the memory and satisfaction of spending the time with my little boy. I can only imagine how it was for you with three little ones.

Talking to people has helped tremendously.

Make the most of it, they grow up so very quickly and that precious time is gone, I missed a fair bit of my two kids due to work commitments but the mortgage and bills had to be paid and everything is a compromise.
We have a granddaughter now 7 who we very rarely see at the minute due to Covid and it's frustrating to know we're missing that as well.

 

[Davey44]

My shed is a single garage, and as Andy said, just enough space for me and a project - but I love it.
I have stuff hanging from the ceiling, hardly a wall space without a shelf or rack on it ....... it's more like a cocoon at times haha.
If it's your hobby I think its just important you like being there, it's not important what it looks like.

Sounds like we are similar in what kind of workshop space we have. Although there was about 1/3rd more space originally than now, I accepted my wife's sugegstion that we (meaning I) rebuild the old falling down part that used to house my darkroom prior to digital, and reduce the original footprint by half, leaving another space for a secluded sunlit sitting!
Thus I demolished a 30 foot building, dug out and laid a substantial foundation and rebuilt a 12 foot brick and block building using the same angle sloping roof as the remaining garage. I fitted a large domestic switchpanel, rewired the lot and got it signed off by a qualified sparkie. I also plumbed in a small sink and fitted an instant water-heater and tapped into the drain of course.
The 'new but' houses my metalwork lathe, milling machine, compressor and lapidiary gear, as well as a workbench and cupboard storage. The remaining single garage (about 22 feet) holds industrial shelving units, a woodwork and a metalworking bench, oxy/acetylene welding and brazing gear, arc and MIG welding equipment, anvil, large old but useful press, a sliding bevel/mitre saw, heavy duty disc and belt bench sander, grinder, polisher and band-saw. Also included are a Morso mitreing guillotine and related equipment for picture framing and all the usual electrical and battery powered hand tools. The problem is that I, seemingly like so many others, am an inveterate hoarder. And, as many others have confessed, was passed down my great grandfather's genes and motto about 'everything coming in handy once in seven years'! Oh dear, what can I do? Yes, I should follow my wife's mantra and go bald-headed at a serious CHUCK-OUT, but the pain, oh dear, the pain!

 

[billw]

What’s great about this forum is that we have people working in spare bedrooms, sheds, corners of garages, purpose built workshops, industrial units.... yet there’s still tips and tricks to be learned no matter what the space is.

 

[bp122]

What’s great about this forum is that we have people working in spare bedrooms, sheds, corners of garages, purpose built workshops, industrial units.... yet there’s still tips and tricks to be learned no matter what the space is.

Very true

 

[DBT85]

Thanks fellas, that helps.

Just looking at my stuff, most of it aren't even tools.
Yes I have three metal hand planes and there wooden. Two sets of chisels, one Old Marples for my definition of fine work and one Stanley set for rough work. All bought used or giveaways by generous people.

The stuff that gets me are thinks like foam padding, which I sometimes keep thinking I might need to package something in the future. Same with small annoying plastic bits, tiny boxes of old screws which I don't use as I switched to torx drive a while ago but still keep the old pozi drive ones when I find them.

Things like this, and there are too many to list all of them.

Through salvaging, losing and finding, and many other means, I have about 6 retractable craft knives. None of them are great that I pick a favourite and get rid of the rest. Some I use for wallpapering, some for workshop.

Old cases of drills etc have stuff in them like cable ties, IKEA screws and allen keys, wall plugs but I get so overwhelmed when I think I have to sort all if these.

I am on the cusp of a meltdown, I feel sometimes.

Been there. Work, life, young child all make it difficult sometimes to get the time you feel you need. I like to work for hours on end on something rater than half an hour today and an hour tomorrow. But you just have to take the time you get given.

Try and take the time to do it a bit at a time. Go through that collection of screws and just feel the catharsis of getting rid of things you know you won't use. Don't try and do it all at once, don't even attempt it.

On the subject of things being everywhere, do try and take a little time to get things sorted. Simple things like getting long clamps out of a pile on the floor and onto a wall somewhere does a lot. You start to feel you're making some progress.

Put some music on or your favourite TV show and just spend a spare half an hour doing your wall plugs. I keep mine in plastic peanut butter jars. Frankly for the amount of browns and yellows I use they could be in one jar!

You'll feel better with every little step, and you'll thank yourself the next time you need a few plugs or whatever else it is your sorted.

The big one for me was finally getting some of my tools off of my benches. Just a small 800x800 section of cleats got a bunch of things off the workbench and a home to go back to. Now easier to find too! Now I don't quite have to spend 15 minutes moving everything off of one workbench to complete a 5 minute job.

 

[Awac]

I think we need to start a group, " I am an addict, I horde, I can't get enough tools". But I feel no shame, incurable I'm afraid...! My secret is to get it all mobile, get the toolboxes and side boards on wheels so you can reconfigure your workspace to suit the project you are doing.

Link to interesting one car workshop, might give you some ideas.

https://finewoodworking.com/FWNPDFfree/011160044.pdf

 

[Doug71]

I am on the chuck it all out side, I hate clutter in the workshop. I have the bare minimum tools for what I do (why do people need 6 routers?) and everything has it's place. Regarding offcuts, many people on here would cry if they saw what ends up on my wood burner

 

[SammyQ]

That space in that article by Matthew Teague is like what I am trying to emulate - slowly - and without the worship of the great plywood god. Also, some of his ideas: wee tins for screws, constantly lifting heavy tools up and down.."HELLO?!"...

 

[Lons]

I'm definitely a hoard addict, there's no cure, I have no shame and I wasn't joking about adding sheds, my wife has given up I'm pleased to say and just lets me get on with it.

I do occasionally try to justify my actions by pointing out how much it would have cost to buy that bit of hardwood, metal or salvaged spare had I not already had it in my stock of goodies.

 

[Awac]

Doug.THE ANTI-CHRIST! He exists! Run, clutching all I can! LOL. My wife is a chuck-er out, and I feel sorry for her, I really do...perhaps I should get a wood burner, I am reading "Norwegian wood, chopping, stacking and drying wood the Scandinavian way"...

 

[Awac]

Lons, you have sorted it. Run out of space, build a new shed. problem solved.

 

[stuckinthemud]

Well , I too am an adict and a hoarder, I have a single garage and never throw anything out. My workbench is half a ledge and brace door. The other half is stacked with tools. I have enough room to stand next to it before the stuff begins. There is floor to roof stack of racking for carving timber, then similar racks for bow staves and round wood. I had a major sort out in lock down, sorted and racked all the household junk and cleared all the floor then an oak tree came down and now I have much less space than if I hadn't had the sort out. I do have a throw-away pile of timber but the last 5 jobs I did used wood from that pile and the old tools to put in the skip contained several rusted tools I restored and are now used regularly and a blow torch left in a box for 14 years that I needed to repair the roof last month and the crossbow I built used several items from my tin of nails, screws and broken drill bits ....

 

[SammyQ]

Good thread this. Enjoying the confessions from fellow Heath Robinsons...

Sam

 

[Awac]

Stuck in the mud! Would it not have been a crime to not drag the oak tree into your workshop? Cramped you might be, but smug knowing the envy of your fellow hoarders for acquiring free oak.......
I only had to rescue 3 poplar trees late last year myself (not my favourite carving wood), chopped up and waiting for me to do something with it.
Scrap bin is a rich source for me. Just making a 6x4 shed only for saw sharpening completely from scrap and offcuts (metal filings get everywhere...).

 

[bp122]

Stuck in the mud! Would it not have been a crime to not drag the oak tree into your workshop? Cramped you might be, but smug knowing the envy of your fellow hoarders for acquiring free oak.......
I only had to rescue 3 poplar trees late last year myself (not my favourite carving wood), chopped up and waiting for me to do something with it.
Scrap bin is a rich source for me. Just making a 6x4 shed only for saw sharpening completely from scrap and offcuts (metal filings get everywhere...).

That's great use of scrap.

 

[DBT85]

If you want to see hoarding come to the farm. We still have tractor wheels here for tractors that left the farm over 20 years ago! Mattresses that were worn out and replaced 15 years ago! A ride on mower that broke 20 years ago and has been taking up space in a locked space that could have been used as a workshop!

 

[Awac]

That's great use of scrap.

Just have to find the roof and door materials now....I have saws backing up

 

[Awac]

If you want to see hoarding come to the farm. We still have tractor wheels here for tractors that left the farm over 20 years ago! Mattresses that were worn out and replaced 15 years ago! A ride on mower that broke 20 years ago and has been taking up space in a locked space that could have been used as a workshop!

Ha! We have one of those mowers at work as well!

 

[DBT85]

Ha! We have one of those mowers at work as well!

I threaten my father in law that if he doesn't help me sort it all out then when he dies I'm just giving it away. If he were being planeted I'd be able to power most of the midlands as he span in his grave!

 

[Trainee neophyte]

My tool shed is 6 metres long - luxury! It is only 1.8 metres wide, with the door at one end. Strimmers, shovels, chainsaws- all the farm tools are hanging from one wall, which looks organised, but it means I have a narrow strip to walk down the middle, and piles of carp all over the floor. The far end was a deep dark Black Hole of Calcutta. It was, in short, an unusable, awful mess. Last January, back before life became complicated, I had a meltdown, threw all my toys out if the pram, and then threw all my tools out of the shed. Everything. Every last bit of rubbish, burned out water pump, mystery metal bracket and mouse chewed plastic bag. There was a huge mound of stuff in the yard for a week, while I made a frame for shelving out of 45mm square baton. It's not shelving - just two runners to support veg crates, so I have floor to ceiling removable drawers now - each crate can hold 20kg of potatoes to give you some idea of size, and I put everything back carefully based on two criteria: do I actually need to own it (lots of plumbing and irrigation fittings for example), and does it give me pleasure to own it? (I heard somewhere that this it's an anti-hoarding measure - it seems to work). There was an amazingly large pile of rubbish. How many half-bags of old, rock-solid tile adhesive do you need? How many half tubes of gone off, set in the tube silicon sealant?

So I can now walk the entire length of my shed for the first time in 15 years. The floor remains clear (mostly). I can find what I want (if I can just remember which crate it is in), and when I have a job needing a stack of plumbing parts for eg, I just pull the relevant crate out and off I go, secure in the knowledge that I haven't forgotten anything.

I would say that I am not an organised person, I have no patience, and I approach life in a bull-in-a-china-shop, how hard could it be? way. Reorganising my shed changed my life. Does that make me sad?

@Bm101 - it is always, at all times, about having fun with your family. Kids make you laugh, which is why god invented them. Nothing else is important.