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Shop Is your shop messy or spotless?

Shop

What does your shop look like?

  • A total junk yard

    Votes: 7 8.9%
  • Organized Chaos

    Votes: 38 48.1%
  • Well used but messy

    Votes: 27 34.2%
  • Jam packed but room to move

    Votes: 23 29.1%
  • Not enough tools to be really messy yet

    Votes: 6 7.6%
  • Everything has a place & is in it

    Votes: 16 20.3%
  • No clutter anywhere - nothing on surfaces

    Votes: 3 3.8%
  • Spotless - you can eat off the floor

    Votes: 2 2.5%
  • Showroom Shop

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    79

Susquatch

Ultra Member
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
Quite often we see photos of messy shops and spotless shops and lots in between. It would be interesting to know where the average is.

You can make up to three choices. You can see results before you vote. You can change your vote!

Of course the survey could have been better! But there is no opportunity for feedback so you get what I wrote! If there are too many complaints I'll start over. Do you really want that?

Please be honest. But it's your opinion not someone else's.
 

boilerhouse

Ultra Member
Mine is reasonably organized with lots of room to do metal and wood working projects. While some might pigeon hole a new machine acquisition into a spot, for me, If a new tool comes into the shop, something less useful has to leave. But I wish the shop were much better. Too many tools hanging from the walls and too many things on open shelves which give it a cluttered look and many of the cabinet drawers are inefficiently used. I keep saying this winter I will go at these problems. Maybe this winter I will LOL. I will say though, I see lot of people doing incredibly good work in incredibly cluttered shops, but I am not one of those people.
 

Mcgyver

Ultra Member
The more crowded and populated my shop became (past tense, cannot fit in another thing), the more neatness was a necessity....that from a basically messy person

In the middle of project I don't put everything away each night, but the correct state is nothing on a bench or mill table. That's the rule, horizontal surfaces clear, or it needs work.
 

Susquatch

Ultra Member
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
In the middle of project I don't put everything away each night

That's why I need so many duplicate tools. Too many projects going on at once.

Case in point right now. Working on a plow cart on the floor. Suddenly a fuel injector is leaking and needs repair NOW. Cart and tools go on hold till I need parts for the injector. Parts ordered. Resume work on the cart. Weather opens up and time to combine is here (top of priorities). Cart and Injectors both go on hold. Starts to rain. Harvest goes on hold, resume work on cart, parts arrive resume work on injectors, some goofy forum member discusses turning pins on the lathe - need to try a combo quick, resume work on injectors, broke a tube - order more parts, resume work on cart...... and so on and so forth. If I put everything away in between, I'd get nothing done. Not to mention trying to remember what parts come off and go on in what order. Easiest to lay them out in sequence on a bench or rolling work table alongside the required tools. Story of my life.

I like it that way.
 

Matt-Aburg

Ultra Member
The more crowded and populated my shop became (past tense, cannot fit in another thing), the more neatness was a necessity....that from a basically messy person

In the middle of project I don't put everything away each night, but the correct state is nothing on a bench or mill table. That's the rule, horizontal surfaces clear, or it needs work.
It is only clean until the chips fly, and then all things end up on top of everything resembling a table.
 

Brent H

Ultra Member
A mess during a project but then can be spotlessly clean if I am spraying and masked off everywhere. Needs to be organized as wood tools need lots of in feed and out feed, plus glue up etc …. The Metal tools I keep clean and sweep a lot as getting swarf in your boots or stuck in a foot can be a bad thing.
 

Gearhead88

Super User
I'm constantly re-arranging everything , trying to find the ultimate layout that maximizes the available space . I think , I've arrived at an arrangement I can stick with.

I try not to bash stuff around , like my ex wife used to do , rearranging the entire house every other day ...... now that I think about it , she used to change the colour of her hair three or four times a week .
It was expensive to make her go away but worth every penny .
 

Tomc938

Ultra Member
Premium Member
My shop is spotless AND messy. Every time I go to put something down, there's no spot. Whenever I go to pick up the thing I just put down, I don't know where the spot is. (New Year's resolution: Lose 20 lbs and organize shop)
 

Gearhead88

Super User
A mess during a project but then can be spotlessly clean if I am spraying and masked off everywhere. Needs to be organized as wood tools need lots of in feed and out feed, plus glue up etc …. The Metal tools I keep clean and sweep a lot as getting swarf in your boots or stuck in a foot can be a bad thing.
I keep the metal chips cleaned up so my dog doesn't get her paws injured
 

Art M

Active Member
Mine well it’s 10 pounds of crap in a 2 pound sack Never enough room.
Back before the turn of the century, wow I’m getting old, I passed on a building 44x170 on a couple acres for cheap. 44x50’ insulated at one end with commercial sized garage door between that and 120’ of indoor storage.
Every time I drive past it……..sigh
 
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