Freshmeat
Active member
Haven't been able to park in the garage in well over a year… my wife laid claim to "her side" when we bought the house, so when my side is piled up with parts and projects I'm just out of luck. Wasn't a big deal because I had a '79 Bronco I was building that was too tall to fit, so it just sat outside the garage anyway. Parked my DD behind that and had my side piled with parts and tools. Sold the Bronco then immediately had to drag the boat home from the camp to repair the engine. Over the last couple months I've been pulling the stuff I very rarely use and putting it in the shed in the back yard. I finally brought the boat back out to the camp last weekend and have been enjoying at least parking up to the garage door.
In a seemingly unrelated note, two months ago I finally broke down and started taking ADHD meds to control my ridiculous inability to pay attention to anything. As it turns out, I'm also borderline OCD (known to most as simply liking things to be clean and organized), which was well-veiled by my lack of attention span. The ability to focus has forced a whole new outlook in the way I do things and in the last couple months my garage has been getting slightly more organized, but the house has been the main priority.
Last weekend I picked up a three-door cabinet which sparked a new interest in organizing the garage more thoroughly since i had more area to get everything put away instead of having it all piled on top of my work bench.
Well… yesterday and today I had NOTHING to do… so I basically locked myself in the garage. Finally built shelves for my work bench, with my 8yo son's help. He did all the measuring and even drilled some of the screws. The storage closet was completely emptied, swept, and scrubbed, which made room for ice chests, engine hoist, parts washer, and a couple other random bits that needed to be out of the way. Started going through all my bins and boxes… adjusted heights on my shelves to fit the storage bins… mounted my project truck engine on the stand… kept moving things around until they fit where they belonged… and before I knew it, all I had left was my radial arm saw and tool cart blocking me from backing my Jeep into my side. Found a decent spot for my cart and shifted the RAS against my work bench "between" the Jeeps' spare tires.
I was so excited I caught myself giggling as I was measuring to ensure I could fit without destroying anything while backing the Jeep into my space. Sure enough… it's a tight fit… but that's better than no fit at all! I'll keep organizing everything over the next couple weeks so things should condense down a bit better. Just getting my pile of Jeep into the garage next to my wife's pile of Jeep is a huge step… it's all downhill from here!
Here's my son helping out with the shelves… the drill kicked a little too hard for him to control it, but he did try… and we cut exactly to his measurements so he could get the understanding of the importance of being accurate when building. I figure the shelves aren't a critical deal and when we sell the house it won't take much to cut new ones to fit better. Until then, it's cool to have the reminder of his input when I use them. The first shelf has a gap around the legs, but the second was significantly tighter.
Here's the free cabinet along with the CJ5 grille I scored as a little bit of decoration… it's still a huge mess in this shot, but there was an intense amount of progress this weekend.
Sorry to bore you guys… but it's just really nice to be able to utilize our enclosed parking space. Now, once I get my grandfather's truck going again, I can primarily keep the top and doors off the Jeep and drive the truck when it's raining.
If any of you see suggestions on what I can do to improve the efficiency of my set-up, please let me know. My garage is where most of the Jeeps in my group of buddies install lift kits, bumpers, etc, so we're always working on things here. Any improvement helps… the biggest task right now has been to find a place for all my tools. If I have a PLACE for everything then it can be put back where it BELONGS as opposed to just getting tossed wherever it lands.
In a seemingly unrelated note, two months ago I finally broke down and started taking ADHD meds to control my ridiculous inability to pay attention to anything. As it turns out, I'm also borderline OCD (known to most as simply liking things to be clean and organized), which was well-veiled by my lack of attention span. The ability to focus has forced a whole new outlook in the way I do things and in the last couple months my garage has been getting slightly more organized, but the house has been the main priority.
Last weekend I picked up a three-door cabinet which sparked a new interest in organizing the garage more thoroughly since i had more area to get everything put away instead of having it all piled on top of my work bench.
Well… yesterday and today I had NOTHING to do… so I basically locked myself in the garage. Finally built shelves for my work bench, with my 8yo son's help. He did all the measuring and even drilled some of the screws. The storage closet was completely emptied, swept, and scrubbed, which made room for ice chests, engine hoist, parts washer, and a couple other random bits that needed to be out of the way. Started going through all my bins and boxes… adjusted heights on my shelves to fit the storage bins… mounted my project truck engine on the stand… kept moving things around until they fit where they belonged… and before I knew it, all I had left was my radial arm saw and tool cart blocking me from backing my Jeep into my side. Found a decent spot for my cart and shifted the RAS against my work bench "between" the Jeeps' spare tires.
I was so excited I caught myself giggling as I was measuring to ensure I could fit without destroying anything while backing the Jeep into my space. Sure enough… it's a tight fit… but that's better than no fit at all! I'll keep organizing everything over the next couple weeks so things should condense down a bit better. Just getting my pile of Jeep into the garage next to my wife's pile of Jeep is a huge step… it's all downhill from here!
Here's my son helping out with the shelves… the drill kicked a little too hard for him to control it, but he did try… and we cut exactly to his measurements so he could get the understanding of the importance of being accurate when building. I figure the shelves aren't a critical deal and when we sell the house it won't take much to cut new ones to fit better. Until then, it's cool to have the reminder of his input when I use them. The first shelf has a gap around the legs, but the second was significantly tighter.
Here's the free cabinet along with the CJ5 grille I scored as a little bit of decoration… it's still a huge mess in this shot, but there was an intense amount of progress this weekend.
Sorry to bore you guys… but it's just really nice to be able to utilize our enclosed parking space. Now, once I get my grandfather's truck going again, I can primarily keep the top and doors off the Jeep and drive the truck when it's raining.
If any of you see suggestions on what I can do to improve the efficiency of my set-up, please let me know. My garage is where most of the Jeeps in my group of buddies install lift kits, bumpers, etc, so we're always working on things here. Any improvement helps… the biggest task right now has been to find a place for all my tools. If I have a PLACE for everything then it can be put back where it BELONGS as opposed to just getting tossed wherever it lands.