Need some moral support on garage cleaning

[popeye31]

I was doing good on cleaning the garadge. had room to work on a few projects . well the cleaning stopped and caous set in again . I Need a boost to get cleaning again.read a post just now and everone said post som pics and explain what you want to do .
so here goes. Im a car guy anything and evrything to do with cars is my forte . I have 4 Model As im building a 57 English ford, a 48 plymouth and a motor bike . The bike needs to go , and am thinking of selling the 48. to free up some room . But then one of the other cars will move into the garadge to be worked on and it will probably be the English ford. I have three garadges I play in . Two I call the Model A garadges all Model A related items are in it . the other Garadge was suppose to be the work horse and house most of the tools and a place for teardown and mockup because it has a cement floor and I can weld and grind with out the place burning down. The two Model A garadges are off the ground with wood floors and were suppose to be for final assembly and storage of finished vehicals. well the 48 is sitting dorment in the workhorse Garadge. And I am back a forth hunting tools to work on projects. I find it funny that at my day job I only need one role around and a stationary box to do a frame off rebuild but at home I seem to think I need 5 tool boxes to do the same job. well here are a few photos. Help please.

 

[popeye31]

Re: Need some moral support on garadge cleaning

O and not to through a wrench in the tollbox but I am currently building a Tbucket at work in hopes to sell and use the money to knock down all three garadges and build a 28x38 garade. I also have a car lift and floor rack that is laying in the yard till this happens.

 

[SuitorsGarage]

Re: Need some moral support on garadge cleaning

Here is my idea. You said that you have multiple garages. Use only one for working and use the others for storage of your projects and parts that go with them. Make yourself focus on one project car until it is complete. That way parts get installed and you gain free space.
I also have a long term project with parts taking up space.

 

[May Pop]

Re: Need some moral support on garadge cleaning

Im in the same boat as you are. I just seem to get more tools and equipment to work in them all. Then there is the kids garages too. I will be watch this for good ideas. The times I change are always drastic surcome stances.
Possibly the wood floor building becoming storage only with lots of shelving.
Another a vehicle storage only so they dont get damaged while waiting to get worked on.
I always wanted a paint booth or clean area-room.
Then you work on keeping the "shop" portion a works in progress area.
Ill bet your like me and have many projects going at once while waiting for parts,ideas or energy to work on projects.
A clean work area that gets tidyed up often is a more pleasant and productive area to come out to.

 

[1930artdeco]

Re: Need some moral support on garadge cleaning

Here is my nickles worth....If you have any 1930 Townsedan parts you can box them up and send them my way to make extra room. After that, organization if your friend. Store the cars in the wood garages along with some shelving to store thingsin some sort of order. And as my dad says if you don't need it get rid of it, that can get you some money and space.

Mike

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

Re: Need some moral support on garadge cleaning

I see there is a catalog rack on a bench on the right side of one photo that is nearly empty. As neat as those are, they aren't that useful and I would probably get rid of it. That would clear up 4-5 feet of space right there alone. Replace it with shelving units, preferably on wheels. That should clear up a little floor space.

You have a single bay leanto sectionof the garage for one car. I would pull that project car out and put it outside if need be under a tarp and cover. That space is too small to work on the car effectively, and would be much better put to use as a storage space lined with shelves and overhead storage. I think you could clear out a good section of your two car garage space that way by putting longer term storage items there.

With that, you shoulld be able to make the 2 car garage your working area as it has more elbow room to get around your current project.

 

[paullie]

Re: Need some moral support on garadge cleaning

I see there is a catalog rack on a bench on the right side of one photo that is nearly empty. As neat as those are, they aren't that useful and I would probably get rid of it. That would clear up 4-5 feet of space right there alone. Replace it with shelving units, preferably on wheels. That should clear up a little floor space.

You have a single bay leanto sectionof the garage for one car. I would pull that project car out and put it outside if need be under a tarp and cover. That space is too small to work on the car effectively, and would be much better put to use as a storage space lined with shelves and overhead storage. I think you could clear out a good section of your two car garage space that way by putting longer term storage items there.

With that, you shoulld be able to make the 2 car garage your working area as it has more elbow room to get around your current project.

i like this idea. i put up a 9x15 leanto and that lil bit of room helped me clean up my shop a bunch, it's the home for my stuff that don't need to be "in" my shop but it's not junk that can be outside. now i have this hard gray stuff that i can see that i walk on, i think they call it a floor

 

[lilscorpion]

Here is my idea. You said that you have multiple garages. Use only one for working and use the others for storage of your projects and parts that go with them. Make yourself focus on one project car until it is complete. That way parts get installed and you gain free space.
I also have a long term project with parts taking up space.

I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw the three pics in a row. When storage overlaps useable space, you get what looks like clutter. If you could use your smaller garage exclusively for storage and move everything into that space that isn't a piece of equipment, work space, or similar, you'd end up with quite a bit more useable space and isolate the storage aspect outside of it. Storage is probably the single most common garage killer. The christmas tree (except this time of year), the high-chair that hasn't been used for 20 something years, and (in your case) the roof of a car. Gotta consolidate what you've got into a smaller space that's accessible and restrict storage to that space. As you're moving things into that space, be honest with yourself and decide if you really want to commit the item to storage. You've got 5 gas cans? Give a couple away unless you run the pits at the local drag in your spare time. Pitching the things I no longer needed freed up more space than any other single thing I did. I'm a car guy (less so these days as in the past but still am) and in my experience, having more than one project rolling at one time lends itself to chaos. Projects (especially of the car type) come with parts both on and off the vehicle which you gotta store somewhere. Three projects and all of their associated parts (trying not to forget that you're buying more parts for each one as you come across that deal you just can't pass up) will kill space. If you were into motorcycles or something smaller I'd have a different opinion. Anyway, my rule now-a-days is 1 project cradle to grave and that has also helped immensely. Works well for me and keeps me outta the dog house too.

 

[justanengineer]

Re: Need some moral support on garadge cleaning

For me, I find I get the most done and keep things organized the best when I spread out my projects. I try to have at most one project going at a time in the garage, one in the house, and possibly a third in the basement workshop, that way if I dont feel like working on one I can move to the others without fear of burying another.

 

[L33tSp34k]

Man, I thought my garage was bad before I organized it! I didn't even have half of the tools and old equipment that you have in you garages. In your situation I can see why the task is so daunting. If you could organize it in like it was mentioned above using one garage for work and the others for storage you would have a decent setup. The problem is getting everything where it needs to be. I noticed you also use cardboard boxes, that makes it hard to keep things organized. I haven't met many people that actually mark cardboard boxes, but I have seen many garages that when there is a system of shelving, cabinets, and drawers there is usually a marking system that helps keep things more organized. I actually spent some time reading other company's blogs and looking at their products, and have implemented some of the things I have seen on their blogs. I would suggest doing that so you can come up with an idea of how you want the garage layout to be. Also if you have any family this blog post may help you out: http://www.monkeybarstorage.com/blog/how-get-your-family-board-organization It goes over what can be done to get something organized even if it isn't "fun."

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

Since you got a leanto attached to the outside of the house, you could take advantage of that by moving that vertical compressor out to the side storage as well. You'll clear up valuable work space where you actually need it, and help your ear by putting it out of the room. Plumbing the air and power to the compressor is easy. The end result is well worth the effort.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

Oh, and one last thing- you need a garage sale! I see a lot of stuff there that isn't needed for your restoration. The way I look at long term storage of stuff I think has value:

What would I pay someone to store this item in like new condition someplace else?

If I don't need it now and it's a commonly avialable tool/part that I can pick up at any time, then I'd rather have the seller store it on their shelves for me than have it clutter up my garage.

Now if only I actually followed my own advice- ooh, a shiny tool! Gotta have it. Don't know what it does, but I need it!

 

[Toomanytools?]

Well here is my general idea, I'm a woodworking doing the same thing cleaning the garage. I admit I'm a packrat, so you need to be honest with yourself don't save stuff thinking you will get to it someday. If you haven't used something for the last 5 years (1 year is better but start with baby steps) sell it or toss it chances are you will never use it. I have gotten rid of so much scrap wood I could build a new garage. Also two three four of the same tool figure out what you really need toss the rest . Good Luck.

 

[Neil Davies]

I have a similar situation at The Unit - my hobby shop that my Dad and I share with a family we've been friends with for over 20 years. It's the old gas meter house for the former Bluebird Toffee factory and the site later became Ever Ready batteries!

We had floor space for 5 cars (two end to end on the side with the office at one end and the toilet at the other, three in a row in line wit the doors) plus one on the lift above the third car. One of the two cars on the right had a simple frame built over it to store body panels and boxes of lighter weight stuff, and we built a mezzanine floor above the door level with the office, maybe 6ft deep and full width of the shop. We deliberately didn't put easy access in so that we couldnt just fill it with ****!
When the other car on the right sold, we converted that area into an engine build area as we've got a few we need to do this winter.

Second thing we did was buy an old truck back which we bought as an extra workshop but decided to use it purely for storage. We used 3x3 timbers to reach from side to side up at the top of the body and ran two shelves full length of the body made out of old household doors which have lots of awkward bits like exhaust systems, interior trim panels and more boxes of stuff shoved on top of them.

Top tips then, first, don't have easy access to long term storage - you're more likely to bin it than keep it that way! Second, dedicate spaces to set jobs and stick to it!

Good luck with the tidy up, I hate doing that!

 

[dawgee]

burn it collect the insurance

 

[bdamico]

Think Ralph Macchio

 

[bczygan]

Do you really want to change things. If you cleaned it up once, and it's back the way it was, then it's the way you work that makes it so. If you work on everything at once, it will be this way. As mentioned above, if you decide to FOCUS on one workspace and ONE project until completion, then the other garages can just be storage. If you decide to do this, then take everything you don't need for the one project, and put those things in the storage garages.Put all the tools, equipment and parts needed for the project in the project garage. Work there until the project is finished. Then move the next one in. Repeat.

 

[Daddy454]

WOW!I would just....I ahhh....well......wow!

 

[mothgrey]

Wow.... Look take a couple weeks bite the bullet and just clean it up. You'll end up being more productive from that point forward.

 

[Mario428]

OP have you ever finished a project???????
See this all the time, too lazy to ever finish anything. Get a blast of energy from a new project but nothing ever gets done. More fun to talk about projects than do the work, then whine and cry to the world about it.

 

[Toomanytools?]

Nice post Mario do you know anything about this guy to make a blanket statement? I never looked at the photo's but Dude! how do you get anything done in there? Start at one end and get it done.

 

[d.mcfarland]

OP - the crazy part is that you have a great variety of stuff in there, you just have absolutely no organization. You need to take time and possible research some storage options and just get one thing done at a time!

 

[popeye31]

Toomany tools Mario is right to a point but im not complaining about not getting anything done . I am messy when I work. and tend to be lazy at putting things back where they go but am trying to work on it. it doesn't happen over night. I also have issues with staying focused on one project at a time. I started to just work on my 30 CCPu and its been good and things seem to be more organized with working on that vehical. sounds like I need to get rid of a couple projects the 48 the bike and do some more organizing throw a few more things away and go from there. I need to keep the compressor inside because I have a neighbor that complains about the noise. She is an old lady that has nothing better to do. Her A/c unit drowns out my compressor when im in the front yard.

 

[gabeancounter]

Popeye, glad you took Mario's post in pride. It takes a great deal of self discipline to remain focused and push through to the end of a project. Good luck on the clean up.

 

[Hammer1963]

I have similar issues. What stays, what goes.

I take the blame for about 30% of the clutter in my garage. The other 70% is divided into as follows: Kid #1 about 25%. Kid #2 around 35%. Wife probably 10%.

In a perfect world, I tell the boys to leave my tools alone and that they have to use their own tools and that their projects have to find other homes. My wife............. well quit bringing home **** to refinish or refurb. Me, get my head out of my *** and quit being lazy.

What I finally did, was I sat down and sketched a layout of a new floor plan and went to work on it. I have 65% of the items moved into new locations and the other 35% is on wheels. The biggest issue is putting up all the redundant tools. I've decided to divide them up between the 2 boys ( 26 & 21 ) and hope they can keep out of mine !

 

[Mario428]

Nice post Mario do you know anything about this guy to make a blanket statement?

Don't have to, see it all the time. Lots of people like the OP, always new projects but none ever get done.

The mollycoddling that comprised most of the responses do not do the OP any service. He needs to stand up, pick a favorite project and get rid of the rest It is very easy to become a hoarder type, do it myself. Cleaning up my shop the last few weekends and yes it is difficult to throw stuff away but has to be done. "Might use that some day!!!!" is the hoarders credo. LOL

 

[egnorant]

Sometimes the projects must be put on hold while the cleanup happens.
Make project #1 the creation of a more usable workspace.
Pray you don't let it go like I did (see link below) until the best option is to bulldoze everything out of the shop.

That 10 minutes after wrenching cleanup is a wonderful thing, even if it is not the most thrilling part.

After 6 MONTHS of cleanup and organization I now have a decent workable shop.
Even now I am dividing my time between projects, maintaining the shop and evolving the layout of the shop.

It's just fun to work in the shop again!

Bruce.