Organization is a goal, not a destination

[hobie18]

Per the OP, this process doesn't need to be perfect. This is definitely a case where perfection is the enemy of the good. Adam Savage described it as a process of trial and error. Try storing item X somewhere; if it doesn't work out, you can always change it.

Adam savage had a similar quote. I think it was "Organization is a process not a project." same principle that its a constantly evolving thing that is never "done". Although I'm sure of the more OCD among us may have unlocked that highest level

What works for one person doesn't work for all. What works today, might not work tomorrow. Some things work indefinitely, some things evolve and others completely change

Point is to get tools accessible, readily accessible. Facilitate.

Keeping tools in a drawer or on a cart... may keep them hidden away. So called organized. Working with each project tells you what you need to know. a magical floating in air would be the garage journal goal.

 

[kbeefy]

Hey, cool GMC in your Avatar. Just noticed it. I had one for a little over a year.

Kbeefys GMC thread

I have the analysis paralysis problem with my tool organization. I have numerous tool roller chests and cabinets, mostly full, but no real layout, categories or organization.
I have tools for auto, wood, metal, construction, electrical, electronic, plumbing, welding.... just can't decide on toolbox layout and which box for which.

Anyone have a method developed to divide and conquer the groupings and where crossover tools are included?

I like to organize by my most used tools being the most accessible.
In my auto shop, my basic (most used) sockets are in the top drawer of my 'main' box. Cordless drivers/ratchets/impacts are in a cabinet just above that. Less frequently used tools are in lower drawers or other boxes.
In my woodshop, I have cordless drivers on the wall right above my assembly table, along with measuring tools and marking devices.
I keep my plumbing and household electrical tools and supplies in a storage room in my house.

For crossover tools, if they are not to expensive, I have duplicates so there is one in every workspace.

 

[nadogail]

For about 35 years, my DIY jobs were sandwiched between long work weeks and being on call for tech support.

I barely put the tools away in my overflowing tool box after finishing a job, before starting a new one.

I never made the time to clean, sort or organize the work benches, floors or cabinets.

Now I am in the same boat as @gtae07 . I am almost done with the major post retirement "honey do" list items and I can't seem to motivate myself for the great clean organize and purge of my garages and basement, despite knowing all the good reasons to do so.

Sounds like you are due for a vacation.

 

[Wiz02]

Sounds like you are due for a vacation.

Never understood the appeal of vacations when I was working. Ridiculous stress before going on vacation, shlepping a laptop so I could work while on vacation and handling all the messes that needed to be resolved when I got back. To me, the vacation was much more hassle than it was worth.

Now that I'm retired, I would prefer to just stay home, or do some day trips but I owe SWBO a fancy international vacation. I can't complain, she deserves it.

 

[dchawk81]

Never understood the appeal of vacations when I was working. Ridiculous stress before going on vacation, shlepping a laptop so I could work while on vacation and handling all the messes that needed to be resolved when I got back. To me, the vacation was much more hassle than it was worth.

Now that I'm retired, I would prefer to just stay home, or do some day trips but I owe SWBO a fancy international vacation. I can't complain, she deserves it.

You're not supposed to work while on vacation. Defeats the whole purpose.

 

[mike93lx]

Never understood the appeal of vacations when I was working. Ridiculous stress before going on vacation, shlepping a laptop so I could work while on vacation and handling all the messes that needed to be resolved when I got back. To me, the vacation was much more hassle than it was worth.

Now that I'm retired, I would prefer to just stay home, or do some day trips but I owe SWBO a fancy international vacation. I can't complain, she deserves it.

Sounds like you never knew how to take a vacation, which is really unfortunate

 

[gtae07]

Ridiculous stress before going on vacation... and handling all the messes that needed to be resolved when I got back. To me, the vacation was much more hassle than it was worth.

I can kind of sympathize.

I know some people love planning vacations (I know one or two who seem to enjoy that even more than the trip itself). I absolutely loathe the planning--arranging flights and hotels and rental cars and trying to figure out the "what will we see and do?". Nobody else wants to do the stuff I want to do on a vacation so I just end up trying to figure out what will make everyone else happy.

Then there's the whole thing of dealing with the actual traveling; I hate driving and I hate flying commercial. In fact I hate being stuck in any vehicle for more than an hour or two.

Then we get there and I'm schlepping all the stuff around and dying because I've been cooped up unable to move about and my wife just wants to rest for a bit.

It kind of gets better for a while after that but then it all plays out in reverse on the way home and I feel worse when we get back because all I can think of is all the stuff I need to catch up on at home.


I tried letting my wife plan our itinerary for Puerto Rico last summer, to see if that would help. She failed to account for things like "is that place open on the day I want to go?" (no), "where is that place relative to where we are staying?" (across the island) and "what kind of footwear do I need to go exploring paths and caves in the mountains? (apparently, flipflops). It was a disaster. I spent quite a bit of time driving a POS rental on high-stress roads and she didn't understand why I wasn't looking around enjoying the beautiful scenery we saw from steep mountain roads.


Taking a vacation means added stress (not less) and a month's schedule disruption.

 

[Wiz02]

You're not supposed to work while on vacation. Defeats the whole purpose.

Sounds like you never knew how to take a vacation, which is really unfortunate

I can kind of sympathize.
<SNIP>
Taking a vacation means added stress (not less) and a month's schedule disruption.

@dchawk81 , tell that to my collective bosses over the years. Working on vacation was expected in my line of work.

@mike93lx , you are correct. I could never sit still on a beach vacation, I would go out of my mind. I'm not happy unless I am doing something productive

@gtae07 , while it sounds like my wife’s planning skills are better than your wife’s, I have similar issues with travel as you describe, with the notable exception that I love driving (trapped in an aluminum tube not so much).

 

[sjvicker]

I've learned a few things on this over the years. In a lot of ways this is basic 5S principles applied to a home shop.

1. Plan for expansion. I can build the perfect socket drawer or fastener holder, but what happens when I need to add a size I dont have? If there's not room for it then it'll will sit on the side or somewhere else.
2. Consider looking at organization from a cost savings perspective. Have you ever bought something you already had because you couldn't find it?
3. Cleaning up and putting stuff away is part of the project. This has helped me get that last 10% of a project finished.
4. Create a space you want to spend time in. 10-20min might not be enough to get into a project, but its enough time to sweep and pick up.
5. Work on being ok throwing things away or donating them. I have one toolbox drawer full of dies and a good metric set of taps and dies. I will never use the ones in the drawer since I have the set. They need to go.
6. It's better to sell a tool for cheap to someone who will use it than let it sit unused on a shelf. Even better, give it to a friend.
7. I need to see materials and project parts on a shelf to remind me I have them and am ready to go on a project. If I dont, I'll buy everything for the next project and forget about the first one.
8. "Sunday Projects" - I have a group of projects I call Sunday Projects. They need to be free or close to free, take around 10min to complete. Things like "I need to move X to make my shop more efficient", "I need to touch up paint on this trim", "I need to sweep the shop floor" or "clean out one drawer". This is the stuff that's easy to do but also easy to put off.

 

[paredown]

I'm working on it. Got some new tools which forced a lot of juggling and sorting, plus some cabinet/bench building.

An old friend who had not seen any of the places I lived over the past 20+ years (we roomed together in college) visited recently, and when I showed him 'the workshop' he said with surprise "that's really organized." Not sure what he expected.

I was raised by a machinist Dad, who would pretty religiously clean the shop between Friday night and Saturday morning. We did punch press work, so it was loading scrap, cleaning the chip trays, putting tools back, floors cleaned with Absorball and swept yada yada.

When I worked as a construction super briefly, the Building Inspector said that the duplex we were building was the cleanest job site he had seen--and I try to do the same on the Habitat jobs.

For me--walking into a shop or jobsite that is tidy helps me focus, and there are a real pay-offs in time savings and safety.

(We have probably had too few vacations but we have had a couple that were extraordinary. Itchy feet are starting now, so there is talk of doing a camper build-out and hitting the road.)

 

[Mandres]

My "misc drawer" is any horizontal-ish surface.

It is truly mentally harder for me to (a) try and figure out an organizational system and (b) try to stick to it every day. Cleaning up after a taak or project is the one single hardest thing to do. I don't know why. My shop is a disaster and it frustrates me, but the thought of trying to clean and organize is downright repulsive.

I operated the same way for decades. It's only in the last two years I really put in the effort to get organized, I started by finally buying a tool chest and building a bunch of shelves with storage totes. Everything is finally sorted, labelled and accounted for.

I can't even tell you what a difference it's made. Knowing where everything is has taken all the frustration out of working in the shop. It honestly changed my life.

 

[gtae07]

I operated the same way for decades. It's only in the last two years I really put in the effort to get organized, I started by finally buying a tool chest and building a bunch of shelves with storage totes. Everything is finally sorted, labelled and accounted for.

I can't even tell you what a difference it's made. Knowing where everything is has taken all the frustration out of working in the shop. It honestly changed my life.

Now that the airplane project is finally about done (maybe 5-6 weeks till it flies?) I'm actually starting to clean up now. The tools all mostly have homes (whether I pick them up all the time is another matter). The problem is parts--I have a ton of random parts and fasteners but much of it is two or three of these, a handful of those, little baggies of this or that, etc. plus the Chinese takeout containers of random hardware I picked up but haven't put back away.

I still don't like cleaning up though.. I have to make myself do it. The (mentally) hardest part of any project, no matter how simple or complex, is cleaning up afterwards.

 

[RalphInCA]

Never understood the appeal of vacations when I was working. Ridiculous stress before going on vacation, shlepping a laptop so I could work while on vacation and handling all the messes that needed to be resolved when I got back. To me, the vacation was much more hassle than it was worth.

Now that I'm retired, I would prefer to just stay home, or do some day trips but I owe SWBO a fancy international vacation. I can't complain, she deserves it.

I never had a vacation like that.

I would never have accepted a job that forced that on me.

 

[OccupantRJ]

I use 4 basic methods in my shop. First is no domestic household items in the shop to clog it up other than for repair. Second is I set the tools and such up in the shop as point of use by standing in one spot to perform a task if possible. Everything you need should be within a short reach. Third is what I call “drive by cleaning”. I perfected this at work by picking up something in my centrally located workshop area every time I passed through it and putting it away or at least placing it close to where it would be going.
Fourth is that when an involved project like an auto repair or fabrication or machining job is done, next morning do a full cleanup and tool placement. I have had a workshop for 60 years and have dialed it down to these methods. People always comment on how neat my shop is, but it takes effort and dedication to the hobby for it to work. I am not OCD or a perfectionist, but I do not like clutter.

 

[Wiz02]

I never had a vacation like that.

I would never have accepted a job that forced that on me.

I'm guessing that you don't work in IT and manage software development and support treams?

 

[mike93lx]

I'm guessing that you don't work in IT and manage software development and support treams?

The work you do shouldn't matter. Not being able to take a vacation is poor management, not an It issue

 

[Wiz02]

I use 4 basic methods in my shop. First is no domestic household items in the shop to clog it up other than for repair. Second is I set the tools and such up in the shop as point of use by standing in one spot to perform a task if possible. Everything you need should be within a short reach. Third is what I call “drive by cleaning”. I perfected this at work by picking up something in my centrally located workshop area every time I passed through it and putting it away or at least placing it close to where it would be going.
Fourth is that when an involved project like an auto repair or fabrication or machining job is done, next morning do a full cleanup and tool placement. I have had a workshop for 60 years and have dialed it down to these methods. People always comment on how neat my shop is, but it takes effort and dedication to the hobby for it to work. I am not OCD or a perfectionist, but I do not like clutter.

Now that I am retired, I am slowly moving forward in my drive to clean up. As I finish a project, I do a major cleanup. I have a bathroom renovation to complete and then it will be time to clean up my benches. I'm slowly getting there.

 

[RalphInCA]

I'm guessing that you don't work in IT and manage software development and support treams?

Actually, I did.

 

[Wiz02]

Actually, I did.

Interesting

 

[PoorUB]

tell that to my collective bosses over the years. Working on vacation was expected in my line of work.

I had a boss tell me to keep my cell phone on and close by in case they needed to talk yo me. I told them I was going on vacation, don't expect to get a hold of me. I told them I would check my phone when I had time to do so, but I wasn't going to carry it and leave it turned on. He didn't like it, I didn't care.

 

[Skellyii]

I'm guessing that you don't work in IT and manage software development and support treams?

I did as well.
Being in management meant that I could schedule things around my vacation and knew who I could delegate to in case of emergencies.

Of course I didn't realize this until I had acquired a couple of ex'es.

 

[RalphInCA]

Interesting

The key, in my situation, was to build an organization and systems that could survive without me.

Also to set the expectation to all those around me, including those above me, that that quality of life was important to me.

Fortunately, I worked in a company that respected that concept.

It also helped that I enjoyed my cushy middle management job and had no desire to be promoted into the higher “executive” ranks.

 

[BroncoAZ]

I had a boss tell me yo keep my cell phone on and close by in case they needed to talk yo me. I told them I was going on vacation, don't expect to get ahold of me. I told them I would check my phone when I had time to do so, but I wasn't going to carry it and leave it turned on. He didn't like it, I didn't care.

In the age of cell phones companies have no respect for employee’s personal time. It’s understandable if you’re the boss and have the position/compensation to warrant the access. For the average boots on the ground employee there is limited need for all hours access. As a boss I found texting was less disruptive and more likely to get a quick answer.

 

[Wiz02]

I had a boss tell me yo keep my cell phone on and close by in case they needed to talk yo me. I told them I was going on vacation, don't expect to get ahold of me. I told them I would check my phone when I had time to do so, but I wasn't going to carry it and leave it turned on. He didn't like it, I didn't care.

You wouldn't have lasted long on any of my teams. Being accessible for support even while on vacation was expected.

I never abused off hours questions or support requests to my team as I was the buffer between them and senior management, but if there was an outage and we needed a particular person's expertise then I would call that person and expect a response.

The incident and resolution was then documented in our knowledge base so that we would know what to do if the situation recurred.

 

[RalphInCA]

I had a boss tell me yo keep my cell phone on and close by in case they needed to talk yo me. I told them I was going on vacation, don't expect to get ahold of me. I told them I would check my phone when I had time to do so, but I wasn't going to carry it and leave it turned on. He didn't like it, I didn't care.

Good for you!

More people should be this way.

 

[Wiz02]

The key, in my situation, was to build an organization and systems that could survive without me.

Also to set the expectation to all those around me, including those above me, that that quality of life was important to me.

Fortunately, I worked in a company that respected that concept.

It also helped that I enjoyed my cushy middle management job and had no desire to be promoted into the higher “executive” ranks.

Surviving without someone and meeting commitments aren't quite the same. When I committed to a deadline (with real consensus from the team, as I encouraged real feedback) it was my *** on the line not a delegate's. C suite guys put the screws inti me not my guys.


But enough of this work stuff, yesterday I threw out old brakelines, pads and associated hardware from a brake job that I did in the fall. I always keep all the original parts until I am sure that the job is done, and I am now trying to clean up the detritus a bit sooner now that I'm retired.

 

[mike93lx]

You wouldn't have lasted long on any of my teams. Being accessible for support even while on vacation was expected.

I never abused off hours questions or support requests to my team as I was the buffer between them and senior management, but if there was an outage and we needed a particular person's expertise then I would call that person and expect a response.

The incident and resolution was then documented in our knowledge base so that we would know what to do if the situation recurred.

That's a team that no one should have to work on.

Vacation is vacation. Not working from a beach.

If a problem can't be solved without a phone call to a specific employee, management has failed. Full stop

That **** wouldn't fly in Europe but we let companies get away with it in the US

 

[PoorUB]

In the age of cell phones companies have no respect for employee’s personal time. It’s understandable if you’re the boss and have the position/compensation to warrant the access. For the average boots on the ground employee there is limited need for all hours access. As a boss I found texting was less disruptive and more likely to get a quick answer.

A few years later I was the manager of the department. I didn't carry my cell phone on vacation then. I hired good guys and figured they could deal with any problems, and they did. There was rarely any mess to clean up when I got back. It you can't trust your workers to survive a week or two without you, you hired the wrong people. Sure, there may have been an issue while I was gone they had to deal with, and perhaps it did get done the way I would have done, but it got taken care of.
I didn't expect them to carry thier cell phones either.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

It is interesting to me how a thread started about organization morphs into a debate about what constitutes a vacation and cell phone protocol. However, that does bring to mind a time many years ago when I showed up to work only to be called on the carpet for not responding to a service call over the weekend. When I inquired about who had supposedly contacted me, I was told that someone had supposedly left a message for me with my quite young son. I pointed out that my son was not on payroll and it seemed to me that if I was needed, someone had a responsibility to contact me.

 

[rharman]

The key, in my situation, was to build an organization and systems that could survive without me.

Also to set the expectation to all those around me, including those above me, that that quality of life was important to me.

Fortunately, I worked in a company that respected that concept.

It also helped that I enjoyed my cushy middle management job and had no desire to be promoted into the higher “executive” ranks.

That's the key. Lucky for you, you found a unicorn....

 

[RalphInCA]

That's the key. Lucky for you, you found a unicorn....

Perhaps, but I think organizations that respect quality of life are becoming less rare, especially if they want to attract top talent — and especially if they want to attract that talent without paying exorbitant salaries.

In my situation, the company would have been more than happy work to me to death and take advantage of me.

I simply didn’t accept that. Pretty quickly we (company management and me) worked out a job and job conditions that worked for both of us.

This resulted in a job that I loved, with quality of life that I enjoyed, including a salary that was very supportive of the quality of life I desired.

I didn’t become CEO (or even close), but I did not want to become CEO (or even close).

 

[ecotec]

I am about 75-80% organized in my garage.

Most of my drawers are just one thing (sockets, files, punches and drifts, screwdrivers, kits in blowmold boxes…). This works for me. It goes wrong with drawers that are just filled with random excess, or a drawer that originally was for just one thing… and then I start setting other things on top of those things.

I need to give away or donate my excess… or at least Tetris it in someplace in an organized way.

Realistically, I should stop buying tools that I already have. The siren song of a garage sale sign that says tools… in what looks like old man writing… is hard to pass up. I have whole categories of tools where I am unlikely to need any more of.

 

[Prospecter]

.

Double post from my thread, but you might be interested

I've been playing around with making some different size storage bins. I really like the cardboard bins I bought, and those are inexpensive, but I wanted some others of different sizes. I had been working on patterns to cut out of sheets of cardboard, when I realized I could just run the ends of appropriately sized boxes through the table saw. Super easy. I hot glued the loose flaps. Done. Basically free. Didn't need to buy in quantity. It's the little things in life!

 

[brownsmustang]

I'm struggling with organization at the moment. I had a 32x48 barn that I turned into my perfect palace with shelves and storage etc... last year we sold that to buy an operating auto mechanic shop.

The former owner and my best friend, is a hoarder. And the shop had a work bench piled high and not a shelf in sight. I have gotten him to haul some stuff out and have hauled 3 16 foot trailer LOADS to the dump of stuff he was floored id throw away lol.

I am currently working on putting up finished walls and removing the tons of nails and screws he'd put in the bare perlins to hang stuff. My biggest hurdle is trying to maintain the business while ripping out and rebuilding.

I'm a firm believer in totes with labels, what good is keeping it if you stepped on it for 6 months and destroyed it or you have no idea where it is.

I also have shelves that are tote only so no flat surfaces to sit things on. Just two 2x4s spanning between the legs so only a tote/box can go there.

I buy old cheap steel desks from marketplace and disassemble them to use the drawers under my work bench. They mount really easy and can carry some weight.

I've also come up with a new rule to help with my buddies hoarding tendencies. If I offer it to you and you dont take it with in 24 hours it goes in the trash/marketplace.

 

[nadogail]

Used Pallet racking is good for storage and can be obtained with mesh decks to hold tubs.

 

[matthe]

One thing that helped me was treating cleanup as part of the project instead of something I would do later. Whenever I finished a task, I'd spend 10–15 minutes getting rid of scrap materials, empty boxes, broken parts, and other clutter before starting the next project.

It's surprising how much usable space comes back once the leftover debris is gone. The hardest part for me is deciding what to keep versus what to toss. Does anyone have a rule they follow for items that haven't been used in years?

 

[PhantomEB]

I strive for clutter free but I got a girl I love for all she is, one thing she ain’t got time for is decluttering!

that’s why my spaces are MY spaces, the garage, my vehicles and the RV/Cargo trailer.

 

[matthe]

I can relate to that. Having one area that's completely under your control definitely makes it easier to stay organized. My challenge is usually deciding whether an item is worth keeping "just in case" or if it's time to let it go. Have you found any system that helps you decide what stays and what gets tossed?

 

[PhantomEB]

every thing has to have its own place and nothing big needs to be moved to get at it.

other than the camper, bbq has its own fold down stand as well the blackstone too, so one table comes just cause. Then only beer cooler which predominantly lives at the door next to lawn chairs as we use them for around the fire pit.