Something just clicked…..

[bczygan]

I guess I can't agree with letting the cabinets go. If Julie wants this project done, I think it's time to man up and do it.

1) recycle the car batteries for $100
2) use the money to get the van fixed. A brake line or two and a transmission mount are such small repairs in the scheme of things
3) empty the van
4) pick up the cabinets, leave in the van
5) take everything out of the kitchen and put in the yard and tarp it. Do not inspect, sort, categorize. Just move it and pile it
6) tear the old cabinets out and toss them in the 7 trash cans
7) bring some new cabinets in and start the fitting job

As the little man really said: do or I'll fry your azz with the force, you whiney little *****!

This post is alive with accomplishment. No wasted effort. A direct path from here to completion. I like it. And I did an analysis and about 2/3 of the cabinets will fill the kitchen. Leftovers can be used in bath and powder room and shed.

Number 1 can be done later. I have repair money in hand.
Number 3 was done a couple of weeks ago.
Numbers 5 and 6 can be done right now.


Bill

 

[Wanna Ride]

So many of us suffer these personal struggles of organization, time-management, and the need to move items from the "To Do" list, to the "Done" list.

So ironic that guys like us, with the same afflictions, have Salvador Dali-style clocks. Or maybe it's not irony. Maybe it's because we know we're guilty of wasting time?

Glad to see your making progress, and more importantly, also feel like you're making progress.
I'm planning on doing some of the same this weekend myself.

 

[RacerRick]

I am a list maker, and it really helps me get things done. I take all my tasks and figure out what order they need to be done in. Then I break down each task into sub tasks, and the first 3 things on each sub task is:

1) Clean work area and inspect
2)Get materials
3)Get needed tools

Then the remainder of the task broken into easily digestible steps. All this does is makes sure I am ready for the task, with all my tools, a clean work area, and the materials I think I will need. This also gets me mentally ready to complete the task.

I make each step an easily attainable goal that I can complete in a reasonable amount of time. When you complete the string of easily attainable small goals, the larger goals tend to take care of them self. The trick is to make each sub task easily accomplished, and with clear goals.

Then every day I try to cross one thing off the list. Some days I will cross off a bunch. Others, maybe one.

 

[Wanna Ride]

Man, I wish I had the same problems as some of y'all!!!

Careful what you wish for.

 

[simpler=better]

I guess I can't agree with letting the cabinets go. If Julie wants this project done, I think it's time to man up and do it.

1) recycle the car batteries for $100
2) use the money to get the van fixed. A brake line or two and a transmission mount are such small repairs in the scheme of things
3) empty the van
4) pick up the cabinets, leave in the van
5) take everything out of the kitchen and put in the yard and tarp it. Do not inspect, sort, categorize. Just move it and pile it
6) tear the old cabinets out and toss them in the 7 trash cans
7) bring some new cabinets in and start the fitting job

As the little man really said: do or I'll fry your azz with the force, you whiney little *****!

You forgot:

#2.5-Drive to the dump

#5 is the biggest time saver in my book. Sort the **** when the room has been finished and you're putting the furniture back in.

 

[86turbodsl]

I really like what racerrick posted. Reminds me of a fella i used to know who always told me, to fail to plan is to plan to fail.

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

 

[Strouty]

Those are all good points, today I followed none of them..........

My elbow has been pretty sore since yesterday, I slept like **** last night, and I just generally feel like **** both mentally and physically. I am going to try and regroup tomorrow and see what I can do, not sure what the plan is for Mother's Day, but I am sure Sunday will not be a good day for the shop. On top of all that, two of my jobs got postponed, so I have to rework my schedule, not a huge deal, but a few things need to be changed.

I think I need to start trying to give 75% of my effort to working, whenever I do 110% it wears me too thing, then I am on about 20% for a couple days. I did do a couple small things today, but they were office related, so nothing done in the shop. Regardless of what I feel like, next week needs to be full of progress as it is probably the last week I can do shop cleanup, after that it is job prep and field work for a while.

 

[dkmc]

Yea, when I first started following this thread I thought, well, here's a guy
that's just whining about everything and loading his shop up......well, like I have loaded mine up in the last 30 years....


And at times it looked like expected failure and going round in circles with the 'clean-**** it back up' cycle.
But like a good movie, after some down days, some real progress is taking shape! I'm totally inspired to -begin thinking about trying to address the eventual organization of my shop and mountain of ****. And somehow that has helped a ****-ton I assure you!


Strouty, your only logical next step to having a show on History Channel is to
progress to making Youtube VIDEOS of your shop and situation.
THAT my friend would be awesome!

 

[nine4gmc]

He's been in talks with Seinfeld over another thread, idk if the network contracts would allow that. You tube is an option though![emoji38]

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[Strouty]

dkmc I think when I started this thread, I really had no idea how bad it was. At first I thought I could just move things around and magically make space, boy was I wrong. I have thought about youtube videos, but I prefer time lapse, it is adjustable so when my pace slows it doesn't drag as much.

Today I have a mission, that mission is to get a couple of plants for Mother's Day. After that I am free to go to the shop and get some work done. Still need to sort all the stainless and galvanized hardware, by removing it from the shop, it should open up a huge area in the Rotabin that can be used for my pipe fittings and other hardware that is taking up a lot of space. I will update later with some pictures of the mess and clean up.

 

[egnorant]

This post is alive with accomplishment. No wasted effort. A direct path from here to completion.
Bill

Wow! That's not how it works in my world!

Plan for the day: Mow, fix rickety joints in new trailer box, install USB/110 inverter in trailer.

How it works: 80% done and mower stops, drive belt idler blew up so I check scrap pile because there are 2 more of these old Murrays in there. Find ZERO pulleys but snag the loose belts (just in case) and notice that that little bracket and rod would work for a prop rod on the trailer box.

Round up tools and realize one of my 13mm Gearwrenches is blown up and drop it in broken tool bin. Notice I have 5 items that Sears should swap so I make a plan to whip by the next day!

Finish with push mower and install L-brackets on trailer box, new prop rod idea is genius, but the wiring stalls because out of 90,000 electrical connectors I need 2 ring type that I just don't have (or cannot find).

3 new items on list...electrical connectors, pulley, and Sears run! Of course fix mower and finish inverter kinda count as old list items. Mower was up for a spa day because last week I found a stack of blades that I put with my spark plug/belt/mower parts shelf.

I still surprise myself too! Drag stuff from a shelf and discover that a blow molded box I though was a router was ANOTHER acetylene torch setup and had 8 new tips in it. I just bought 2 new tips a month ago!!

It is a long and winding road my friend!

Bruce

 

[Strouty]

Bruce, I think that is Murphy messing with you.

I got the plants for Mother's Day, so that is done and out of the way. Just got to the shop and I am getting ready to start gathering stainless and galvanized hardware. I know a lot of it is in containers, but they are containers that need to stay in the shop, so I will have to transfer some stuff. The labeler is out and ready to go as well. I figure anything that can be labeled will be labeled. I am also setting up the scrap buckets, so I can toss stuff that doesn't need to be saved or sorted. Wish me luck.

 

[nine4gmc]

Luck has been wished!


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[Strouty]

I forgot to post these the other day, they are some of my favorite fortune cookie fortunes.

 

[Strouty]

I have gathered a lot of the hardware, but I still have two cabinets to dig through. I have consolidated about 20 bins, so I have several empty ones now.

 

[Strouty]

So here we are, back to the point that I have had trouble with forever. I am trying to sort some hardware, I don't mean stuff that is in a big mixed pile, I mean stuff that is all the same size. I had a drawer that had just flange nuts, then another that had just fender washers, now I am thinking of using the lista drawers to the fullest and just have a drawer for 1/4", 3/8", and 5/16" at this point my metric collection is fairly small, but I also have not sorted things, my guess is I can get away with one drawer for metric hardware. Would you keep the bolts and regular nuts in one place or put everything of one size in one drawer regardless of what it is? Does that make sense, if not I can try and elaborate more. I may post this elsewhere so I can get some more opinions.

 

[altersaddle]

When you go to get some hardware, are you usually thinking I need 1/4" or I need a bolt or I need something metric? Can you identify a pattern?

I sorted by type. Screws, bolts, washers, nuts, pins all got binned. I did not sort or label them by size.

I would go with one drawer for metric hardware. If you find yourself pawing through that drawer often, wishing you could find _____ faster, then break it out and sort it again.

If you find yourself scanning the drawers, trying to find the one that holds _____, combine drawers.

It's a learning process, and changing it up is not a bad thing. Pick a direction, try it out, review it, change if necessary.

 

[Strouty]

That sure was the best advice I have received in a while, seems simple now, but I was stuck. Usually when I go for a part it is that I am looking for (as an example) a fender washer, but I am not sure what size I want, so having them all in the same drawer makes sense. On the flip side, when I am looking for a bolt, it is usually that I may not be sure what length, but I know what size I want. So I guess I will be sorting them as bolts by diameter, flat washer, lock washers, and nuts all in one drawer, then I can have specialty drawers for wing nuts, flange nuts, locking nuts, and fender washers. That seems to make sense to me and I guess I am really the only one that it needs to make sense to.

Thanks altersaddle.

 

[Richard Cranium]

So I have finally figured out what this thread is for, You are going to write a book/ phone app. on how to clean out your garage and make so much money that you will not need to go back to the shop....Richie

 

[kylefitz]

I like the idea Of drawers sorted by size. Think of this. "I need 4 1/4-20 bolts 3 inches long, 8 washers, and 4 lock nuts. Is it faster to open one drawer or 3?

That being said of course that's not the system I use! I couldn't get rid of this typograph cabinet so everything g is in bins in the drawers.

Anything organized is better then a pile.

 

[Strouty]

Rich, that is the plan, Nines and I are working with Seinfeld to make a coffee table book.


Kylefitz, that is a nice cabinet, I would keep it too! I figure keeping things to one drawer is definitely better than three.

You guys got me into a mess, now I am rearranging the lista drawers and shelves. A few of them were deceptively heavier than I thought. My elbow is screaming at me. I will post some pictures of what I am doing when I take another break. Hopefully the drawers will be all installed at that point. Of course there are not enough of the same dimension drawers so my OCD may be a bit upset, oh well, can't have everything perfect.

 

[Strouty]

I will have to do the final update a bit later, my phone is dying and I am about to head home, here is a picture of when I essentially started removing the drawers.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Strouty, coming along nicely.

One thing I noticed is that you have a lot of everything, nothing wrong with that mind you. Also taking into context that you are in business as well. When I went through my stuff I asked myself the following:

1. Do I need really it?
2. Have I used it in the last five years?
3. Am I likely to use it any time soon?

In my situation space is at a premium and I know I could improve things a lot. Then I thought about the fact that it is costly to store stuff.
So from there I now take the view that I should have just a little bit of every thing that I consider consumable hardware to get me out of trouble or the next project.

In my clean out I took the emotion out off it then sold off a lot of stuff, gave stuff away to my dad and son that did not fit the above three criteria.

Looking back on it now, have I regretted doing so and the answer is no.


Regards

 

[Strouty]

That is my balancing act. The business end of stuff is actually so sporadic that I don't want any of it in the shop at all. Today was a huge step towards that goal. I must have emptied about 25 or 30 bins from my stock room and got all that hardware out to the conex. Once I separate the two, shop stuff and business stuff, then I think it will be much easier to sort and store what I truly think I need. I bet I will go through this a few more times as well, it is really hard to get everything in one pass, I find that if I hit it again a month or so later I can get rid of much more than I did the first time around.

 

[Strouty]

I emptied all these plastic bins that were in the Rotabin, then all these plastic bags, must have been 25 or more bags too. Then there were other bins that are scattered around, some have been filled and put away. Anyways, it is getting better, but I can see I need to order more Lista drawers and shelves, probably get to that this fall.








Still have a sizable mess to deal with but overall things are looking up, I can see more floor than normal.

 

[cbacres]

Looking good Strouty. I like that shelving system with the pull out shelves, that's got to be handy with bigger, heavier stuff.

Bolt, screws and general fastners is something I need to sort up some day too.

 

[Strouty]

The pull out shelves are good for 440 pounds evenly distributed. I weigh 300 and I can stand on them and they slide in and out easily. I have been so impressed with the entire system, it is so modular and everything is easy to move. I can't wait to add to it, long term goal is to have most of the stockroom made up of Lista drawers and shelves.

 

[mdbeck1]

When you go to get some hardware, are you usually thinking I need 1/4" or I need a bolt or I need something metric? Can you identify a pattern?

I sorted by type. Screws, bolts, washers, nuts, pins all got binned. I did not sort or label them by size.

I would go with one drawer for metric hardware. If you find yourself pawing through that drawer often, wishing you could find _____ faster, then break it out and sort it again.

If you find yourself scanning the drawers, trying to find the one that holds _____, combine drawers.

It's a learning process, and changing it up is not a bad thing. Pick a direction, try it out, review it, change if necessary.

I sort very similar. Only I ended up with four shallow drawers for each major size I use in the shop. I usually reserve the bottom one for nuts and washers. I have a few different sizes in the green cabinet.

 

[Wanna Ride]

That TXT chassis is adding considerably to the sizeable mess. I'm still willing to help relieve you of that burden...

Still have a sizable mess to deal with but overall things are looking up, I can see more floor than normal.

 

[Strouty]

Am I going to have to censor my photos? You know there are much nicer things than that TXT chassis up there. I have a bunch of RC stuff, some of it needs to go. The TXT is not really on the list, but you never know.........

 

[Wanna Ride]

Am I going to have to censor my photos? You know there are much nicer things than that TXT chassis up there. I have a bunch of RC stuff, some of it needs to go. The TXT is not really on the list, but you never know.........

Sorry... I get fixated, and have A.D.D. all at the same time. That's why my shop is overall a mess, but other small areas are really, really neatly organized.

 

[Strouty]

I have some of those same types of areas.

As I figured today turned into a non shop day, got to visit with the Moms, so I guess that was a good thing.

Now the GF and I are changing water in the fish tank, that is always fun.

Tomorrow I should be at the shop relatively early, I have several things that need to be done and right now I am not sure where I am going to start. I want to continue on with the hunt for galvanized and stainless hardware, but I have a lease to amend for a tower site that I have been avoiding for a bit. I may be able to get the amendment done tonight, then tomorrow do the back and forth with the lawyer during the day.

 

[Strouty]

Apparently I did a number on the elbow, I am now waiting for the meds to kick in, going to ice it for a bit, then I have to do my exercises. At least I got all the heavy lifting done at the shop, the rest is sorting through smaller drawers and bins. I think I can keep things under control, but I do need to pay attention to it. I will post some updates today after I get some things done.

 

[nine4gmc]

Don't overdo that arm again, you have paying jobs coming up! Tie it to your chest if you need to, to restrict movement and keep you from injuring it further.

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[Strouty]

The restriction of movement is actually bad, but lifting too much or squeezing too hard when it is out straight is what causes the problem. The doctor told me that I have to "test" or it won't heal properly, but not to "overdo" it. Of course for me this is different than most people, so I am struggling with trying to balance using it and not abusing it.

After getting to the shop, my calendar screamed at me that it is time to write some checks and pay a few bills online. So I am going to get that out of the way first thing. After lunch will be some sorting and some updated pictures. I really want to clear off enough space so I can work on the TXT (or any RC vehicle) if I choose to.

 

[Wanna Ride]

After lunch will be some sorting and some updated pictures. I really want to clear off enough space so I can work on the TXT (or any RC vehicle) if I choose to.

Send it to me... I'll take care of it for you, so you can focus on more important things.

 

[Strouty]

Maybe I will bust out the tires and a body to post a better picture of it.

 

[Wanna Ride]

Maybe I will bust out the tires and a body to post a better picture of it.

I dare you!

 

[Strouty]

Challenge accepted, at least I will have something fun to do for a change.

 

[Strouty]

It is funny how when you take time to sort and label it takes longer, but once it is done, you know where things are and then it never takes long to find things again. I am not concentrating on what drawer things are going in yet, just getting them sorted and labeled for the future. I figure I will be reconfiguring again once I know what I want to be where. I have about ten drawers that have been emptied and only a small bit needs to go out to the conex, overall I am feeling good about the time spent.