Where Do I Start Organizing? A 30x50 Mess

[RWorth]

That looks good right now compared to mine. I just did 10 weeks of 6- 12 hour days a week, so everything I've done for the last 10 weeks is scattered around my shop. There is still a path to get from the front to the back door, but I have to exhale in a couple of spots.

The good news is I'll be off for my annual 3 month vacation soon, so it should be clean in a couple of weeks.

My shop is only 26x40 and I don't have room to expand, so at the moment I have a good 13x28 tent on a slab, a 12x20 shed, and I just started on a cheapy HF 10x17 tent to store my CJ for the winter.

 

[danfromsyr]

you ain't got a problem there yet...

 

[Lennyzx11]

1. Pull a dumpster in or a trailer near the door.
2. Walk through and throw away stuff you know you’re not going to ever mess with.
3. Start at the back or one side/corner and move EVERYTHING out of that space. Just pile it somewhere. Say a 10x10 area or so.
4. Get a vision in your head of what you want generally for a layout overall.
5. So that empty space is what in your vision? Storage, bench, welding area, paint place, etc?
6. pick the biggest pieces of stuff for that space and drag them in place. Shelves, bench, welding table/carts etc.
7. Now the little stuff that goes in that space. Pick it up and decide if it goes out in the trailer/dumpster or into your space. Work down by size. Bigger first. Shows yourself you’re making progress.
8. Don’t worry about the details and organizing just yet. Just stage stuff in the space.
9. Now, working biggest stuff to smallest, find a place in that first space for it to live.
10. Work vertical as much as possible with shelves that you can see and reach the back of. A shop looks like **** when floor space is used up with piles of stuff everywhere to walk around.
And it’s easier on your back. Ask us older people. Get anything you can off the floor.

11. Repeat 1-10 in the next “space” and keep wishing your shop had been built bigger.

Oh yeah. And number 12.
12. Send us pictures of each space on a certain time period like daily/weekly/monthly so we can ooh and ahh at your progress. Or nag like an ex wife wanting alimony/child support if not.

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[walker450]

Thanks for the advice guys!!

Lenny, I like your list. That's roughly what I am doing now, so it sounds like I am on the right track. And, since you asked, below is a pic just for you. I am thinking about putting a ~30" deep shelf up high in the wall opposite of the walk though door. The height would be at the upper horizontal perlin, which is 10' 4" high. I'll have to use my big ladder or my tractor to access, but I don't want to lose height in this area, not yet anyways, I have a few possible future projects in mind that may utilize the 10' clearance under the shelves. I believe these type of shelves are referred to as soffit storage. Basically using the uppermost corner.

Plus, I have been wanting to buy a wire feed MIG welder for years... and this is the perfect excuse to make the purchase. My idea is to weld the frame of the shelves up similar to the tall storage shelves in one corner er visible in the OP. This shelf would be supported totally but the existing uprights, no posts.

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[Strouty]

That isn't even a mess, can't believe a few of the comments about how bad it is, they clearly haven't seen my shop.....

I would say that if you just start working on a space and cleaning it, you could have a big dent done fairly easily. The racks/shelving will help a lot, just keep at it and you will have a great space.

 

[930dreamer]

Your mess is tame compared to my shop.

 

[walker450]

Yeah it could definitely be worse. I guess I got fed up because I can't even pull a vehicle in without spending 30 min moving things around to make room. I want the main floor open so I can utilize all 3 overhead doors to pull vehicles in and out at any time. That's a tall order, but thats the way I want it.

Two other top priorities is building a 4 wheeler tire rack and a water bottle rack. I am debating whether to build actual custom racks or just build shelves sized appropriately so they will be multi-use if need be....

Tower o' tires:

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[rayra]

Doesn't look that bad. Ignore the comments / counsel of the OCD-afflicted. Definitely needs shelves / racks and some general organization of like items or by workspace / task, to turn all that space into useful, flexible space. And regain floor space.

Look at your overall layout and traffic patterns and what you use the most and re-arrange for efficiency. The stuff that moves in and out the most should be kept near the doors. Likewise the active project space where you would pull something inside to work on it.
Unscrew those workbench spaces and either fully turn some of it into vertical storage, or amend your work habits so you don't keep turning a workbench into a storage shelf.

pick one section / project group and get busy. Less talking/planning, more doing.

 

[karoc]

Its hard to throw away stuff, thinking you may need it sometimes down road. As my ole father inlaw use to say, you may not need it but you may be able to trade it. Like others have said maybe build yourself loft or if have rm maybe purchase a nice 20' storage or shipping container. For some of that stuff that you don't use that often. Plus be wide enough for your mower.
Could also build yourself some cabinets with shelves on both sides, say the end of cabinet goes against wall and comes out about 8' with access on both sides. Lots of good ideals here at GJ

 

[ratdoggy]

If you can walk around and not climb over stuff you're OK
As has been said before pallet racking would help.

 

[38Chevy454]

Agree with the comments that pallet rack shelving and some organization will solve most of your problem. As you pointed out, the biggest fail was not doing all the finishing work inside before you filled it up with stuff. You will need to move all the stuff away from the walls in order to run the electrical and also if considering insulating. Then you can get some pallet racks and move those against the wall. Big items can store on the shelf by themself, smaller items can be boxed or plastic totes with labels and similar items put together. The problem of course is then remembering what box or tote has the item you want to find at a later date.....

A mezzanine or upper level storage is a great way to get items off the floor and get some effectively extra floor space. You can use the pallet rack as a base for the mezzanine, or make your own. Nice thing about pallet racks is that you save a bunch of time, they are strong, and probably equal or less to the cost of buying new raw material.

Look around FB marketplace and CL for other shelving or steel cabinets. Those can supplement the pallet racks for storing smaller items.

 

[walker450]

Thanks again for everyone's suggestions!

I can see more of my floor. I am grouping items into keep/sale/giveaway piles. I have my trailer parked outside see for larger trash.

I have a good area cleared where I can pull this stuff away from the wall, clean the floor, build shelves up high, and sort items before going onto the shelves.

View attachment 1073722

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[benjy]

Shelves?

Here's what I'm doing in my 30x50, built a mezzanine supported by elevator cables, then added shelving that hangs off the poles - nothing too heavy like engine blocks, just tools & parts that I don't use often for now. In the future I'll add a removable/adjustable post in the center of the mezzanine to take on some of the load above so I can do more up on the mezzanine. The hoist gets pretty close to the bottom of the trusses where I've added 3/8 plywood and 2x4s for a deck up high for storage of Christmas decorations and the like.

Down below after concrete is in I plan on building rolling workbenches out of different materials (wood, concrete, metal) for various projects with room underneath for storage for common tools & supplies. Already picked up a hundred or so casters at an auction - biggest ones should hold a couple thousand pounds.

 

[walker450]

Hi everyone! Sorry I let the thread die, but I am here to give an update. Things got a little busy... we had 1000 sq ft plus a 2 car garage and large back porch added on to our house which kept me busy, and had kiddo #5. She just turned 6 months a few days ago

I did get some cleaning done after my post. I recently made more progress. I wired in some plugs and lights, which was way overdue.

I will post a few pictures of the progress. I believe I am ready to start my loft build, but I will probably make a separate thread for that because I am not 100% how I will construct it.

I used 12-2 MC cable and 4 ft fixtures with 2x 5k LEDs. I also have a huge round industrial LED in the middle which is off in one of the pictures.

 

[Ak Jim]

Huge improvement!

 

[loganb]

Congrats on the shop progress, the house addition and the family addition!

 

[rayra]

Don’t shuffle stuff around uselessly, you’re already trending strongly towards ‘hoarder’.

step1. Determine your desired organizational end state. Where will you du vehicle maintenance. Where will you primary workbench / fabrication space be. Where do you want your longer term / bulk storage. Where do you want wall cabinets.
figure those locations out first.

step2 glean for trash. Move nothing else. Just take out the trash you can see / reach WITHOUT moving anything else.

step3 build your wall mounted storage. Clear just enough room to do this. Rough sort the things you handle as you move them to the middle of the space.

step4 pick that mess and fill those shelves. Move nothing else.

step x repeat the process for your maintenance and workbench and tool storage areas.

then look at what remains on the floor and get it sorted and make AND EXECUTE a plan for it all. Do not stop until this is done or until there are no more random piles of **** on the floor.

going forward with new stuff, it has to go where it is supposed to go and not just set down ‘for later’.

 

[walker450]

This morning I built some hangers for plastic organizing cases:

 

[Uncle murph]

Well... I'm going to air my dirty laundry hoping to gain some sort of motivation from the interwebs... I have a mess on my hands and I am fed up. I have to take control of it and I figured I might as well start a thread about it
Any motivation you can send my way will help. When my shop is a successful story of bad turned to good, it may help someone else in the future.

I built this a year and a half ago. I still need to wire it. I only have a few plugs in one corner at the moment.

My plan is to sell and throw away things not needed first... build small shelfs as needed to help with organization and clean as I go.

Once that is complete I plan to build a loft above the side by side overhead doors.

At that point I will wire it and plumb a few air lines.

Here goes:


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If you you’ve had it more than three years without using it,throw it out.If someone stole it would you replace it?If not,throw it out.Does it belong to(insert friend or relative)?Give them a week to come get it before you throw it out.The **** completely derails your productivity and it will very slowly **** the life out of you.Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Be a hard *** with yourself about throwing, giving or selling stuff you haven’t used in a year. Then do it AGAIN even harder!

Then group like things together in piles on floor. : Paint (VERY little of it) & supplies, mechanical hand tools, power tools & accessories, gardening stuff.

Inventory your existing workbenchs, shelves, pegboard if you use it. Decide which pile is best stored using what you ALREADY have.

Then decide what type storage will be most efficient for the remaining piles.

Move the piles in/on the shelves, cabinets or workbenchs, see if it fits. Purge again before opting to buy more storage. Now move the piles to their tentative final locations and determine where you need power and compressed air outlets. IF it were me this is when I’d determine what color shelves, cabinets, workbench’s or pegboard I want. But that’s optional for a lot of guys. Final mount & install everything.

 

[Mr..Plow]

Ive got a 30x50 as well an injury about 10 years ago caused me to neglect untilnow, currently its got 20 years of **** accumulated. I am working on small sections purchased a few large 32 gallonn rubbermaid container with heavy duty bags to dump little things filling them bi weekly. Larger stuff I accumulate and take it to the dump. Its process but getting there.

 

[LOW1]

I have seen a lot worse. I would start by having a clear parking area for vehicles mowers etc with nothing else in this area.

And then throw away junk and stuff you have no likely use for.

As others mention you are going to need shelves. Consider putting these the width of the shed instead of just the perimeter? This may be a better use of floor space.

 

[no704]

I would start by
0) install and get operational a sound system and a beer frig.
1) making a plan of what activities will go on in each part.
2) get a pallet jack and some empty pallets.
3) separate piles to their intended use spaces.
4) IMPORTANT while doing the above keep in mind tools for the sections and include storage space for shared tools adjacent to the spaces.
5) now attack each pile on its own, get rid of junk, and set up storage. Keep things on pallets, shelves with castors, or shelves that can be moved with your new pallet jack.

 

[Parsimony]

Looks just fine as is
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