The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Workshops and Garages Cluttered up messy shop or an organized clean shop?

You know over the years I have been in a lot of shops and it seems as if these shops have there own character like the owner? To me my shop is kind of in between a little messy but not to bad. A lot of my friends tell me that my shop is to clean to work in it. What do you Bolters think here..

If I were paying someone to fix em and he/they got a quality product out in a timely matter,
I would not care what the shop looked like.
Myself on the other hand, I`m just glad to have a concrete floor. A roof and a locking door(s). Oil stains are just a reminder.
I`ve not seen your shop OL 55 but me thinks you gotta make a mess in the kitchen to make something good.

My shop is nearly a complete mess. I have 2 problems.
I am a hoarder.
I don't have a big enough shop for comfortably doing what I am attempting to do.
Even with these two boat anchors around my neck, I still get it done, so I am happy about it for the most part.
At times I will lose my mind and scream obscenities which can be heard 3 houses over about how I can't live live like this any longer and stop what I am doing and make a few minor adjustments to make myself feel like I accomplished something, when really I didn't.
But what I won't do is apologize or be shamed for how I run my shop. Its my shop, and as long as I have a buddy who has a slightly messier undersized shop, all is good in the world.

I don't believe you can ever have enough space, the shop is never going to be big enough. I worked out of 10 x24 shed for years, it was always a cluttered up mess, but I knew where everything was. I built the current shop, even at 30x60 I still have the same problem... Maybe it's not the Shop...

My workspace is terribly cluttered. So is my brain.
As I near the 3/4 century point of my life , I have accepted things the way they are.

Having worked my way through schools in a cabinet/ furniture production shop I conformed to their requirements of a clean, organized shop. All tools were stowed in an assigned cabinet and work areas swept at the end of each day. Their claim was it was for safety and production efficiency. My shop now wouldn’t pass muster with the foreman then, but I mostly do most of what we did then. For me, I find tools easier that way and if nothing else worthwhile is accomplished during a day in the shop, I’ve at least left the shop ready for a hopefully better next day.

Truer words have never been spoken.

This thread got me thinking about shop organization. In South Carolina, my winter retreat, I had a modest 15x20 shop. It wasn’t grand by any means, but it was a model of efficiency. I had designated a place for every single thing. The yard equipment had its spot, the tools were all on pegboards or on shelves, and I even built overhead storage for things like life vests and folding chairs. Cleaning up was a breeze because a place for everything meant everything was in its place.

Today, here in New York, we affectionately call our space “Hak’s Alley Garage.” On paper, it’s a 24x24, which sounds like a palace compared to the old place. But reality is a different beast. The 8-inch concrete walls eat up space, bringing the actual interior down to 22’ 8” square and when you’re trying to pack 10 lbs of s**t into a 5 lb. box, every single inch counts.

Right now, Hak’s Alley is a complete disaster. I share it with my wife’s VW Eos. To do any real work on our truck, the first step is always the same, move the Eos out into the driveway, and hope it doesn’t snow.

The rest of the space is a testament to my ambition exceeding my organizational skills. I’ve got a big compressor, a 5’ long lathe, a nice tool bench, a sandblaster, an engine hoist, two roll-around toolboxes, a MIG welder, an oxy-acetylene torch setup, a massive shelving unit packed with tools in cases, a fire-rated storage cabinet, and… well, too many other tools to list. The problem is, so many of them are just laying around, waiting for a permanent storage spot that I haven’t been able to create yet.

This is where the real frustration kicks in. I’ll get deep into a project, in the zone, and then I’ll have to stop. Dead in my tracks. The chaos becomes overwhelming. I’ll spend the next hour not making progress, but putting things away, reorganizing parts, and doing a frantic cleanup just so I can find the wrench or the bolt I was literally holding five minutes ago. I get myself in such a tizzy that all the creative momentum is lost. It’s a vicious cycle.

But with all that said, I have to take a step back and be honest. I am truly blessed to even have a shop, to have this space to work in and the tools to fill it. It’s a good problem to have.I just wish the good problem came with a little more square footage and a few more hours in the day to get it sorted.

For now, I’ll keep dreaming of the day when every tool has a home again. Until then, I’ll just keep moving the car.

You guys are making me feel better about myself. I also have to sometimes pause a project when I can’t find any friggin tool or part. Clean up, tell myself I won’t let it get that way again. Immediately forget that promise to myself. Repeat.

I'm kinda like Dan, I set up a table made out of a door in the middle as workspace as my ~5' long workbench is usually too cluttered to work on. It currently has an anvil on it that I bought that hasn't found a real home yet, and to work there I need to carve out a space trying not to knock too many things on the floor. Just working on cleaning out my mom's sewing room, and her philosophy was if you fill up a drawer - get another drawer. Did I mention that I come from a long line of packrats?

I didn't start out this way in life, my Dad made sure everything was cleaned up and put away before we closed the door. I spent 35 plus year in the Military, everything was clean and orderly, my last Maintenance Shop was a beautiful place to see... I have fallen into the world of "I'll get to it later". I have so many project going at once I feel like HRL. The Shop is the last item on the budget, I still don't have outer doors. I move things around and try to clean as I go, I am working on organization. I have acquired workbenches with cabinets and drawers, Flammable Storage lockers and shelving. It's going to happen, I just don't know when...

What’s that ol George Carlin routine about “stuff “?

We buy space, and fill it up with stuff. Then we buy MORE space, and fill it up with MORE stuff….

I’m finding it takes longer to get rid of my stuff than it did to collect it. But enjoyable….

Know the difference between crap and stuff? Crap is hers, stuff is yours.

Most of these made me chuckle. I would say I am probably the middle of the road. I have had people tell me my shop is so organized, yet at times I feel there has to be better organization. The shop is 40'x50' and as it has been said here, never big enough. I have a 4 post lift which takes up a lot of real estate and many times I wish I had opted for a 2 post. Throw in a skidsteer, the wife's '66 Mustang and my daily driver and it seems really small. But without a doubt, it is my favorite place to be.

In my near 80 years on this old earth, I have come to the conclusion that the adage about clutter growing to occupy available space is an absolute given. I believe that if you walled up 10 acres, roofed over it, and built shelving and benches on 4 foot centers, before the week is out, you would have to go outside to turn around. I built a 24 X 30 shop years ago, thinking that I would have plenty of space to work. Well, right now with my truck in there, a drill press, anvil, motorized band saw and work bench, if I sneeze, I'm liable to blow the door open. As far as organization goes, most times I couldn't find my butt with a flashlight, mirror and a search party! But, thank goodness, all my junk in inside in the dry.

I must admit, I waste a lot of time looking for a tool or part. It’s a drawback to a cluttered shop , which is a byproduct of a cluttered mind.

My motto:
Clean body , clean mind ;
Take your pick.

I find days when everything is there w/o looking. Things unusually just happen the way they are supposed to.
Those are the days I work. I`ve learned when things are not happening, you cannot make them happen.
I have the luxury to be able to stop and tomorrows another day.

While my small shop is overly cluttered, my multiple tool boxes are neatly organized so that I don't have to hunt down tools as long as I put my tools back when I am done. and I am pretty good about that.

Winter came and I had to just cram everything inside my shop to keep it all out of the weather. My goal for 2026 is to clean out, rebuild and extend my lawn shed to store the mowers etc.

Currently my shed is 12x12. I plan to add 6 to 8 feet with a 9 foot wide roll up door. Then I will turn my attention to my shop which is 40x42 but also serves as camper storage.

First, I’ll be purging, and organizing. Then I’d like to finish insulating so I can enjoy my shop in the winter.

Right now, my shop is one heck of a mess.

John

The farm we bought in 1995 had a newer 40x50 pole barn about 60 yards from the house. No floor or power, just a pole barn.
I had a concrete floor put in, then I ran power to it and wired it, even ran a phone land line to it.
Sure didn’t take long to fill it up and become an unorganized messy workplace and my own man cave if you want to call it.
Friends and neighbors know if the big door is open, I’m around somewhere. So retired now and I am up there almost every day tinkering with something except on really cold days like today and super hot days in the summer. If it comes a heavy downpour I have to wear hearing protection. In 2024 I installed a two post lift that I have dreamed about since I put the floor in and now try to call it a shop.

Good topic!
Don

Edit: Yes I have a fridge in there and it is always full of adult refreshments.

Don, I don't remember seeing your Shop that clean. You had to walk sideways when Alvin and I were there...😆

Craig - IIRC, Don had to clean it up some to install the lift. Then there was the addition of the '46 3600 and the AD 3800, which required some added "clean-up" - lol!

That’s a nice looking shop, Love that BIG BOLT.

Well Craig, you and Alvin were there after I started cleaning it up some and there is some areas you still have to weave your way thru.
But I am still working on that. I sold a 54 Plymouth that I have owned since 1975 to start making room for the lift. The 54 Pontiac is under a carport at our holiday house right now.

As for the 46 2-ton Dakada, I am the second owner of a real barn find. Bought it from the wife of the guy that bought it new. It is completly oridginal with only about 50,000 miles. Beside it is another 1950 2-ton with a 1976 Triumph TR-6 on the bed.
Here are a couple more pictures.

Don

Don, nice shop.👍 It looks bigger than 40x50.

John

Thanks John, I thought it was really big at first, then ten years later it was full and I was still putting stuff in there.
Hopefully next summer I can get that 46 big bolt started so I can move it around, then the 50 comes out, get that Triumph off of it put the doors back on the 50 and sell both of them. All were parked there under their own power years ago. Thinking about setting up a small hobby machine shop after that but I would rather have a heated building to do that.

Don

For those of us who can't seem to find anything in the shop, or maybe can't even get into it easily, here's a little help from Hagerty

Don, when that TR6 gets around to looking for a home, let me know. We might be able to do a little horsetrading!
Jerry

My shop is not too bad. I do straighten things up now and then. Like when I can't find something. I clean up until I find it, or until I give up and buy another whatever.

Dennis

Jerry, now that my new hips are working great (knees mot so much), I hope to start working my way back to the 50 flatbed and the TR-6 this spring and summer. As you can see in the pictures, it is going to take some time to sort thru a lot of this stuff piled around over the years.
These vehicles drove in and loaded under their own power about 20+ years ago. They all should start again with some tinkering, I hope?

Don