Originally Posted by mxtras  Drawers. Lots of drawers.
When I pass by something out of place and is no longer being used, I will grab it and put it back where it goes. Everything has a home and on top of a bench is not home.
And, I spend a minimum of 15 minutes at the end of each day cleaning up.
Scott |
I second the notion of drawers. So much so that I'm looking into building some new rolling workbenches that will be based on using rolling tool chests as the base. Lots of places have them on sale for Xmas, so they aren't even that expensive, and you get lots of drawers. I'm going to bolt a 4' x 4' sheet of 1/4" on one to use as my welding table, and I'll make up some butcher block type work surface to go across 2 others. I plan to bolt down my grinding and polishing machines on that one. We'll see how those two work out, but I may wind up with more if I like them.
On keeping it all straight, it's never enough, but I have a few habits that help.
1) Everything needs a place. This goes back to those drawers. If a thing actually has a place where it belongs, it is more likely to go back there.
2) When I finish a project, I spend as long as it takes to clean up the shop. Every single thing goes into its place, all the chips are cleaned up, and I do preventative maintenance and lubing on the machines. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen often enough!
3) If I don't find something pretty quickly, I stop looking and start putting tools away. Amazingly, this often helps me find whatever is missing.
4) Be on the lookout for storage and organization bargains. You can never have too many!
Best,
BW