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How DO some accomplish it…organization?

Ron H

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I have a buddy and my elder brother who are supreme with garage organization. I see photos of awesome garages and admire them. I took a couple good stabs at getting organized, installed peg-board on two walls, erected a huge open file cabinet for better organizing I snatched for free. Thing is 10-feet across and 7-feet high with 150 removable bins. After a brief span, all kind a looks like crap again. I know I have way too much **** accumulated over the decades, despite couple dozen trips to the scrap yard and Goodwill, selling a few things, etc. Have more piled up to take.

On the other hand, I tend to hang onto stuff that could be trashed, guessing it could come in handy for other projects. Lol, I’d guess this has come to be maybe 2 out of 10 times. What’s more irritating is I still have frequent trips to the stores for more – **** I need.

Anyone of you supremely organized sorts have any tips, tricks, or jingles? Thanks
 
Totes, they hide a lot ****!
 
2 square feet.

(all anyone really NEEDS to work on a project)

All the rest of 1760 square feet is "storage".
 
Hate to say it I doubt you'll ever have one of those neat garages. I been trying for years and failing spectacularly. If you learn to do a job and put everything away before you start another. Try not to have unfinished jobs on benches. Had a 20 ft bench it was a mess most of the time cut it down to 4 ft now it's 4 ft of mess. Being neat garage person either you got it or you don't. MO
 
Garage Journal. Go check out that forum. They tons and tons of storage ideas. Most of the guys on there are just like us. Car/equipment oriented.
Be prepared to spend a few days there browsing. lol
 
Lol, I knew you gents had some tricks and yeah - (doubt I'll ever have a neat garage). At 68, suppose so.
Old friend of mine told me "I need to lower my standards."
 
I just keep dragging junk home to pay back the kids for all the hell they put us through as teens.
I'm going to tell them I have hid some cash in the shop so they got to go through everything. :rofl:
 
Start with the simple thing first like clean up the work bench. Then you will look around and say what a nice job that looks like. I do not have a lot of room to talk though. Once a year I go through and clean and toss. It looks good till the next project comes along. It is like this when I organize everything then I can find a damn thing. LOL. :BangHead:
 
The place I bought was sold by the kids of previous owner, and had 20 years of woodworker's scrap pieces stashed EVERYWHERE. Bigger stuff got organized into a stack against one wall, most everything else went into the bonfires in the back yard. The amount of odd screws and wierd hardware is astounding, most of it was already in little pull out plastic drawers so I left it. I have fished some odd stuff out and used in the last 20 years.
Built a bench along the east wall. It had pegboard, but only a really cobbled crappy "table" half it's length and some wierd chunk of liquidation kitchen cabinet? So that stuff went, nice big bench. Added lights over it.
Cleared out more stuff on north wall. Place was looking pretty good, a lot better then the farm machine shed. You know the type if you are from WI, the type built in 1870 with a wood floor and 15,000 nails in every beam and wall to hang stuff on through the depression years- never know when that bent piece of rusty galvanized gate rung might come in handy! But that's what you did when you lived through those years, or tried to dairy farm in the 80's even.
Then about ten years back now my Pa passed. Rest of my siblings either had an apartment or lived in town. 40 years of farm tools, some stuff that was there when Pa bought the place, various oils, ladders, whatever.... well so much for my shop. And my storage shed. And the garage on the house.
Over the next few years it got weeded down by siblings asking for stuff(or me asking them) sometimes just to sell, but the shop is still crowded and my storage shed I think will always be crowded unless I have some type of moving sale or something. I pluck away every so often finding ways to store the stuff. Most of the important stuff has found a home. Doesn't help the shop doubles as winter storage for my son's car now also, we get them wiggled in 3 wide, his car can make it in to the side section where there is no door lol, doing something resembling a "W" back and forth.

Time goes by too fast. Friends I know with super clean garage space also do not have half the tools I do or are fine with buying brand new whatever for every project they have, and throwing out the leftovers to keep it that way. I wasn't raised that was as a farmer in WI. 1/3 of a sheet of plywood is worth 1/3 of a full sheet in my head so it goes on the stack. It's funny, because I have only had to buy (2) new sheets in 20 years now. But the pile is getting thin, the farm stock is running low!
Anyway, I find I have more important things to do usually when I am out in my workspace then worry about if I have a place to hang up a ladder that can lean perfectly well in the corner. I tend to agree with your friend Ron H, lower the standard! Life is too short, the next guy will either enjoy your stash or throw it out anyway.
 
Shelving, totes, and 4 foot wide loft spanning one wall of the shop. Stuff is grouped by car type or associated parts like "linkage", "pulleys", "shifters", etc. All boxes and totes are labelled. Body parts and larger stuff is mostly hung on walls or stacked together up off the floor in the loft. I use dedicated rolling shelf for whatever major project that is under way, and I use a rack of bins and organize all bolts, clips, plugs, etc for quick locating and access from the work bench.

Outside the shop I built shelf racks and keep as much stuff outside as practical (that can handle weather). I put up a fence around it so nobody has to look at "the junk yard".

A rule of the house is that the shop is for cars and parts ONLY. No yard equipment, camping gear, non-auto related tools, bikes, or anything else is allowed. That stuff all goes in the house, house garage, attic, or tool shed. It's a huge help keeping this stuff separated form the shop.

Finally, like you, I make myself sell off or scrap at least a minimum of a small truck load of stuff every year. That at least keeps me even with the stuff I still seem to accumulate.
 
Here's a viz of garage. 4 projects going on, bay by fridge is where wife's car goes; I crashed into a deer and it's still in body shop. Plymouth normally sits along opposite wall when bedded for winter. Took a bunch a stuff down from the loft as it wasn't intended to take a lot of weight, my goof (among more) when building the house. Basement looks crappy too, woodwork shop and most stowage is down there. Some of the old tools came from my dad when moved them out of their house. Lol, 35 years ago. He was a pack-rat. Built a new garage last summer and plan is to move gardening, lawn eq, shovels, and her endless array planting stuff there building her a workbench and shelving. And new garage is filling fast, plow truck takes up selfish amount of room. Should a built it bigger...dammit.

Garage 1.jpg


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Garage 3.jpg
 
Due to age and physical ailments, I've
given control to the son. He served 9
years in the army and thru a single
incident, now suffers from PTSD and
a TBI.
My garage has always been orderly
and spotless. Hardware sorted, tools
put away, everything in it's place.
With my son in control, I now suffer
from PTSD.
The garage is a total mess. I have to
ask him to clear me a spot on the
bench if I want to work on a project,
where the tools are, (if they haven't
been abused to the point of
replacement), where can I find
certain materials, or hardware.
This use to drive me nuts, but I've
resigned myself to the fact that
my whole life, I worked for the
very things a father hopes to
hand down to his son. It's totally
up to him, how he wishes to carry
on.
There's an unreachable wish there
where his garage etiquette is as
eloquent as mine. I accept that.
You're the one that has to work
in the environment that you,
yourself, create.
 
It's a work in progress! Not much progress has happened this year, but last year I kicked some *** out in the garage. The cars take up less space when you stack them!

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I have a buddy and my elder brother who are supreme with garage organization. I see photos of awesome garages and admire them. I took a couple good stabs at getting organized, installed peg-board on two walls, erected a huge open file cabinet for better organizing I snatched for free. Thing is 10-feet across and 7-feet high with 150 removable bins. After a brief span, all kind a looks like crap again. I know I have way too much **** accumulated over the decades, despite couple dozen trips to the scrap yard and Goodwill, selling a few things, etc. Have more piled up to take.

On the other hand, I tend to hang onto stuff that could be trashed, guessing it could come in handy for other projects. Lol, I’d guess this has come to be maybe 2 out of 10 times. What’s more irritating is I still have frequent trips to the stores for more – **** I need.

Anyone of you supremely organized sorts have any tips, tricks, or jingles? Thanks

I have no idea. My garage is a total mess right now.
I have been thinking of doing some hanging shelving to save on floor space.
I also have a chest freezer in the garage, that I might put in the basement.
 
If you put the top up on your convertible you’d have more room for stacking. Think outside the box!:poke:
 
If you put the top up on your convertible you’d have more room for stacking. Think outside the box!:poke:
Yeah but, height restrictions stacking stuff in the car then...thanks lol
 
I was lucky enough to buy an old former car dealership with four buildings back in ’94 but it does not matter if you have a lot of room or a little you will fill it. Here are some things I have done to organize and create more space. Wood bins for medium and smaller things like starters, timing covers etc. Harbor Freight bin racks for bolts washers and other small items. Mobile racks for axle shafts. Heavy Duty pallet rack for heavy parts and hanging cranks shafts. Heavy duty shelving for heads and intakes. Medium duty Edsal shelving for heater boxes, suspension parts and some of that type I narrowed for wheels and tires. Edsal rack with just beams and no shelves works great for hoods and doors. I also built wheeled cart racks for totes getting 8 to 10 on each cart. Small parts take up a lot of space on shelves I was very pleased with how much I was able to get on the Harbor Freight rolling bin racks.

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leftcrankrack.jpg


Wheelrack.jpg
 
The loft is another story! That's only about half of the stuff that still needs to be organized!

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I agree.

I thought I was "solving the storage problem" first, but-

I bought the house with a 5x8 shed, and filled it up

I built an 8x12 shed and filled it up.

I built a 26x30 pole garage.....and filled it up.

Then I bought a 2 building warehouse complex and kept almost 3,000 square feet for myself.

.....and you guessed it.....filled it up.
 
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