Shop clean out and straighten up

[allen levine]

I shoulda had my head examined
After a week of heavy cleanup and handing pegboard and digging thru 15 years of excess parts and hardware today I decided to tackle the 32 full sized drawers to see if I can make some sense of it
Ya know try to bring some order into it all
I gave up 3 hours later
I refuse to toss anything and I have enough hardware to weigh down a ship and sink it
Mostly my fault as I've never thrown anything away since I had my own apartment or house
To make things much worse for the 34 years I've lived here my friend who recently passed (nyc fireman and part time contractor,finally lost his battle with 9-11 related illness)always saved me any spare parts he had from doing any work
I did toss a tremendous amount of bags of hardware I've hoarded since Reagan was president
I opened one draw and was overwhelmed
I have 100's of assorted hinges
I have boxes of old hinges in the shed
I don't know why I save them
I decided to just leave the drawers alone and as I need things if something is there I don't care about I'll toss it
The good news is that I'm cleaning a quarter inch of coated on dust off everything else
I did find a few things I've been looking for and put them in their correct place
Maybe I'm selfish and will just leave it all for the next homeowner or my wife and kids if and when I go
My instructions will be toss it all or take whatever you think you'll need

This is just a pic of one drawer with new 35 mm cup hinges
I don't know why I have so many new ones
I have boxes of old used ones in the shed
I'm afraid to try to clean out shed
Not sure if I'll find any dead animals in there so I'll leave that also for next owner
I'll take my snowblower and drum sander they can have the rest

 

[allen levine]

Since I mentioned it my buddy that passed was honored in Idaho of all places at a 9-11 ceremony last week
I miss him
He was brilliant when it came to machines and tools
He repaired at least 10 machines or sanders I've had problems with over the years
He was a good friend and it's hard to visit his wife as she is still very heart broken

 

[allen levine]

Here's another shot of my hoarding in shop which is strange because in my home I don't allow clutter and toss everything
Playworld toys was a small chain of toy stores that went out in 1995 or 96
I purchased an enormous amount of inventory from them and had some of these shopping baskets from them
Why do I have them I don't know I've never used them but can't throw them out

 

[Brent Dowell]

I shoulda had my head examined
After a week of heavy cleanup and handing pegboard and digging thru 15 years of excess parts and hardware today I decided to tackle the 32 full sized drawers to see if I can make some sense of it
Ya know try to bring some order into it all
I gave up 3 hours later

I feel your pain. Everytime I try to do a 'complete reorg' I end up feeling overwhelmed shortly after.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

A friend of mine in HI used to store old computers under his shed until they had rusted enough you couldn't identify them.. then he'd toss them out. It was a strategy anyway haha.

 

[David Johnson]

Cleaning up and "getting rid" usually just moving stuff around but not really accompoliehing anything. Yeh finding stuff you thought you lost and had bought new one to replace it. Then you end up with the same problem. Just leave it to the kids, let them handle it.
David

 

[Leo Voisine]

Don't even get me going!!!!!!

Hoarding stuff.

Brand new never even took the plastic wrap off.

 

[Rennie Heuer]

Reminds me a bit of my 'electrical' drawers.

 

[Darren Wright]

I threw out 2 dumpsters worth of stuff from the last shop, should have kept going and I wouldn’t be paying for so much to store what is left. Could have bought all of it a couple of time over by now. Today is the two year anniversary of when we sold and moved here.

 

[glenn bradley]

Bite sized chunks; that's the secret. Get one empty drawer that is intended for "X". Every time you come across "X" stuff, put it in that drawer. Like Rennie's example above, I have some 40-odd quart bins that get labeled things like "Electrical Stuff" and "Plumbing Stuff". Any items that I do not have enough duplicates of to qualify for tackle box like storage go in these. Sometimes I put a few plastic shoe boxes of "stuff" in these bins like all elbows or all copper fittings even though they are pretty random. I track a lot of stuff on a spreadsheet. Here is a shed example:


rs-l-2-4 means Right hand shed, Left hand row of shelves, Shelf 2, Slot 4. I go that bin or position and there it is.

Here is a couple of shop machine base examples:

.

I number drawers top to bottom. If there are two rows of drawers I have settled on L1, L2, L3 for left and R1, R2, R3, for right but you could do whatever makes sense to you. These are all just pages in a spreadsheet. The great thing is that things don't have to be super-organized. I just search all sheets for "Forstner Extension" or whatever and the result tells me right where I put it. These seems like a lot of work and excessive in detail but it has saved me many, many times the amount of work it took to do it over the years. Start now. By next year you will be amazed how much stuff you now know where is versus not doing it. If I am waiting for glue to set I will open a couple of drawers that I don't have documented, take pictures with my phone and then set down at the PC and enter what I see in the pics. A few minutes at a time over a long period and things get better and better. I also find all kinds of stuff to give or throw away. Win-win.

 

[allen levine]

I did find my magnetizer under a pile of sawdust behind the mitre saw
That made me happy as I never purchased another one

Years after I sold my business I had an enormous amount of junk
My store opened in 1912 and moved to its location that I bought in 57
The building was 100 years old and there was a chicken fenced in area in the basement loaded with every piece of hardware ever used and forgotten or purchased
I ended up giving it all to a scrapper

 

[Jay Caughron]

Might consider Habitat for Humanity

 

[Dave Hoskins]

I do not envy anyone have to straighten up/organize shops. I'm doing some of that myself, but on a smaller scale. AWK!!!

 

[allen levine]

Might consider Habitat for Humanity

there is a go green place in brooklyn ny, there used to be one in queens. and I purchased alot of stuff from them at ridiculous low prices, llike a 4x8 sheet of plexiglass for 20 dollars, some electrical stuff.....anyway, when I sold my store and then knew I was selling the building, I contacted them. they came in, what I really thought they would want was all the gondolas, 100s of linear feet, and all the woodworking trim because it was over 100 years old and cant be found anymore......they looked around and although they wanted it, they said it wasnt worth them sending p;eople down to take it all down, if I did, and delivered it to them.....diodnt happen. I eventually had a sale, like a tag sale and managed to sell off alot of the old shelving and loose odds and ends, including fridges, typewriters, other small appliances, and people who asked about alot of stuff in boxes I said, youre welcome to all of it for free, magic word. it all went.

one funny note, right before I sold off everything to bare walls and floors and before the demo crew came in, I had a room full of damaged merchandise.....alot of damaged toys, no boxes, tons of dolls.
so instead of paying for carting, I filled up large cardboard boxes and made a sign, help yourself, and put it outside on the sidewalk, my wife was there that day and got a kick out of people, they were actually banging on my door, even though gates were down, and I was closed down for at least 2 months, and they wanted to know if I had this doll, or that toy.....it was hysterical, some guy said hes doing his xmas shopping. like the saying goes, someone trash is someone elses treasure,
alot of the stuff was from when I had a toilet line upstairs break overnight and it leaked on one side of my store a month before xmas.....store was loaded with toys, insurance company didnt even come in, they looked at pictures, asked me to give them retail prices and cut me a check as soon as they got my list. they told me do what I wanted with damaged toys, but they were only water damaged boxes, 95 p;ercent of toys were in perfect shape.
so alot of people were very happy, noone seemed to mind water damaged boxes as there were many 25 dollar dolls and remote cars, this was back in early 90s

today I tackled alot of drawers, even though I gave up yesterday, I got back to it.

I have 142 allen wrenches. I only use the set of 10 i got from harbor frieght withy the colored handles, everything you buy today comes with its own allen wrench.

I found 8 sheet rock knives/razors, interesting because I dont think Ive cut a piece of sheetrock in 15 years, and I know I gave my son at least 2 oe 3 of them, and I have enough spare blades to last me 9 lifetimes.

I found a staple gun I didnt know I had, along with a box of staples.

Im hanging whatever could be hung on p;eghooks as I have an enormous amount of hanging space now.

its nice to be able to see what I have so I dont go nuts looking for it if I havent used it in 5 years

 

[allen levine]

went thru every single drawer, cleaned them up a bit, and laid out most stuff on tables. didnt throw out much, hung some stuff, I have so much space now, dozens of linear feet of shekving, at least 10 empty drawers, and Im not even going thru the tool shelves....have so much space, Ill leave it for a few years...hehehehe.....or let the next person when Im gone worry about it. gonna start making bandsaw reindeer tomorrow, need to get some done and I have a few small crappy projects to get to before it gets too cold out there.

sad thing is that I have 2 drawers full of small parts, and Im sure some are from tools I got rid of or sold years ago, alot of its labeled so Im not concerned, I doubt Ill ever use them, some bother me, like I have a plastic jar labeled drum sander bolts, why do I have so many extra bolts? things go back together and then I notice I have 3 extra bolts or screws.....huh?
Ill save it all,
things I dont understand, I saved every single piece of chain, from thick galvanized chain to fixture pull chains, and everything in between. why? if I havent used any of it in 30 or 40 years, odds are I wont, but I know the second I toss it into recycling, the next day Ill be running to the store for a piece of chain.....so Ill save it for another 40 years.

 

[Dave Hawksford]

If anyone has old furniture hardware and feels the need to toss them your alway welcome to send them my way. I'll pay shipping.

 

[Jonathan Shively]

If anyone has old furniture hardware and feels the need to toss them your alway welcome to send them my way. I'll pay shipping.

There you go! A wonderful home for lost and forgotten hardware. I will keep that in mind Dave.

 

[Chuck Ellis]

You might be a hoarder... I suspect I have the same affliction.

 

[allen levine]

If anyone has old furniture hardware and feels the need to toss them your alway welcome to send them my way. I'll pay shipping.

I p;ut out a box of assorted pulls and knobs along with old hinges and any other metal parts last night for trash, Im guessing one of the guys who drive around on trash nights and pick up old metal and scrap took it all because it wasnt there this morning before garbage truck came.
I had second thoughts about all the pulls I took off of the old schwartz cabinet I had in my pharmacy, it was a beat up old cabinet by my partner once told me the cabinet was in the original store so they kept just that cabinet and the work table attached to it.
eventually I might use them on mine or my sons work bench drawers. I went out to the garbage last night and took them back inside.....still trying to shake that hey, Ill need it one day .

I cut around a dozen bandsaw reindeer today, was a pleasure having so much room I was able to set up a table next to bandsaw with plenty of space. its all about the footprint everything takes up.

 

[allen levine]

I'm glad I cleaned up and sold the lathe
This morning right before we left on our road trip to Bethlehem pa my daughter and son in law called us and asked if we were still interested in getting a 2 family house with them
Of course we are and they are going to start looking not sure what to expect with mortgage rates very high right now
My only needs are a 2 car garage and bedroom on first floor

I'm not looking forward to moving my equipment and setting up new shop