An organized shop is a good thing

I cannot stress enough that you need to keep your workshop and tools organized.  There is nothing more frustrating than getting set up to do a project and not being able to find the tools and supplies you need.  I cannot tell you how many speed squares, paint brushes, rollers and even paint that we bought because we could not find it.

Yesterday I decided to put the drawer pulls on my kitchen cabinets.  I found the pulls, I had stored them right inside the cabinets, I found the drill bit I needed and a drill.  The battery was dead on the drill.  I searched for the second batteries and the charger for about 40 minutes before I just gave up.

It's always been a struggle keeping our tools and supplies organized because we let it get away from us.

Suggestions for a well organized shop

        1.  If you have a team put someone in charge of this.  Someone whose job it is to keep the workbenches clean and all the tools put where they belong.  Tend to them daily.

        2. Designate an area for all your battery chargers.  So many tools are cordless these days but that doesn’t help at all if you can’t find the charger. 

        3. Go to the dollar store and buy plastic shoe boxes.  Put all the small stuff in here that gets easily lost like drill bits, gas pipe fittings, plumbing fittings, tape and the like.

        4. Most importantly-label these boxes.  Duct tape and magic marker works great for this.

        5. Peg board is a wonderful thing and pretty cheap.  You can get all sorts of little containers and hooks that fit into the holes   for not very much money.

        6.  Keep your work benches clear.  If you need to run down and cut a board and you end up spending half an hour clearing the bench you will not get much work done.

         7. Don’t keep broken tools or tools that don’t work, they just clutter up the mix.

I wish I could show you some pictures of an organized shop but once it gets away from you there are a million more things to do than stop to try to organize the shop, you just plug along as best you can.

So, learn from our mistakes and frustration.  If you spend a day or two setting this up it will save you tons of time in the long run looking for stuff, buying extra stuff that you know you have somewhere.