Shedding season
I’ve mentioned here before that I’m working on a writing project involving several shop profiles. After seeing a dozen wonderful shops I’ve decided that my shop is a pig sty…
I've mentioned here before that I'm working on a writing project involving several shop profiles. After seeing a dozen wonderful shops I've decided that my shop is a pig sty by comparison.
Well, OK. Maybe that was a bit harsh. My garage shop isn't a pig sty. It's a woodworker sty, housed in a garage, and as efficient as it is nobody is going to profile it any time soon. It ain't pretty. Now, before you think I'm in any way putting down those beautiful shops I'm profiling, or the woodworkers who own them, I most emphatically am not. These are all true woodworkers, and they turn out some incredible work I've seen the photos of their stuff and it's truly impressive. Further, it's clear they spend most of their time woodworking, and not beautifying their shops.
What I am saying is that they have one luxury that I don't: Their woodworking spaces are, for the most part, dedicated to woodworking and nothing else. No lawnmowers, bicycles, weed trimmers and other yard tools, garbage cans, ladders, garden hoses, boxes of stored miscellaneous junk, and etc. and etc. They have the luxury of making their shops beautiful. I don't.
Makes me drool.
The other night, after a day of working, I was spending time just sitting in my shop, as regular readers of this blog know is a habit of mine, and I did some mental calculations. If I could eliminate all that stuff I just listed above (except the garbage cans, which have to stay where they are) I could reclaim at a very conservative estimate about 285 sq. ft. of wall space. Yikemo! That kind of additional space, plus a reorganization of my current wall storage, could entirely revamp my shop without moving a tool. Combining that with an adjusted floor plan would make it even better.
To that end I've decided to get a shed for the yard and move all that garden/garage/junk stuff out of there. I've always hated those sheds in other people's yards they can be real eyesores if not done right but I've finally come over to the Dark Side on this issue.
Hope my neighbors agree.
Till next time,
A.J.
A.J. Hamler is the former editor of Woodshop News and Woodcraft Magazine. He's currently a freelance woodworking writer/editor, which is another way of stating self-employed. When he's not writing or in the shop, he enjoys science fiction, gourmet cooking and Civil War reenacting, but not at the same time.
