Shop bench - before & after

[Joel_BC]

Alternate Title: "what a difference a new shelf makes"...

Well, this bench in my basement shop area (one of three benches) had been bothering me for quite a while. It never seemed to get cleaned up, therefore never seemed to be very convenient to work at. I got disgusted with myself.

I added a new shelf on the wall behind - between the two existing shelves. Then I reconsigned a lot of little useful salvages items into various reclaimed old metal bread pans. You can see them on the second shelf above the bench. I spent a few hours giving gate hinges, caster wheels, door nobs and locks, and tools new places. ("Before" and "After" pics, below.)

Made me happy to do it. Improvement, don't you think?

 

[mrscoyote]

Wow, that is impressive. very nice

 

[sumi]

A place for everything and everything in it's place

 

[Denim Deb]

Much better.

 

[Hinotori]

Spring..err...Winter cleaning!

It looks much better. It's amazing what just a bit more storage space and containers can do.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Looks great! My garage.... ugh.

 

[Joel_BC]

It only took a few days for me to get confirmation or reward for having ordered and tidied-up my bench area.

I'd sold my old Ford tractor years back, due to its limitations. Now we've got a garden tractor only (plus rototiller, etc).

But every winter we manage the snow on our place by scooping and shoveling by hand - up to a point! Well we'd had a big snowfall (15" of it on the flat in the yard), and called on our neighbor with a sizable tractor that has a snow blade on the front and a big snow blower on the back: "come uncover our driveway and yard from this snow, please." So he comes over and does the job, and half an hour into it he's stopped and off the machine, and looking at something on the blade assembly. I find out he's busted a shear pin!

But in my now-tidy shop, it takes no more than five minutes for me to locate just the part he needs. I take it out and give it to him! Solved his problem and bucked-up his mood for the day.

And I felt great.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's a great feeling for sure! Looking for things that I know are "somewhere" is a total time vampire and its one of my least favorite things to do, lol.

 

[baymule]

Great job! Never can have too many tools, screws, nuts, bolts, nic-nacs and things required for build/fix. Now if I can just find them.......

 

[Beekissed]

Love the organization pics! Each year we go through out shed and various places we keep tools and reorganize, neaten up, eliminate and clean. A person does a lot of livin' during the year, so things get out of place and one accumulates "stuff".

Monday is our yearly shed cleanout and reorganization. I know it sounds weird, but this is a yearly event that I anticipate eagerly...I LOVE getting organized! It makes my work day go soooooo much more smoothly when I can walk into that shed and find what I'm looking for the first time, use it and replace it that same day.

Last year I took pics of after but had neglected to do the before....they would have MUCH more impact if someone had seen the before! This year I'll do before pics.

Last year, after the clean out and clean up, freshly organized and ready to go...In this pic you can see those white wash tubs I have on the shelf, those things are priceless for organizing! Cheap, tough as nails and one can write on them to indicate what should be in there. Cost $2-$3 at the Dollar store. Mom is starting to have memory loss, so writing on the tubs helps her find things and also~hopefully~put them back in the right places.

We also put up extra shelving next to the work bench, much like Joel did, to help us organize some tools...they are just the right size to hold the chainsaws and circular saw, as well as more bins for storage.

This season we'll be putting up another tall shelving unit in the left hand side of this storage space. This will get those items off the floor and better organized.

This year we'll also be running some extension cords into the shed to get power there and also to get some central lighting. That way I can work up there in the winter months and access power at the shed, which is much needed at times.