Going to declutter the shop

[gellfex]

I recently had to declutter for an insurance inspection that took place this morning. 1st step was to get rid of five 5' long shelves full of old catalogs dating to the late 80s. This gave me the room to move other things around. It's like one of those puzzles of sliding squares with only one missing. You can't do anything till you have room, but you've hoarded so much you can't!

Problem is every once in while the packrat gets rewarded, and so it continues. I needed to create a 'C' wire on a boiler to add a Nest thermostat, but I could not get the device to do it from the vendor, and if I could it was $80. Studying the device, I realized all it was was a 24V ac supply and a relay. I remembered I had an old Mini-therm boiler squirreled away in a basement that had a transformer and relay! A steel box from Home depot and I was in business, and my wife was shaking her head that now I've got another feedback jolt to hoard.

[JoeLee]

When I "de-clutter" it ends up turning into re-arranging.

JL...............

[Peter.]

This Christmas break just gone I have started a project rebuilding a very nice medium sized milling machine. I've adopted a new method of working and so far it's paid great dividends. Every hour, and not longer than 2 hours, I stop work, tidy up the workspace and put away all the tools I have used in the past hour/2 hours. Then I get out the tools I need right there and then and carry on working. Often it will coincide with a minor piece of work being completed and I'll use that to mark my tidy-up time.

The whole process takes just a minute or two but it keeps my work space nice and tidy and all of the tools in the place I would expect to find them. The whole work process is a lot more pleasurable and my work output has greatly increased.

Try this - you might be as surprised as I was.

[Dan_the_Chemist]

I recently had to declutter for an insurance inspection that took place this morning. It's like one of those puzzles of sliding squares with only one missing.

You had a square missing??? WHAT LUXURY. She Who Must Be Obeyed is starting to complain about the overflow from the shop that is finding it's way into the kitchen...

[gellfex]

You had a square missing??? WHAT LUXURY. She Who Must Be Obeyed is starting to complain about the overflow from the shop that is finding it's way into the kitchen...

The 'missing square' was all the catalogs I pitched!