I live in a climate that is so hot and humid this time of year that even my dog no longer wants to be outside. As my wife and I get closer to retirement, we dream more and more about buying a summer home up in the northern Midwest. I don’t know if it will ever happen, but that doesn’t mean one can’t at least think about it, even if that momentary mental escape is the closest we ever come to reaching this retirement goal.
To maintain my sanity, I recently replaced a longtime expired window air conditioner in my workshop, and it has at least provided me some temporary reprieve as I try to cope with these never-ending dog days. And now? No excuses not to get that space neat and tidy. The final objective for me was to get as much off the floor as possible. That may not be true for you, but I do highly recommend it. Now, deciding where to begin can be an issue in and of itself. So, like every other project you ever work on, it is best to have a plan.
Step 1 – Purge
To start off, try to get as much out of your space as possible. Get rid of whatever you can. Sell it. Donate it. Or just throw it out. After all, chances are most people aren’t going to see the value in the old, dirty carburetor you still have for some reason after replacing it years back in that old, dirty push mower.
My approach to this step seemed to work well. I pulled my truck out of the garage and used that space to organize everything I was expunging from my workshop. I then began placing items into three separate piles: Sell. Donate. Trash.
Step 2 – Clean
Now that you’ve cleared as much out as possible, it is a good time to clean. Take a vacuum to anything that isn’t on the floor. The more dust you can clear out, the less chance of kicking it up when working or worse, getting something in your eye.
If you have a cement floor like me, don’t just stop after sweeping. Give it a good mopping with an industrial mop if you have one. If not, just wrap some damp towels around a push broom. It works just as well. Again, it’s about getting out the dust. You’ll thank me later.
If you really want to go all out, tackle those oil stains left from your gas-powered tools and vehicles. I wasn’t too gung-ho about this and just used some sawdust. You just pile it over the stains and let it sit overnight. It works surprisingly well. But, they do make cleaners that will perform exponentially better if you’re looking for a deeper clean.
Step 3 – Shelving
Onto what I considered the biggest and most difficult decision. There are so many options for shelving that, if you’re not overwhelmed by the end of your research, you didn’t find them all. Where will you put them. What material type do you want? How much do you want to spend? Do you buy them? Do you build them? Both? And these are just the starter questions.
I basically did a combination of all of the above. As mentioned earlier, one of my main objectives was to get everything off my floor other than my lawn tractor, push mower, snow blower and ATV. I would not be satisfied unless everything else was either on the wall or a shelf. But that would mean I would have a lot of heavy, expensive equipment on the shelf and it would need to be able to support that.
I could’ve built a simpler styled wood-based shelf, with posts going down to the floor, but that would not allow me to meet my primary objective. I didn’t want anything on the ground. So I went with a Unistrut system that I basically designed on the fly... and could not be happier with it. It is strong and sturdy. I can even see through the shelving as I used livestock fencing for the base. But best of all, it is totally suspended. I will follow-up later with a “how-to” on this because I am so very pleased with how it turned out.
Step 4 – Categorize
Now that your shelving is in place, it’s time to decide where everything will go. I strongly encourage you to actually map it out. For example, if you’re working on one of your engines, you want all your cleaners, additives and oils right next to all your engine components. If you’re doing some woodworking, you want your vacuum next to all of table saw. You get the idea. Putting just a little thought into this will make life so much easier down the road.
Step 5 – Label
This is especially important if you’re drastically changing the locations of your smaller items. Just as you did with the larger items, you want to group smaller items according to need. And until you get used to where everything is located, the labels will be there to remind you. A bonus is that whenever a neighbor or relative borrows something, they can finally put it back where it goes. Sorry for the digression into one of my biggest pet peeves.
Step 6 – Organize
Don’t just throw the box of random nuts, bolts, washers, hooks, pulleys, etc. back in the cabinet. You decluttered the bigger items earlier. Now it’s time to do the same for the smaller items. Obviously, this will take you longer than any of the aforementioned steps, but again, you’ll be happy you took the time. And maybe you’ll never quite reach the end, but there is no question you’ll get rid of the bulk of your clutter. I used to have boxes and jars full of the most random items. Some contained old engine parts. Others had items I wasn’t even able to ascertain the purpose of.
Step 7 – Create a Hoist
Because Step 6 may end up being a never-ending undertaking, it’s okay to move onto, in my opinion, the most enjoyable step. As I get older, I am finding it difficult and more dangerous to try to walk the heavier items up my ladder onto my new and beautiful suspended shelf. So, I actually created two hoisting systems: One for the heaviest items and one for the smaller things. They both use the same platform, which is just a wooden 6x6 sheet of 1’ plywood, reinforced with a box frame made from 2x4s. In each corner is an eye bolt that attaches to a separate four-foot chain, which then attach to a heavy duty D-ring shackle. Which can then be moved from one hosting system to the other.
As to the leveraging mechanisms at the top, I went with a 2,000 lb. pulley system for the smaller items and a Chain-fall for the much heavier items. I could use the latter to lift my snowblower if I really wanted that up on the shelf for some reason. But because I was able to get everything else off my floor, that is no longer a concern. Just be careful and make sure you consult an expert before taking this on. This could be very dangerous if you cut any corners or miscalculate.
Now that you’ve got what feels like a brand new space, grab a cocktail, turn on your TV, take a seat on your lawn tractor and admire your work. You will likely never feel this placated in your workspace again.
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