​Quadrenial/Massive shop cleaning

[Guest]

I keep a fairly clean shop, or at least a well organized one. “Clean” is in the eye of the beholder. Since I am the beholder the drek of spider webs, dust bunnies and out of reach detritus under the shop benches tends to escape my attention.

But once every four years the in-laws Thanksgiving gathering occurs at my home. My shop, even with built in benches on two sides and shelving galore, is still the most spacious room in the house. It will easily seat 30+, and the several thousand white Christmas lights on the ceiling were a permanent addition years ago (seriously, I was only doing that light strand install once).

Yesterday there were six boats in the shop. Today there is one, suspended on-high from the ceiling. Yesterday there were dust bunnies the size of Schnauzers clinging to spider webs under the benches. Today there are, um, at least far fewer. Yesterday there was all manner of stuff stored on the floor. Today the only things touching the floor are bench legs and casters. Gawd bless the leaf blower for hard surface floors.

Yesterday I had 38 feet of shop bench festooned with (organized) tools and oft-needed materials. Today I have 38 feet of naked empty bench. Empty, and 409’ed cleaned; those shop benches are where the turkey, fixings, plates, utensils and beverage buffet are arrayed accessibly on either side of the shop.

Yes, we have 38+ feet of narrow tablecloth runners just for those benchtops. And drape curtains to hang from cup hooks (another not doing it again permanent install on the ceiling) to hide the shop shelving and storage.

It is a way cool party room once it is done, and has seen a lot of Thanksgivings , Christmas gatherings and sundry parties. It is a freaking shop with epoxy drips on the floor; if you spill beer or cranberry sauce, who cares! Great room.

I have at least another day’s work to make the shop into a proper ballroom dining hall. I can’t say that detail cleaning the shop is my favorite task, and every four years is quite enough for me, but dang it is starting to look really good.

And, post-Thanksgiving, I am afforded the silver lining opportunity for an equally massive shop reorganization when I (slowly and thoughtfully) put everything back in place. It is kinda fun to start back to work in an uber clean and reorganized shop.

The hardest part is trying to envision what tools and materials I may need accessible for the next week. Power drills and bits, wrenches and screwdrivers, repair adhesives, tape……I know I’m gonna bury something I don’t yet know I’ll need.

 

[Alan Gage]

I remember a particular picture from the last party your shop hosted. I'm anxiously awaiting my invite.

alan

 

[Guest]

I remember a particular picture from the last party your shop hosted. I'm anxiously awaiting my invite.

Alan, you have to marry into this Quaker family madness.

Think twice my friend.

I will try for another photo op with the attendant ladies.

 

[blackfly]

Without photos, we cannot begin to judge you on your definition of cleanliness..

 

[Robin]

Since the festivities will be in your shop, will you be wearing overalls all day?

 

[frozentripper]

If cleanliness is next to godliness then my workspace must be the portal to heck.

Happy Thanksgiving from the frozen north... we have had ours, packing on the supply of winter fat while at the same time preparing for something even more harmful, aka Christmas.

PC non-religious version encouraged by our liberal government ... freedom from incrustations of grime is contiguous to divinity.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Clean” is in the eye of the beholder. Since I am the beholder the drek of spider webs, dust bunnies and out of reach detritus under the shop benches tends to escape my attention.

need pictures.. My husband holds to that philosophy. Sawdust entangled in spider webs is not my definition of clean...

So show us your shops!

 

[Steve in Idaho]

If cleanliness is next to godliness then my workspace must be the portal to heck.

I resemble that remark.

Actually, my shop abuts our 24'x24' sunroom, which serves also as an assembly and finishing space. That is where our festivities will be. Not much work to clean that, since I don't currently have any large projects in play. The comprehensive shop cleanout is scheduled as one of my first major projects after retirement next year.

Mike, the only time we get such a large crowd of family ttogether in one place is when we can do it outdoors at the inlaws' (yard is like a park). If we were all together inside a box, there might be fatalities.

 

[Guest]

Since the festivities will be in your shop, will you be wearing overalls all day?

For forty years I have had only 3 modes of dress, and since I gave up the lab coat and dress shirt upon retirement I am largely down to two (except tripping specific clothes). In the summer ragged shorts and tee shirts, in cooler temps overalls and a long sleeve tee shirt.

Since the in-laws object might object if I showed up for Thanksgiving dinner wearing nothing but boxers I will be in overalls, maybe even a relatively new and clean pair if I remember to do laundry.

I stand with HDT “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes”

Full quote:

http://www.literaturepage.com/read/walden-17.html

The comprehensive shop cleanout is scheduled as one of my first major projects after retirement next year.

Mike, the only time we get such a large crowd of family ttogether in one place is when we can do it outdoors at the inlaws' (yard is like a park). If we were all together inside a box, there might be fatalities.

The comprehensive shop clean up is actually quite satisfying, and I am kind of looking forward to the post-Thanksgiving reorganization. The worst of that is sorting through the couple dozen little bench bins where I have been tossing odd hardware bits and pieces for a few years.

We seated 33 for Thanksgiving four years ago and I doubt this crowd will be any smaller. They are nearly all from Quaker stock (I am the black sheep semi-reformed redneck) so fatalities are unlikely. However, despite the silent worship stuff they are the nosiest crowd I have ever been around.

OK, the worst part is that I lose my quite shop sanctuary for several days, just when I have a madding loud-house of 30+.

Photos eventually. I (we, ohhhhh boys. . . . . ) still need to take down and clean the screens, wash the windows and sills, scrub the floor and hang all the hidey curtains to obscure the shelving. And I have yet to tackle my shop office, which now contains ceiling high piles of maps, files and other unsorted papers.

 

[Guest]

Without photos, we cannot begin to judge you on your definition of cleanliness..

heck, I even cleaned the shop doors.

 

[Alan Gage]

Holy cow! Even thinking about getting my shop that clean and organized makes my head spin.

Alan

 

[Guest]

Holy cow! Even thinking about getting my shop that clean and organized makes my head spin.

Now picture it with tablecloths covering all the bench top serving areas, a U shaped arrangement of tables to seat 35, with a dozen candles and a thousand white Christmas lights as illumination.

I had to scrub the floor again; a bunch of giant (it took two of us to carry the big ones into the shop) Burmese Mountain Tortoises paid an overnight visit en route to a new home. I thought I’d been cleaning crap off the floor in a metaphorical sense.

http://www.tortoisetrust.org/care/emys.html

The re-organization will probably take me longer than the exodus and clean up. An opportunity to put things back organized just-so before making a mess of it again.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Mike ! Would you be willing to Fly out here and clean my shop ? Of course I couldn't be there, as I wouldn't let you throw anything away !

Nice work ! OK now what is on the other side of the camera ? That stuff has got to be somewhere !

 

[Alan Gage]

Mike ! Would you be willing to Fly out here and clean my shop ?

Hey, that's a good idea. He can do mine too while he's here and for payment we can help him build a canoe. Two weeks should do it.

Alan

 

[Jim Dodd]

Hey, that's a good idea. He can do mine too while he's here and for payment we can help him build a canoe. Two weeks should do it.

Alan

Come on Mike ! Sign the deal !

 

[blackfly]

Holy Cow is right! Any time you want to come up to Canada and do mine too Mike I'd be happy to let you stay in the basement. We could probably even feed you once or twice.

 

[Guest]

Nice work ! OK now what is on the other side of the camera ? That stuff has got to be somewhere !

Don’t peek behind the curtain Jim. All of the tools and benchtop stuff is Tetris stacked there up to the ceiling. I did manage to leave the stuff I have needed over the last few days in the front of the stack.

Would you be willing to Fly out here and clean my shop ? Of course I couldn't be there, as I wouldn't let you throw anything away !

I could probably make a business out of that. It is something that I actually enjoy and shop organization requires some pleasurable cogitation and forethought.

The Tortoise Reserve has an expansive shop, and on a visit a few years ago it was so disheveled that I to turn sideways to walk through it. That shop has a massive pegboard wall hung with tools.

Tools hung on the pegboard with zero consideration. Things like hammers (a dozen or more) and screwdrivers (several dozen) were all hung on the pegboard. Hung almost out of tippytoe reach. Miscellaneous junk that gets used once every 4 years (or never) was positioned most accessibly.

I got into it. I took everything out of the shop, took all the tools and hangers off the pegboard and spent most a day and half the night putting in all back in a logically organized manner with regard to what gets used most often. Just contemplating the pegboard reorganization was great fun (assisted by beers and other contemplative aids).

Yes, all of the screwdrivers were segregated Phillips and flat and arranged by size, chalk lines got refilled, batteries and chargers labeled for which tools. I even sorted through the piles of loose nails, screws and bolts and organized them into “Misc Screws” and “Misc Bolts” containers. Labeled of course.

Friends of the owners saw the reorganized result and offered to pay me to do the same at their place.

 

[Guest]

Now picture it with tablecloths covering all the bench top serving areas, a U shaped arrangement of tables to seat 35, with a dozen candles and a thousand white Christmas lights as illumination.

Great freaking greatroom.



I believe I see one sister-in-law surreptitiously flipping me off in that photo.

There were some absurd and lighthearted moments. Twin brother little kids were disappointed in our scant selection of breakfast cereal, and declared that their favorite was something akin to chocolate cookie cereal.

I drove 20 miles to find an open grocery store and bought a box of the cookiest stuff I could find, Double Chocolate Crave. Sure enough, that was their favorite, and they were very excited for breakfast the next morning, winning me favorite uncle status.

They really don’t know their “favorite” uncle much yet. After they went to bed I carefully opened the box of Crave, removed the bag of cereal, filled the box with packets of instant grits and crackers, and hot glued the boxtop into seemingly “unopened” condition.

Mere words cannot describe their facial expressions when they excitedly opened that box of cereal the next morning.

BTW, Double Chocolate Crave tastes like effluent sludge from the Hershey factory with a lingering chemical aftertaste.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Thanks for the laugh, Mike!