re-organizing my life...

Upon completion of afore mentioned shed, the next logical step (and winter indoor project) seems to be to drag all of my stuff from my basement that would be normally kept in a garage or a shed, and put it all into my shed, now that I have one. This seems to me a very overwhelming task; I have a lot of stuff in my basement, my garden shed, and just sort of stored at my shop at work. It is pretty intimidating to believe that I can actually get all of my tools in one place at one time in an organized manner.





The first step was to build a small room inside the shed and insulate it well enough that I could keep it just slightly above freezing for my paints, etc, that I don't want frozen. Here is a photo of that:

After that was complete, the next step was obviously to bring all the paint, and liquids, etc, up and shelve them into my little paint room; none of this was that big of a deal, just labor dragging buckets of liquids up from the basement, the perfect chore for my little cheerful minions -er, children.

What has been really overwhelming, though, is the re-organizing of all my tools! When I brought everything up and into the shed, and had everything spread out in order to "take stock" of what we had, Wifey and I recollected that when we were first married we had no outdoor storage, and no basement to put tools in, so we squirreled my stuff into a little space in our "Honeymoon Cottage" to put my tools into, and it took up maybe 4 square feet of floor space- total! It pretty much consisted of a tiny air compressor, a sawsall, and one finish nailer. Here is a photo of the beginnings of my new and improved highly organized tool life:

Now the thing that blows me away is the expense of disorganization. If I could refund at full price every tool that I have in duplicate (or more) I could have built a shed to keep them in. That may be something of a hyperbole, but you get the idea. I won't bore anybody with anything close to a detailed list of total inventory, but I will give you a quick rundown on some of the more ridiculous items:

• 7 caulking guns
• 6 chalk boxes
• 6 bottles of chalk (one is 1/2 gallon)
• 15 pairs of tin snips
• maybe 10 partial rolls of tape; duct, masking, electrical
• 4 multi-meters
• 5 framing squares
• 2 Sheetrock squares
• 8 putty knives
• 5 partial little propane torch bottles
• 8 utility knives
• 7 pipe wrenches, 4 of which are 16"
• dozens of tape measures
• hundreds of PVC fittings
• dozens of blue plastic electrical boxes
• hundreds of shotgun shells I didn't know that I had
• dozens of pliers
• dozens and dozens of screwdrivers, 20+ of which are still in the package
• 3 pneumatic finish nailers
• 3 angle grinders
• 6 or so partial cans of WD-40 or P-B Blaster
• 6 or so partial cans of starting fluid
• 4 partial cans of wasp spray
• 4 partial gallons of antifreeze
• new saw blades I didn't know that I had
• 7 cordless drills

Now, as embarrassing as all this is, I have to defend myself somewhat and say that some of this stuff isn't really my fault- I have a nasty habit of loaning things out to people and forgetting about it, and then when I need something, I cant find it, so what else am I to do? Buy another one of course; then when it shows back up, I have multiples! I have also learned that if I come up missing something, it often yields results if I go accuse my brother of never returning it, even if I have no recollection of loaning it to him. And I have on several occasions thought that I lost or got robbed of higher ticket items like the cordless drills, only to find them in strange places later, after purchasing another, of course. I also have a hard time passing up a good deal on a sale item.

Anyway, NEVER AGAIN! Now that I will (hopefully) soon have a place for everything, and everything in its place, I am going to be totally organized and will know instantly whether or not I still own a tool. I will be so much more productive and so much more wealthy, not buying all these repeat tools! I am embarking on a new era! I always tell the story about if I ask my Father in Law if he has a tool I wanted to borrow, his reply would be: "Sure, in my shop, second drawer down on the left, about halfway towards the back". If he asked me if I had something that he wanted to borrow, my response would be: "yes, I'm pretty sure I have 4 or 5 of them, and I don't have any idea where any of them are." Well anyway, I hope to do better than I have done, because after only 11 years of marriage, that means we will need about 3 more sheds by the time I am 70...

By the way, anybody need some screwdrivers?