Cleaning up the clutter

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

A Chinese philosopher once made that quote and I find it to be true.  Sometimes I build a project up in my mind to be so formidable that I make excuses, procrastinate, and delay making a start on it.  Instead, I skip down to other projects on my list that are quick and make a noticeable impact.  I guess it is the immediate gratification thing that I have going.  My wife helped me make a single step on a project that I had been dreading and we got it completed this weekend.

Tricia had been talking to me for a while about organizing my workbench and peg board in our garage. Unkempt and disheveled are two adjectives that might come to your mind if I had the guts to post the 'before' picture of the de-cluttering project.

Photo Credit

I am not a hoarder, but I do have some problems with throwing things away.  I always think, "Someday this will come in handy.  I better not throw it away."  That's not really a bad thing, but everything must have a 'home.'  If it doesn't, chances are when it comes time to use something, you're not going to be able to find it.  You'll be walking around, scratching your head, saying, "Now where did I put that thing-a-ma-jig?"

So we rolled up our sleeves and got started last week.  We got our first taste of Fall weather and it was actually comfortable and not humid working in the garage.  This wasn't going to be something that would be able to be finished in one day.  We removed everything off the workbench and took everything down off the peg board.  I plugged the leaf blower in and blew out the area that had been occupied by odds and ends.  The result created something that I would have suspected to see in the "Dust Bowl Days."  I will admit, I was antsy.  I like to stay busy and 'do' versus standing around thinking about logically organizing things.  That is not my strong suit, but it is my wife's.  God said back in Genesis, "It is not good for the man to live alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."  Tricia certainly helps me.  We make a good team.

I have containers full of nuts and bolts, nails, screws, washers and staples.  When I have a project, I generally dump it out on the workbench, sort through the items and can find what I need.

The problem with this is that the top of the workbench was filled with so much stuff, I didn't have room to dump out the containers anymore!  So we got going, placing all like items together, logically putting items lower on the peg board that we used the most.  We also bought some organizing drawers to put odds & ends in. Tricia got some freezer tape and a Sharpie and labeled all of my cans and boxes to denote the contents. Now I know where things go and will keep them organized.

Here is the finished product.  You might think it still needs work, but you should have seen it before!  I'm proud of the work we accomplished.

You can see the table top now!

In fact, I'm so happy with the progress made, next we'll organize the Feed Room in the barn.  YIKES!

Organization Project #2