shop-talk
[Top] [All Lists]

Too much stuff!

To: <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Subject: Too much stuff!
From: "cornerexit" <cornerexit@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 10:18:14 -0800
No real point to this post, just venting a little. I've been spending 
the last two weekends trying to clean out the shop so I can get the race 
car in there. I've got less than one month before the first race of the 
season and about 1.5 months worth of work to do on it before then.

Generally people would not describe me as a pack rat, in fact they would 
tell you I'm sometimes "wasteful" because I toss stuff on a pretty 
regular basis. Stuff that many people would put into the "it could be 
used for something, someday" category. Anymore though I'm beginning to 
wonder if I'm slipping. I started in one corner of the shop and worked 
clockwise around the building, going through every cabinet, shelf, box 
etc trying to weed out stuff that I would likely not be using. One run 
to the dump and one run to goodwill and I can maybe see light at the end 
of the tunnel.

There is still three large tote containers that have "eBay" stuff in 
them... yeah, I've been going to list them on eBay for the last two 
years... Those totes are going to goodwill. There was the huge box of 
old kitchen pots, pans, lids, containers etc that has been waiting for 
me to go thru them and see if there was anything that would work good in 
my rv... yeah, seems like we've been cooking for last umpteen years with 
the cookware that is already in the rv just fine.... that big box went 
to goodwill yesterday. Then there was the auto parts, reloading 
equipment/supplies, and ammo all mixed up in the same large cabinet. Put 
the ammo in a dedicated ammo locker, and made separate cabinets for the 
parts and reloading stuff. You get the picture...

For awhile now I've had a rule to not use any storage containers that 
were not clear so that you could see what is in them without opening 
them up. This has worked out well for everything from small items to 
larger items. I've standardized on the clear plastic totes with the red 
lids from HD. These are nice because they are of uniform size, stack 
compactly when empty, and stack nicely when full. Not to mention I can 
see what is in them.

Of course while I was working on all this, my wife gets the idea to have 
my son use the leaf blower to clean the driveway off. We have two leaf 
blowers... do you think even one of the damn things would start? Of 
course not. Guess who has to stop and fix them? I just get so sick of 
having to move three things to get to the one thing I need to use. 
Sometimes I feel like I spend 50% of my time managing my "inventory" of 
"stuff", 25% of my time doing maintenance/repair on either the house or 
the various mechanical things around here, 5% of my time bitching about 
it on an email list, and only 20% of my time working the actual projects 
I want to be working on! ;)

Ok, I fell better, thanks for listening. :)

BTW, my wife is not going to be happy when she sees the stack of race 
tires that I moved from the shop to the garden shed...

Wayne 






<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • Too much stuff!, cornerexit <=