Bummer....Cleaning Time....No turning...

[Chip Sutherland]

Sadly, I can see that I need to focus on cleaning the shop this weekend. The mess and disarray have over-taken my ability to turn anything. The final straw was the cabinets that got stacked up by the lathe. These cabinets are the ones from the kitchen rehab after my 16 yr old daughter and friend decided to make fried pickles...resulting in a grease fire. The cabinets are fine structurally but the melamine facing is toasted. These cabinets will be re-purposed on a garage wall. Except the garage wall is blocked (pic 1) and needs to be dug out starting with a Jet 1442 that needs to be cleaned and put up for sale. A radial arm saw & cabinet I need to sell. A mesquite log that needs to be cut down to size but my chain saw needs a bit of cleanup/maint but those supplies are in the storage cabinet blocked by the kitchen cabinets. (pic 2) And where do those logs go anyway? My bench is piled up with things I cannot put away in cabinets. (pic 3) Two blocks of wood are gifts that need to be turned and delivered. A fiddleback maple bowl sits on my carving chuck waiting for dying...but the dyes and finish are in the blocked cabinet. My 3520 needs cleaning from the last 2 projects: collection plates and gavel but it's blocked. The bed needs cleaning as it is hard to move the banjo and tailstock. The tablesaw has become unusable because of pending projects (pic4) including an antique table in need of repair, a vacuum chuck project is stalled until I can turn the vacuum adapter for the headstock or buy one.

I could blame my predicament on fried pickles...but I must confess it might be a case of Adult ADD....complicated by working full-time, going to graduate school, being the executor of my mom's estate and the family tax guy...although I finally farmed out taxes to a CPA this year but I'm still scanning documents to turn it over to him 100%.

I guess I will start with the cleaning the lathe and cutting the log up the tackle the projects on the table saw....I don't see any turning in my weekend future.
255191255192255193255194

[Jerry Marcantel]

Hey Chip, that looks pretty orderly to me. I've seen a lot worse, including mine...... Jerry (in Tucson)

[bob svoboda]

The complications of a busy life..how well I remember. I'm retired now, so if you would like me to come down and take a lathe or two out of your way I would be happy to....

[Dennis Nagle]

Mine gets like that every two months or so, then I take a day and clean it up. I always feel better when it is clean. Good luck and drink lots of coffee.

Post pix of the orderly version; love to see that too.

[Ray Bell]

The complications of a busy life..how well I remember. I'm retired now, so if you would like me to come down and take a lathe or two out of your way I would be happy to....

Bob, you are retired. when did this happen? You should have lots of time to get over the mountain now.

[Jerry Rhoads]

I need to do the same thing Chip, guess I enjoy the search and not find method too much. Thankfully the Wife has not been in the shop for a while, or I would have a lot fewer tools and not know which area to look for things.

[Ray Bell]

oops, I apologize for my poor thread etiquette, should have replied to Bob in private message. Anyway Chip, your shop is clean compared to mine. I am not an organized person, and fail to put stuff away after use. I have a 4'x8' work bench, and can usually only find a small corner to work on.

['Jacques Malan']

I also had a lot of trouble with cleaning up after myself.

I received a bit of advice that helped me very much. I bought a kitchen timer and for 15 minutes each day I clean a part of the workshop. It is incredible how well it works, and how quickly everything gets to be clean.

[Ray Bell]

Kitchen timer, great idea I may try that, although I'm afraid the timer would just become another "lost" item in my shop. It is aggravating misplacing the occasional pencil, or screwdriver because I did,t put it back, but worse than that I am missing a kitty, and I really miss her:)

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is not dirty. Sheesh you should see mine.

[Sid Matheny]

Looks like my shop and I have been cleaning for almost a week.:mad:

Sid

[Noah Barfield]

I think there might be a couple of lathes under all that stuff. ;)

[Kirk Miller]

It may be easier and faster to build a new shop and start messing that up.........lol Good luck and Happy Cleaning

[John Raine]

Messy? HAH!!! I see room to walk (in spots)...