Originally Posted by
Roger Feeley
I used to have closed cabinets in my old shop and I found that I tended to put things in there and forget them. Out of sight, out of mind. I had a similar but different problem with horizontal surfaces.
So in my new shop, I have no closed cabinets except for one that holds my screws, bolts, nails and such and another for the sockets and taps and dies. Everything else is on open shelves in bins and clearly labeled boxes. I can stand in the middle of the shop and see virtually everything. I'm not criticizing anyone other than me. for some reason, I just can't be trusted with closed cabinets.
I also tend to trash up horizontal surfaces. In my old shop, I had the aforementioned closed cabinets (old kitchen cabinets) with counter on top. I never used that thing as a work surface. I was just a big trashy shelf. Same story for a couple of tables I had. In the new shop, I have a workbench and that's it. I have the beds of various power tools like the table saw and router table that get kind of trashy but I have to clean them off to use them. Again, I'm just trying to deal with my own shortcomings.
In my shop, the concrete walls are framed with a false wall covered in OSB. Loads of shelves and if I want to hang something, I just drive a screw. It was well worth the time and effort. Attaching the shelves to the OSB instead of using floor standing makes it much easier to clean.
I have no wiring behind the OSB. I chose to run it all on the surface so I could see it and easily move it around.