Over the years, I’ve amassed a lot of cutoff lumber from all the projects that I’ve worked on. I also have a bad habit of buying stuff that I might need for a project one of these days. As a result, my shop has become cluttered and difficult to work in. Do you have a shop like this?

What do we do? We purge! No, not the movie type of purge. It’s time to get rid of all that stuff that you “might” use one day. All of this stuff is causing me to be inefficient, unorganized and even unsafe.

All of that stuff in the shop has value to me. I spent money on lumber for projects, and all the cutoffs are a part of that cost. However, keeping all that crap also has costs associated with it. It costs me money because it slows me down trying to work around it all. It also costs me money when I have to move it constantly trying to get to a tool that I need to use.

So I gathered all of the big trash cans that I could find around the house. Finding three of them, I filled them all up and stuck them on the curb. Surprisingly, that wasn’t even close to enough trash cans. I found cutoff lumber in places that I didn’t even know I had! Underneath all that clutter I found material that I needed! As soon as the trash man emptied the cans, I filled them up again and had to wait for the next trash day.

I know I threw away 100’s of dollars of material that could be useful. However, it was probably costing me 1000’s of dollars due to lack of organization, lack of process, lack of efficiency and it was just plain messy.

In addition to filling up garbage cans, I also made several trips to Goodwill, sold a bunch of stuff on eBay and told people what was on the curb so they could come and get it before the trash man took it away.

It’s okay to get rid of the stuff that gets in your way. Yes, it has some value, but what is it costing you to keep? It’s time to turn your clutter into usable space.

A clean and organized work space allows you to:

• Develop better workflow to make your products
• Find things you need more quickly
• See all the stuff you do have so you can do something cool with it
• Be happier in your work space
• Make more money!

While cleaning my work space is going to take me several more days, I know that it will be well worth it in the long run and make me far more productive.

What are you going to do to get your work space in order?

See you at market!