Tips for Cleaning the Work Area
Shelving
When I bought my house my wife very nicely bought me four sets of sturdy heavy-duty shelves. One set is in the garage, one set holds my board games and the final two are here. They can take more than enough weight for my purposes and are rock solid. Having a place to put boxes and completed models are key to keeping my area clean. I always try to balance ease of access with efficient use of space. I still have two and a half shelves of household tools and assorted junk that I plan to move elsewhere.
I have a bunch of banker boxes left over from my move six years ago. I bought the boxes intending to use them after the move and they are very handy but they have their problems. First is that I hate keeping anything in cardboard boxes. In the case of a flood or a broken pipe a plastic box will do a much better job of keeping everything dry. I also want to move away from large boxes to plastic drawers. It’s much easier to pull out a drawer to access the stuff inside. I’d like to replace every box with some type of removable drawer so that I never have to lift anything to access anything else.
Work Area
Currently I have two work areas, neither of which I am very happy with.
The first is another piece of Ikea furniture. It is intended to be an office desk and is not the most stable thing going. It’s also too deep and a little low for my preferences. On the upside the edges take clamps well. At the back of the desk is a raiser I built as a temporary solution to hold a DVD player, receiver and digital PVR before I had a proper TV stand. When it wasn’t needed anymore I stole it for my work area. It’s a great riser to make it easier to access items at the back of the desk. It would be even better if the desk wasn’t so deep. It’s made from an old shelf and couch feet. The ugly shelves above the table were came with the house and I would love to replace them someday. The large toolkit under the table is where I keep most of my unbuilt models.
This large woodworking bench also came with the house. I prefer its height for painting to keep my back straight. It has some interesting features but suffers from shoddy construction. The tabletop, for example, is extremely uneven. I’d really like to build a replacement in a similar style. In the meantime this picture reminds me that I need to dispose of all that latex paint which also came with the house. If I can do that it would give me even more storage.
After the bulky storage and work areas comes organizing hundreds of little tools and bits.