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The Junk Parlor

Chaos causes me stress. Does disorganization cause you to stress? Next on the work smarter, not harder series we will discuss organizing the workshop.

A Place for Everything

It is so important for things to have a home!  I have literally spent 10 minutes trying to find a hammer that I laid down somewhere!  And I own 5 hammers! Can you relate?

Organizing the Workshop thejunkparlor.com

So one of the first tasks to getting organized is making sure you have space for all of your items.  I think this takes a lot of trial and error. You will learn as you work in that space, what is working and what isn’t.  When you know something isn’t working, you try something else.

I started with a couple of dressers and wood shelving units.  This was not enough space to give everything a home. So I started hanging shelves on the wall.  This added more space to get things off of the floor, but I still felt my work table was often full.  It is hard to work efficiently if you have to clean off a space to get started.

So, I added metal shelving with wheels.  Units like THESE. Wheels are key!! Because again, trial and error.  I might place a shelf where I think it makes the most sense only to figure out a month later that it would be much more efficient in a different location.  Those wheels will prevent me from having to clean off the shelving unit to move it to where I think it would be more functional.

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Group Like Items

Now that you have enough places to put things, it is time to sort. I put all my chalk paint together, my milk paint together, the latex paint together, and spray paints together. My tools and supplies all have a home and are grouped together.  Hammers, screwdrivers, electrical tools, sandpaper, everything gets grouped together. Once I see how much of something I have I find a container to hold it.

Use What You Have

I am big on reusing things, so it could go in anything from a box or bucket to a cottage cheese container or baggie!  Rubbermaid drawer units that I have picked up along the way work really great for storage too! Find some HERE

Limit What You Keep

Another thing I’m trying really hard to do is to not keep everything. I don’t keep every cute little board that I think I might paint a sign on or reuse someday. And I don’t save every screw, hinge, or neat little bit.  I have found that very rarely will I actually use things I have saved. 

So I will make time to go through, clean out, and throw away things. I do it with my inventory and I do it with my project supplies. Projects go so much faster when you can quickly find what you need!

Don’t Forget to Clean-Up

My last tip for an organized workshop…take the time to put things away!  Stay on top of this task. Don’t undo all of your time and effort getting organized, because you don’t take the time to put things away. Remember work smarter, not harder.

Interested in staying organized? Read about organizing and creating my shipping station HERE.

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Hi, I’m Brooke. Welcome to The Junk Parlor.

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