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It really has been a long time since posted last, almost two months. Oops. It happens, and might have something to do with the two other blogs I write more frequently on, but that's just an excuse.

I was thinking, mostly due to a weekend of truck work, about my shop space. A few days back I had a friend over and due to his common interest in car/truck restoration he wanted to see my truck and check out my progress. I happily complied, as most people don't really care all that much. So I take him out to the garage and show him around. He is adequately impressed by the work I've done, and the commitement I've gotten myself into. All fine and well. But then he is talking to my wife later, away from me and makes some snide remark about the general disarray of my shop. Whatever, it's like water off a duck's back (not really, you'll see).

Onto the weekend, I have the laborious task of washing all the parts I've removed from the truck so far so I can paint them and reassemble them. Mostly they are the parts that make up her lower end. The axels, wheel hub, brake hubs, steering linkages, brake cylinders, leaf springs, and that ilk. The idea is that when I finish cleaning and painting those parts, as well as the truck's frame, I can put them back together and she can once again rest on her own wheels instead of jack stands. To accomplish this I spent 10 hrs or so this weekend scrubbing truck parts. Hot soapy water, various scrubbing tools, a wire bristtle brush, some rubber gloves, a spray bottle full of special cleaner, all resulting in quite possibly the most filthy water I have seen in my life (so thick with solutes you can no longer see through it).

During this process my wife goes and buys some tile she wants to use to make a path in the yard. She asks me to put them in the garage. I say I don't have any space that I want to give up to a large pile of tile. "Maybe you would if you organized your shop." She says. I turn and say, "Do not say that again."

Maybe I over reacted, probably. But here's the thing. That shop is my space. My space alone. No one else ever has to enter it, nor do anything in it. Everything in it is something I use (minus the crap that was in it when we bought the house and I haven't been able to remove). Now if you were to enter it, maybe you would think it's a horrible mess, and that's fine. Maybe you couldn't get anything done in it because you could never find anything, maybe the "disarray" would over whelm you and render you powerless to do anything. But that's not how it is for me.

Sure sometimes I can't find something I need, or at least I have to spend a few minutes looking, but so what? I like it how it is. And besides, I don't see it as dirty or disarrayed. I keep things clean enough, vacuum up the saw dust now and then, clean out the trash. Plus it's hardly unorganized, it's just organized by my system. Things I use constantly are left out in places I can get at them. Things I don't use often are put away. And then there's the fact that it really is two shops in one, both of which use lots of tools and make their own types of messes. Try mixing a wood shop and a mechanics shop (and for good measure somebody else's old junk) in a single 1 and 1/2 car garage and tell me if there is enough space for everything. I'll save you the trouble, it's a tight fit.

Now, this sounds like so much whining, and it is. But then what are blogs for? Here's what it comes down to: there are really two types of shop people. Those who keep there shops immaculate, and those that live in constant controled chaos. Neither one can emulate the other, it just isn't in their make up. Sure I could keep my shop perfectly organized and spotless. But for me cleaning is a major undertaking. So I would end up losing too much time that could be spent working cleaning and organizing. As it is, I have to sacrafice at least one day every few months to the gods of clean. I don't want to do anymore.

So in closing, people are different, deal with it. When a space/thing/project/thought/life is not yours, nor does it directly effect your well being, then leave it alone. Or at least voice your opinions with respect, as snide comments only have the opposite effect intended. I for one am no more likely to change my ways. No, I am just less likely to allow anyone in my shop.