Issue 594

The Black Hole of Chaos

Those who know me understand that I do well with details and can juggle multiple complicated tasks and bring them to completion very professionally. They also know I can spend 15 actual minutes looking for my measuring tape, followed by 10 more minutes looking for the pencil behind my ear.

As I continue the task of creating a small shop from the over-abundance of my large shop, the importance of organization becomes clearer to me. But it is a mixed blessing. My creativity actually feeds on and is benefitted by chaos; my efficiency is not. What about you? Does getting organized become its own black hole, taking up shop time that could be spent “doing the fun stuff?” Or does it make your time in the shop more fun and effective?

If you have a quest to create order over chaos, today’s two videos offer a couple of interesting and useful tips. (I should watch them a few times …)

Rob Johnstone, Woodworker’s Journal

Featured Videos

Setting Up a Small Woodworking Shop

Every woodworker would like to have more workshop space. A large space is nice for many reasons, but you actually don’t need a large space to set up an effective shop. In order to demonstrate, we set up a complete woodworking shop in one corner of a typical two-car garage. This workshop includes all the key tools necessary to tackle a wide variety of woodworking projects and still allows two cars to park in the garage.

Improve Shop Organization with Magnets

If your shop contains bags, buckets and boxes of who knows what tiny bits and parts (and ours does), Chris Marshall has a simple solution to get more organized.