Messy workshops
Messy workshops filled with wood chips and shavings are bad.
They slow production and add tripping and slipping hazards. They increase the level of dust you inhale. I’ve even lost tools underneath heaps of wood chips before. We all know we should keep our workshops clean and relatively dust-free, but how many of us actually do?
I’m as guilty as the next person, especially once I get busy. I’ve been splitting my time between trying to wrap up a dresser and bench for a client, as well as get editorial content prepared so our art director can put together our Fall 2024 issue. Add in all the additional fun family things we’ve been doing this summer, along with the odd bike ride and taking the kids to soccer, and who has time for anything else? Especially if that “anything else” is cleaning the shop.
What type of mess is it?
The be clear, there are a few types of messes you might find in a workshop. Dust and wood chips are mainly what I’m talking about here, but tools strewn all over benches, work surfaces and the floor is another way to make a mess. I find putting tools away easier than sweeping up a mess, though I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because stacks of tools on my bench immediately get in my way when I’m working, stacks of clamps on work surfaces fall over and take up too much space, and power tools cause me to trip when I’m moving around the shop.
On the other hand, dust and wood chips can be overlooked fairly easily, especially if I’m determined.
That means at the end of the day, I’m probably half as likely to clean up wood chips and dust on the floor as I am to put away a wide assortment of tools.
Waste of time?
With my current busy schedule, it almost feels like spending 10 minutes cleaning the shop is a waste of valuable time. What do I prefer, having a clean workplace or delivering a project on time and spending more time with my family?
There are certainly benefits to having a clean workshop, aside from reducing the chance of slipping and falling or maybe even losing a router in the pile of wood chips it created.
I remember years ago, when I was preparing a number of pieces for a design show, my workshop floor was almost entirely covered with wood chips and sawdust. Piles of chips in some areas were inches deep. That was the worst it ever got.
How about you?
About 25 years ago I worked for a guy who expected me to clean up dust and wood chips within seconds of creating them. And tools needed to be unplugged and put away while the bit or blade was still spinning. It was a challenge, but at least when I was working for someone else I was earning a wage as long as I was in the shop. And it’s also easier to do when your boss is telling you it’s mandatory. When I’m the boss things are different.
At what point do you reach for the broom? And how many tools need to be on the bench before you put any of them away? For me, it depends on how busy I am. It also depends on whether someone is going to visit me in the shop. I’d much rather show a nice, tidy shop to a visitor than let them see the honest truth about how messy I can be.
If you really want to show off, send me a few photos of your messy shop. I might even share those photos in another column down the road. But please, messy shop photos only; nobody likes a tidy-shop showoff.
One Messy Shop
This is the main assembly room of my shop, as I work on a dresser for a client. The floors are lightly covered in sawdust and there are lots of tools where they shouldn’t be.
The Other Angle
The thickness planer, shown here in the upper right corner, has made most of this mess, even though I usually hook it up to my dust collection system in use.
Rob is a studio furniture maker and the editor at Canadian Woodworking & Home Improvement. Instagram at @RobBrownTeaches
I would like my workshop to be as tidy as an F1 racing car garage. But when a project is underway, then that goal is sometimes lost. However when there’s nothing happening then my workshop is tidy as can be. There’s the old saying of ‘a place for everything and everything is its place’. Apart from my workbenches, every piece of workshop furniture and machinery is mobile for easier cleaning. I borrowed some of Adam Savage’s system of having storage sustainers and containers to neatly store tools, parts, fasteners, etc. Overhead and flexible dust collection means dust and shavings means machinery and floors are usually clean.
I clean and replace tools at the end of every stage of a build. Not a big clean, but the kind that creates order. A fellow I worked with some years ago often said “ cleanliness is next to godliness and I want to be as close to god as I can”. I believe he was only religious about cleaning his work area, and that’s what I try to do too.
Love to read your stories and how ‘normal’ you are! Although your crafting skills are definitely in another league!!
Since my workshop is also my kitchen island, cleanup occurs before I start preparing meals and is sometimes after each operation.
If one uses their shop, large,or small there is going to be some degree of mess and a few tools that need to be put in their proper place. I have seen many video’s of the the perfectly clean/tidy work shop and the wood shop instructor ‘s clothes are just back from the cleaners, perfectly pressed. How realistic is that? There is a balance between having an organized and safe work space and being too messy or tooooo clean.
Thank you for this article, it inspired me to start cleaning up my shop. Your shop is tidy compared to mine. Today I cleaned the part near the table saw and the stairs down to the shop which had gathered a lot of wood dust and shavings. Next is the area near the router.
This made me wonder, do female woodworkers do a better job of keeping their shop cleaned up? Looks like this points toward a survey of woodworkers. Since I always have multiple projects going at the same time, it seems that cleaning up is not being efficient. I do keep my tools put up and my 2 car garage workshop has over 65 drawers. So, I know where most of my tools are, I just sometimes forget where that is.
Looks like my shop but I just empty it out and painted the whole shop and rearranged the tools. So, for now my shop is a show place – LOL