Taking Those First Steps: A Workshop Overhaul

I knew going into this new journey that several things needed to be done. The major one of those steps was to completely redo the garage setup. This meant I had to rethink the layout and how storage would come into play.

Storage is Key

With how the current setup was, there wasn't much storage, if any at all. I had gone through several iterations of planning upper and lower cabinets. I even went so far as to look at making hanging cabinets that would pull out from the wall, with the capability for storage on both sides. Going this route, I would have still dropped the workbench as it had suffered from the curse of any horizontal surface: being a catch-all for anything and everything.

I wanted to go a different route than what I currently have with the miter saw setup. The plan is to use one of the many plans that are out there for building a portable miter saw station. This would give me the option of having a dedicated setup for miter cuts and being able to store it away when not in use, thus saving on occupied space. The picture wasn't doing much justice to how bad things had gotten.

Roll in Phase One

After looking through all of my plans and trying to find solutions for building out a reasonable option that I could use for storage, I came to the conclusion that getting a prebuilt solution was probably the better option for the workshop.

Enter the rolling tool storage by Craftsman. I had always looked at these solutions mainly for the shop mechanic, which is one potential use case for them, but I had seen many other woodworkers utilizing these for various storage solutions. These are essentially good for just about anything. The process of buying it was easier than I had thought, considering the wife has always been suspicious when I bring up big purchase ideas. She was so quick to say "go for it" that I thought she had been replaced by a pod-person.

Everything in its Place

After taking delivery of the rolling tool storage, the next phase of organization has started: finding a place for everything and everything having its place. I've already started by getting my larger tools into the deeper drawers, like the circular saw, jigsaw, the pocket hole jig, and sander.

Before taking down the workbench, I took everything down and tossed it all into totes. Was this the smart option? Probably not, but I could take the time to go back through them and put everything away into their new homes.

One thing I'm already seeing is that I have more drawers than I do stuff to put in them. This isn't a problem, more of a solution to keep myself more organized going forward. A key thing is I'm going to utilize labels to let my future self know where things are at first glance, instead of opening drawers trying to find that one tool.

This is just the beginning of the transformation. With the storage sorted out and a plan for the miter saw station, I'm finally setting myself up to actually build things instead of just shuffling stuff around. Phase one is complete, and I'm already excited to see what phase two brings.