GGs,
Hi!
A few months ago, I read the pair of books by Marie Kondo, about
de-cluttering and organizing. (No financial interest, etc. -- they're just
useful, well-written pairs of books.)
Some of it relates to Galoots, and our general tendency to hoard hand tools.
Here's my hyper-summarization of the pair of books (one is an extension of
the other; you can get away with just reading one or the other -- but
they're engagingly written, so I read both):
-Before you work on clever storage solutions, you must cull. Once you've
pared down, *then* you can work on storage.
-Go methodically through each category of belongings (e.g. clothing; books;
kitchen utensils; office supplies) and pile them in the same location:
this allows you to check for redundancies. (Eventually, you'll also store
things by category; but first, cull.)
-If you have a lot of items within a category (e.g. tools), it helps to
cluster them by sub-type (e.g. chisels!).
-Unlike some "de-cluttering" approaches, Marie Kondo says there is *nothing
wrong* with having "collections" -- as long as you *enjoy* the contents --
both in terms of appreciating them, and getting to use/view them.
-Go through each item, hold it in your hand (important!), and figure out
whether it brings you joy (her term) or not. If it doesn't make it happy
(and it's not something purely functional -- e.g. a toaster, fire
extinguisher) -- then why are you keeping it?
-You don't have to keep something *just because* it was received as a
gift: it served its purpose by being given, and allowing the giver to show
his/her appreciation.
-If you have a collection, set things up so that you get to see them and/or
use them on a regular basis: if your box of seashells are in a shoebox in
the back of the closet, you're missing the point! Put them on a shelf
somewhere, so you'll see them a lot.
-Basically (my illustration): if you have a bag of golf clubs in the back
of the closet -- then either get rid of them -- or *play more golf*!!!
:) (Unless it makes you happy, just to have it. In which case, you
should somehow set it up so that you see it *more often* -- so that it gets
to make you happy with greater frequency.)
There's more -- but that's the heart of it.
Because of this perspective (and because my shop is relatively small) --
I'm paring down some of my tools: some are sentimental, some are users,
some look cool -- *none* are rare or "collectable". I have a shoebox full
of $2 chisels that I'm going to flatten the backs and sharpen "someday".
I'm keeping all my hammers (because, for some reason, I enjoy hammers) -
and *most* of my chisels (keeping just enough redundancies for in case my
kids take up woodworking) -- but am intending to get rid of the bulk of my
handsaws (they don't "move" me).
With most of my tools, I find that I do about 95% of the work with my
"main" one (be it handsaws, hammers, or chisels) -- about 4% of the work
with a secondary one (of a different size or configuration) -- and about 1%
of the work with two or three others. I (literally!) never get to the
sixth (or greater) tool within a category. (Okay: socket wrenches and
box-end/crescent wrenches... And drill bits.)
Note, however, that I'm keeping *all* of my clamps. You people know why.
;)
--Travis (Brisbane, AU)
...
|