The virtues of a clean shop

I cleaned my shop today. I deep cleaned. I spring cleaned. I swept everything up, and filled a garbage can with what came off the floor. It had gotten out of hand.

Until recently, shop time was too fleeting and precious to spend time cleaning. That sounds stupid and backwards, and it probably is. Working clean is a virtue. I don’t know what to tell you. I can make excuses. I was in a hurry. I was only able to steal some time at the very end of the day, when my energy was sapped and progress had to be made. The project needed to be closer to completion. I didn’t want to wake up my son by stomping up the basement stairs with a trashcan full of shavings. It was dark outside.

Now I have the time to clean. If you don’t have a clean shop, I recommend it. Knowing where everything is is a boon to productivity. Knowing that there’s nothing useful In that pile of odd tools and off-cuts will bring you peace of mind.

As my shop time progressed, I transitioned from cleaning, to making shop improvements. I moved my workbench to give myself more room to stand and maneuver around the vise. I added a board to the back of the bench to serve two purposes. It stiffens up the bench, which sometimes wobbles. It also creates the back wall of the tool well. Until now, vigorous work would rattle my winding sticks and bench hook onto the floor. No more. My little Franken-bench is growing up.

Hopefully I have the discipline to keep my shop clean as I work. I know myself well enough not to make any such promises. I do want to be someone who works clean. I’ve done it in the past, before things got out of hand.

I think working clean lends itself to hand tool woodworking. One of the major advantages to hand tools is the ability to change tools, and thereby tasks, with virtually no “setup” time. Having every tool and a bunch of garbage on your bench, as well as no clear horizontal spaces, seriously retards this advantage. At least it has for me. Beyond that, I think that it’s easier to do clean precise work in an uncluttered environment. Let’s hope I can keep it clean moving forward.