small workspace. What do you do to make extra space?

[Jetmekdc-10]

I can't give you any good ideas for space but my shop walls and cieling are OSB like yours and I painted them bright white. It really helped with the amount of light in my shop and it made it seem bigger.

[fjk]

hi

for both my basement and garage i've had to cram 10#s of stuff
into a 5# bag. some of the things i do
- put everything you can on wheels (which it looks like you did)
- put shelves/bins/storage/etc _everyplace_. like under your
welding table or chop saw. also, wherever you see bare osb
there should be a shelf or something :-)
- hanging things on pegboards/walls just doesn't work for optimizing
on space. use shelves/cabinets/etc wherever you can. for instance,
the two cordless drills over your wooden workbench are using way
to much valuable real estate...
- don't be afraid to bury things. i have a bunch of stuff on a pegboard
that i don't use that often. if i left "free" would use up too much space,
so i park my roll-around tool chests in front of the pegboard. the few
times i need the stuff, i move the chests.
- get taller tool chests -- the 'stuff per cubic foot' factor
can be huge
- store things disassembled (such as the roller/stand next to your
chop saw.
the basic idea is to find every available sqft of wall or floor space or cubic
foot of storage space, and figure out a way to put the most stuff in the
space you can

Frank

[FormerTankSarge]

Good idea about putting wheels on those cabinets!

[jweller]

You've got a high enough ceiling that you should be hanging stuff from it. For example, your ladder will hang with a couple of hooks. You can even hang heavier and awkward stuff with a pulley system. I've got my kayaks hanging from my garage ceiling that way. the lift maybe cost $20 worth of stuff from home depot. The area above the garage door is prime real estate.

It's harder now that everyone is scaling back, but keep an eye out for people remodeling kitchens. they throw out perfectly good cabinets. they are awesome on the garage wall. A little bit ugly, but cheap and functional.

a rack for milk crates sounds like a good idea

It also looks like you have a bunch of small shelves. you might be better off with one big shelf instead of a couple smaller ones.

I don't see one, but an air compressor is usually pretty happy outside in a small shed.

[fjk]

a rack for milk crates sounds like a good idea

I missed the milk crate comment...

I don't like milk crates becuase they have holes in them. Small
things will fall through the holes and end up someplace else. Big
things can poke through and catch on other stuff.. I also don't
like them because dust and stuff can get in through the holes.
You might say "Dust? In a work shop? Big deal!" It can be a killer
on tools, motors, and so on, hat don't get used that often - it
builds up, collects moisture and grease-n-oil, etc, all to the
detriment of the tool.

As much as is practical (and affordable), I try to keep things in
closable boxes, bins, drawers, chests, etc.

Another thing I meant to say -- for tools that you use a lot,
get rid of those Free, Custom Made, Injection Molded Handy
Dandy Carrying Cases that so many tools & tool sets come in --
they take up _tons_ of space but their "stuff per cubic foot"
capacity is d.mn low. They are ok for tools & things that don't get
used much and maybe piled up in a corner someplace.

Of course, Your Mileage May Vary...

Frank

[Bryan L]

thanks for all the input all

I do have an air compressor. its located to the right of the sink at the back of the garage 1/2 under the landing. I also have an air drier on the wall near the ceiling (red box) and a large air tank under the landing bolted to the floor.

I had cupboards at one point in time but I found that they turned into junk collectors and it was hard to keep things organized.