Trying to make my garage into a useful space

In reply to Gingerbeardman :

I haven't touched too much of the "sentimental value" stuff yet.  2-3 cardboard boxes of stuffed animals from when my kids were little (all teenagers now) that I dusted off the spider webs and put in plastic storage bins and put on the shelves.  There's a whole bunch more of that kind of stuff still buried in the right front corner in the first pic.  I think a lot of it can be Goodwill'ed or tossed, it just takes some time to sort through it.

Most of what I've been moving around in this project is leftover scraps of wood, half full paint cans, tons of spray paint cans, old car parts from cars I no longer own (anybody need stock struts and springs from a '99 Ford Contour? ).  I like to be "environmentally friendly" so I don't want to just throw it in the dumpster.  And I don't know how many half full packs of sandpaper I've pulled out of the piles.  Whenever I need sandpaper, I buy more cuz I can never find what I already have.

Saturday's going to be busy, but hopefully I can make more progress on Sunday.  We'll see!

In reply to RogerB :

Pile the scraps of wood...in your fireplace or next to your firepit. Unless it's something awesome like burl or old quarter-sawn oak or teak. Save that stuff.

Take the paint and old spray cans to the dump. If it's over a few months old, most of the propellant will have started leaking past the seals in the neck, and the paint has started to oxidize, which prevents it from remixing properly even if you shake the dickens out of it. Same goes for old paint cans if they've been subjected to more than a couple freeze/thaw cycles.

Grab a bin or bucket or something like that and put ALL of the sandpaper in one. That way when you find it again, at least you have a bucketful! 

Good luck with your purge and organization. I have to get my garage organized so I actually have room to work on my build. Waiting for weather to break, because I don't have the pellet stove installed and I REALLY hate working in the cold anymore. I'm too old for that E36 M3.

General comment, not intended towards anybody in the tread: I never ceases to a amaze over the amount of useless crap people store. I helped a friend clear out his garage when he moved. Apart from the piles of old car parts actually fitting the cars he still owned, we also found parts for 4 (four!!!) different cars that he had sold years ago! Among them: an engine with a hole in it, a gearbox with stripped 3rd gear, a broken alternator and a broken radiator. Why do you keep a broken radiator (or alternator?) to a common, mass-produced car? 

People don't get that keeping some items around makes them a burden, not an asset.

I agree with everything here.  Getting rid of things you won’t use or need is key, and it’s hard.  Keeping a two car garage clean enough to be an auto hobbyist and store cars is a real battle.  

Torkel said:

Why do you keep a broken radiator (or alternator?) to a common, mass-produced car? 

People don't get that keeping some items around makes them a burden, not an asset.

I completely agree!  In my case, it was a matter of not knowing where to take them to scrap them.  Now I've found a place, but I need to take the time to actually scrap them.  And it will take time to separate the springs from the struts, and drain the oil out of the struts, etc...  I'm getting there, it's just kindof a slow process.

We interrupt this garage cleanup for some actual work in the garage.  This is my daughter's Protege.  Friday morning, the driver's side window slid open and she couldn't get it to go back up.  You could hear the motor spinning, but window wouldn't budge.  So I had to see if I could fix it.

Not much I can do but order a new regulator.  Ordered this from Rock Auto:

While I had everything torn apart anyway, it's the perfect time to fix some other minor issues that the car has had since we got it, not quite a year ago.  It has power mirrors, but neither side works.  I was able to diagnose the motor in the driver's side mirror and it was fine.  Some Internet research told me it uses the same fuse as the radio.  The radio works just fine, so I deduced that the problem was the switch.  So I ordered one of these off eBay:

The other issue is with the wipers.  The wipers work, but they don't return to the start when you turn them off.  And the intermittent setting doesn't work at all.  I figured it was a fuse or relay.  Some more Internet research revealed that the intermittent relay is in the stalk itself.  So I ordered one of these from eBay:

Now I just have to wait for part to show up.  Fortunately, she's on Spring Break this week and probably won't need to drive it, but I'd like to move it out of the garage.

I love fixing those irritating little issues.  Hopefully she appreciates them :)

Progress made!  (on the car anyway).  

New window motor and regulator:

Old motor and regulator:

The motor was still good, but the regulator was toast!  

Assembly seemed to go well.  I had the parts back in, but when I tested it, the switch was reversed.  I started to just call it good, but the window wasn't going up all the way, so everything came back out.  I figured out if I reverse the wires, the switch operated correctly.  The plug only went one way and I couldn't figure out how to get the wires out of the plug, so I cut off the plug from the old part and spliced it on to the new part, reversing the wires.  The new wires were just barely long enough, so this gave me a little extra length.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of my hackery.  When I put the window in the second time, I realized I didn't have it on the track properly the first time, so that's why it wouldn't go all the way up.  Corrected that issue and window works great!  Job Done!

I left the door panel off because I'm still waiting on the mirror switch, but the car can park outside and the van can come back inside.

Power windows.....  so awesome but so irritating to work.  I still remember my dad’s new Father’s day watch being thrown a whole block by a power window roll up helper spring in the 80s. 

The new units work better but adjusting them and aligning everything always stinks.  Maybe I’m just upset because last one I did involved jr’s smashed out driver’s side window.....

In reply to AnthonyGS :

This is the first time I've dealt with this kind of repair.  Wasn't too bad, other than the reversed wiring issue.  The other parts I was waiting on came and I put them in.  (sorry no pics).  I'm happy to say the new windshield wiper stalk solved the wiper issue, but the new mirror switch didn't solve the dead power mirrors.  The mirror issue is just a minor inconvenience, and I didn't feel like messing with it anymore, so I put everything back together and moved it to its usual spot outside.

Still has a nasty belt squeal on cold startup   Maybe I'll tackle that this weekend.

This is about the stage where I start to have problems. Get it clean enough, start using it to work on the project backlog, berkeley it all up catching up to the backlog. 

Shop looks good. Maintain momentum. I'm at about the same stage on my shop renovation, and I'm having to fight off the urge to pull a motorcycle in and tear it all apart.

I had a similar garage problem, just on a slightly larger scale! I had to make a list of rules for transforming my space to a workable and enjoyable workspace.

1. Use it or lose it!

I had to dispose of quite a few "passions" such as candlemaking supplies, pottery stuff, overflow from a beauty shop in addition to the detritus of life like old computers, magazines, furniture and such.

2. Do SOMETHING every day!

Some days were wire in the lift, burn the scrap pile, meet with 3 people answering the various ads to shed stuff and then lunch! Other days were throw out 2 cans of spray paint that were non sprayers.

3. If you pick it up, put it back where it belongs!

This one starts out hard but gets easier as you go along. As I waded in, I was proud of the new nice clean space but then used this space as I dealt with boxes of junk that needed processing. Might not have a spot set up for those trophy parts that only come out to build car club show stuff, but you might have them all in one tub.

4. Be ruthless!

Give ample warning to any other people with stuff in this space that since you are doing all the work, you make all the decisions. Yup, I sold your candlemaking supplies and used the money to buy a fire extinguisher and a paper towel holder...and a BBQ sandwich!

5. The floor is not a shelf!

This is a variant of rule 3 with a follow though of rule 1. And if something ends up on the floor, then the something you do today should be to make a proper spot to put these items at!

6. Your, mine, ours with a twist.

Sometimes you gotta kick stuff out and place it back on certain people that you have to live with. Please be careful with this one!!  Kiddos have skateboards and paintball supplies in their space not this space. That bag of shoes that she is going to deal with "someday" might need an application of sternness...or not. Don't cut your own throat with this one.

7. Don't make it worse!

Spend the time enforcing your new garage rules by cleaning or organizing. Sure there will be time when you walk away from something with it scattered, these things happen. Get back to it soon though.

Like any habit, if you just keep doing it right you will discover that you just keep doing it right.

Bet you cannot even find the piano! I have no idea why I ended up with a piano!

Bruce