Have you ever found yourself looking around your workspace at the end of the day and thinking, “Well, this place was was clean when I started…”? I have, quite frequently. Believe it or not, even in a tiny gray-walled cubicle, things can somehow spiral out of control quickly. Then, if and when there’s a lull, I might put a few like-items here, toss some old notes/receipts/Kleenex there and boom - a transformation has taken place. I am recharged and ready to work again.
But a messy desk (or tool bench or bay) is the sign of a brilliant mind... Right?
I'll tell you what - I really enjoy hanging out at different repair shops because each place always has its own vibe. I was once at a small, family-owned general repair shop in Texas that looked like something straight off a Hollywood movie set; everything was tidy, and they had vintage motor signs hanging from the walls. I’ve also been to dealership service bays where nearly all the toolboxes were overflowing, but the jobs kept marching through, nevertheless.
When your workspace is never quite organized, but not exactly chaos, either, I think it's the sign of a healthy workload. It also keeps us thinking of new ways to organize the "stuff” and operate at peak efficiency.
In this month’s Big Time Boxes, shop owner Chris Barnes of Black Cat Auto and Diesel in Pacolet, South Carolina, takes us through his 76’’ wide, 25’’ deep Matco setup, which he built to his own idea of perfection using Matco’s Toolbox Configurator online tool. Barnes admits his Matco’s drawers are “slammed full” of tools, organized by single categories. He keeps everyday wrenches and sockets in a separate tool cart.
“Before I came to the shop I’m at now, I worked in a shop that was overly crowded," Barnes says of his decision to build tall. “I wanted to get a locker, but I didn’t have room in the corner I was in for a side locker. So, at the time I could only go up."
His main hutch is clear of tools and products, and mostly used for display. Or, as Barnes likes to say, “my little show-off area.”
I think it is worthwhile to consider how we organize the tools we need to do our job, to surround ourselves with a workspace that helps us to feel both confident and competent. You may be super neat or take a more haphazard approach to your layout. If it’s the latter, I bet you probably still know exactly where that torque wrench is located.
We’ve got a lot of tools in this issue that you could use to either mess up your shop or organize in a most efficient way. I’ve got a hunch that there’s joy in both scenarios.
