Any way to make a workshop easy to move???? Or am I beyond help...

Looking for ideas on how to make workshop easy to move.

I've recently moved my workshop out of a house basement where it was in the same location for some 15 years, in to a 700 sq. ft. rental industrial unit about 30 miles away. Physically moving stuff was not that big of a deal - moved it all by myself over a couple week running back and forth with a van and a 4x8 utility trailer. The big deal with the move was getting everything packed and inventorized - took about 6 months, of packing stuff on weekends while also doing some car repairs/prepping house for sale along the way. Not sure where things gone wrong, but the amount of time I spent on packing was totally ridiculous, I just know I will never do THAT again.

When I brought over the first few batches of stuff in to the new location and started setting it up, I thought it was looking good:

Some metal working equipment, a rolling toolchest, a few benches:





A little office in the back:



And some storage space on the mezzanine level:





However, there was more stuff left, and I had to keep bringing it in:





Over the last couple months, all I did was work on getting stuff off the floor, and repacking so it could be stacked on pallets five rows high and stored up high:




Now most of my stuff is sitting on shelves and pallet racks in about a hundred or so boxes, plastic bins and totes. Over the last few weeks it became a second full-time job: running forklift, packing boxes, stocking shelves, doing inventory.

Last night, as I was leaving, I took a picture and realized that I don't have a shop anymore, it's a ******** warehouse:



Ever since I've moved in to the new unit, for the last 2 months, I've done ABSOLUTELY NO USEFUL WORK, haven't even washed my cars - just moving stuff around and getting sick and tired of it, while the work that I used to do (cars, boats, bikes, house/household repairs) just keeps piling up.

There's gotta be an easier way, but what is it?

My latest grand idea is to by a dozen or so vertical filing cabinets, and stuff everything in them, so when the next move date comes (my lease will be up in 10 months, not sure where I'll end up after that), instead of having to pack hundreds of boxes, just move this cabinets - they are designed to be moved loaded with all the contents in place. In and out - a day long afair, not 6 months of packing/unpacking. It's either that or I get rid of the shop, and just pay the man to do all the work... I dunno

Suggestions???

Get rid of all that ****.... EASY!

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i know what you're saying, and i only had a fraction of what you had to move.
i don't know of an easier way to make use of the same stuff in a very different location.
you're coming-along really well, do you see a distant light at the end?
i hope so, that would be a good sign..

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Looks to me like you are trying to put triple Ds into a B cup and expect it to look nice!

Good luck. I moved all my stuff four years ago, into a 24x40 metal building. MY '58 Chevy and Goldwing are movable, but the '41 Pontiac on dollies sits there. I still can't get in there with the PU or SUV to work on them; that I do in the house 2 car garage. I'm slowly putting up shelves and making room, but there is still stuff all over. At least the paths are getting wider. I told my wife that next time I will just sell everything, except the toolbox, and buy new stuff later.

Jeez! Just how big was your basement?

Do you have any pictures of the workshop as it existed in the basement before the move?? I guess I'm wondering how things were so accommodating in terms of you getting work done while located in the basement, while the move, I'm assuming was for growth, etc. etc. has now turned into a bigger headache than necessary.

Was the basement larger than the unit you're in now? Was the floor plan of the basement vastly different than the space you're in now? Is there any way you can mimic or imitate the set-up you had for yourself in the basement in your new space so you can just jump right back into the groove of things?

i think you need to let a bunch of the stuff go, if you can put it on a mezzanine or on a pallet you probably dont need it

and i see some pallets wrapped in plastic

Hoarder ??

Dude, I feel for you, but you have a lot crammed into that space. It's a simple equation of maximum saturation and how much you think is clutter. Currently you think that ratio is too close.

But how the hell did you have a boat in your basement?

Make the next place permanant. Everything in a tool box or on wheels makes it quicker. Next move rent a semi trailer. Everything in one trip or shitcan it. Like me I bet you spent a lot of time getting just the right place for everything.
My motto is a place for everything-and everything on the floor.
Warehouse looks great.
Ron

Man that's a lot of stuff in a small space.

I know the feeling & try to keep my garage, shed & basement under control so I don't end up being so unproductive that I lose interest in starting a project. (which happens)

First thing you need to do is get rid of things you don't use so you can have more usable space. I used to save tons of ****, but over the years giving things away made me feel better than packing it safely away somewhere to be forgotten. Worse yet, how about when you move it 687 times because it was in the way when you wanted to do something else.

I like clear storage bins so I can see what I have without spinning a box to find what I wrote on it. The bins stack nicely on shelving & usually a lot easier to handle than an odd sized, cardboard box that wears out & falls apart. Mice can get into boxes & ruin things easier, too. I do have certain things that remain on dollies, or Ive added casters to it so I can move it.

Moving cabinets that are full ***** so I'd try to avoid doing that.

Jeff Ivers said:

Looks to me like you are trying to put triple Ds into a B cup and expect it to look nice!

Click to expand...

Sounds perfect to me!

Seriously, I'd go with the moveable cabinet idea. I don't plan to move until I can afford to leave everything behind and buy all new ****!

Okay, so a couple observations:
You have a lot of duplicates of things. For instance, you don't really need two big bolt cutters, do you?
Get rid of the duplicates you won't use.
Now, more importantly, you have a LOT of wasted space on your shelves.

The bad thing about industrial pallet racks is that they're too deep for garage use. They're great for SOME storage... things you want to keep, but don't use regularly. For instance, I've got a bunch of cylinder heads, transmissions and finned aluminum buick brake drums on mine. I've also got parts to current restoration projects on it.
But as regular storage, they're simply too deep to be efficient.

Second, it's a shelving unit: the purpose is to store things on it. Look at all the wasted space you have on your shelves. I define wasted space as the amount of dead air between the top of a box and the shelf above it.
If you tightened up the storage on your pallet racks and maximized it, you'd be able to get one of those pallet racks completely out of your shop.

In my shop, I have plastic tote boxes. Parts and "stuff" is put in the plastic tote boxes, they're stacked two-high, and slid on the shelf. The next shelf above has about two inches of space between the box and the bottom of the shelf.
Look at it this way: If you have a shelving unit that's 8 feet tall, and you have 18 inches between shelves, you've got 6 shelves. If you tighten everything up, and find you can make due with only 12 inches of space between shelves, now you've got 8 shelves on the same unit... that's several horizontal feet of free, found storage space for boxes.
Do you have cylinder heads, intake manifolds and valve covers? All those things require a shelf to set them on, but they only require about 8 inches of space to do it. Make one shelf 8 inches to the next one, and store all your long, but short-height items on it. Again, free found storage.

That's where I'd start.

-Brad

Now this post is a real HOOT!
Get your self a ferry lamp and rub it until the ferry comes out and grants you a wish. LOL
You must not have much of a shop if you think you can move it. It is all I can do to roll out one of the rolling boxes and sweep behind it. I have so many machines in my garage that are hooked up to power and dust collection systems it would take me a month just to undo it all.

Keep dreaming. If you build a nice wood bench on wheel and put all of your small power tools on it or under it you can get buy with moving it if you go miniatue.

I have owned this one house here in Califonrina for 35 years and only had my dune buggy in it once and a moter cycle when I went on vacation years ago. I have never had a car in the garage. I filed it with machnery and tools the day I moved in and it has gotten so full I need to wheel things out of the isles to get in to work. I miss having the space I have in my 2 shops on the farm.

I could ask where do you plan on moving your shop to if you make it portable.
I guess you could set up a cargo construction trailer like I have if you want to be able to move your shop.

I had to many tools and too much machinery when I was in highschool to be able to move it. My father told me not to bring any more tools home. That was all he needed to say. I have collected tolls ever sense. I got my first tool box at the age of 5 and was so excited. I still have the Handy Andy tool box with all of the tools in the box. All in working good shape.

How do I move a shop? Let me count the way. By hand, by cart, by mule, by your buddy doing it. The list is endless. It just struck my funny bone. LOL Don't take it personaly. I still think the magic lamp and a good rub will work. LOL

RCStocker said:

Now this post is a real HOOT!
Get your self a ferry lamp and rub it until the ferry comes out and grants you a wish. LOL
You must not have much of a shop if you think you can move it.
...How do I move a shop? Let me count the way. By hand, by cart, by mule, by your buddy doing it. The list is endless.

Click to expand...

there you go.. " if it can be done, there's not much to it "... " " if it's hard, it's impossible ".
you should have read his mind months ago and offered your lamp, mule, cart and endless list.

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I moved all my "stuff" a few years ago into 2 bays of a 3 bay garage. Still have a big trailer full of "stuff" to go. Anyway, I had 60' of pallet racks, wooden shelves floor to ceiling, metal shelving, wooden standalone shelving, bays were full. Then I acquired 6 "rolling shelf" units with buku shelves like those pictured below. All the hodgepodge shelving came out, all the "stuff" went into the rolling shelves, and left me with about 1/2 of the floor space clear. Which was good in itself. Still have shelf space left over, so some of the "stuff" from the trailer will be next.

Anyway, while thinking about - what if I have to move again", it dawned on me that perhaps I could just bolt plywood around each rolling shelf, forklift it onto a truck or trailer, and haul it away.

It seems pretty simple get rid of a bunch of ****. It looks like you have an old couch in there, a riding mower a bunch of tools (welding helmet, sandblaster) that havent even been out of the box yet. If you are not going to use stuff why have it? It's not rocket science if you don't use it get rid of it.

Lots of goodies. A little off track but did you get insurance ?? Security alarm ?

archirelic said:

Do you have any pictures of the workshop as it existed in the basement before the move?? I guess I'm wondering how things were so accommodating in terms of you getting work done while located in the basement, while the move, I'm assuming was for growth, etc. etc. has now turned into a bigger headache than necessary.

Was the basement larger than the unit you're in now? Was the floor plan of the basement vastly different than the space you're in now? Is there any way you can mimic or imitate the set-up you had for yourself in the basement in your new space so you can just jump right back into the groove of things?

Click to expand...

The new places was SUPPOSED TO BE BIGGER.

My old workshop was in a 21'x21' basement room and an adjacent 21'x21' 2-car garage with 7.5' ceiling. Basement room had radial arm saw, dust collector, an old dresser converted in to a bench for general repairs, a bench with some bench-top power tools (drill press, a combo belt/disk sander, wood band saw), a bench with metalworking lathe/mill combo machine, air compressors, a roll around tool box and a few shelves.

In the garage, I had a bench with tool and cutter grinder, bench vice, bench grinder, a buffer mounted on to an old file cabinet metal band saw, a few welders (mig, oxy, arc) and metalworking 3-in-1 break press/roll/shear. Outdoors I had a few shelves with wood and metal stock, a parts washer, and a table for testing outboards/welding/grinding and other fab work. That was mostly it.

A few snapshots from here and there of the old shop:







Here's the kick - the whole shop was at my parents house, and they both had their cars parked in their garage and stored their own stuff in the basement, so I actually was only using may be 2/3rd of the basement and 1/5 of the garage. I helped them out with some work around the house and car repairs and they didn't mind me using the space. So it might have been 880sq feet total space, but for most part I was only using 400-500sq ft, or so.

Over the years I had a GAZILLION cars, bikes, boats, outboards and other odd ends and pieces fixed up in that shop. Had whole cars painted, engines rebuilt, transmission work, body work, woodworking/metalworking, small engine repair, electronics...

Somebody else commented that it looks like I don't use my stuff, cause a lot of it is still in the original boxes. The thing is - any time I was done working, at the end of the day I'd ALWAYS make the place look clean - go around and put all the stuff back in to original boxes, or in to drawers, on shelves/etc - ALWAYS.

I had to move out cause my dad lost his job and moved to California. I knew about the move way in advance, and helped my mom fix up and sell their house and had most of my stuff inventorized, packed and ready to move. I had a good deal of tools/tooling but it wasn't THAT much stuff.

One theory I have on where the EXTRA STUFF came from is when I started boxing things, those boxes started mating with other boxes, and than those other boxes had offsprings that made even MORE BOXES

It's either that or may be its the things with my parents where they did not throw anything away, or have a garage sale or anything, but just assumed that I'll take whatever stuff they don't want and a couple weeks before closing just started dumping all of their "EXTRAS" on me. Like - garden tools, tractor, lawn mower, carts and implements, household stuff and furniture, stuff left over from remodeling projects - like tile, moldings, siding, a hundred or so cans of house paint, deck cleaners, stains. The day before closing I actually had to come in with a van and pick up a bunch of garbage. Not sure what I'm gonna do with a dozen shovels, half a doze rakes, bunch of hoes, I don't have a garden or much of a lawn for that matter. On the up note - I did find their leaf blower useful for blowing rain puddles out of the parking lot in front of my new unit

I feel your pain,
I am leaving a 72x32 foot building, and downsizing to 24x36 with a 24x6 ft lean to on the back. I have been at it for months. Luckily, my daughter bought the old farm house, so I can take my time moving all my choice morsels.

You mentioned rolling cabinets, I am doing just that, I bought 12 lateral file cabinets, and placed casters under them, not so much for moving again, but so I will be able to pull everything out from the walls and clean. 20 years in my old shop taught me that if it doesn't roll, I won't ever clean behind it.

Good luck

Jim

Brad54 said:

Now, more importantly, you have a LOT of wasted space on your shelves.

The bad thing about industrial pallet racks is that they're too deep for garage use. They're great for SOME storage... things you want to keep, but don't use regularly. For instance, I've got a bunch of cylinder heads, transmissions and finned aluminum buick brake drums on mine. I've also got parts to current restoration projects on it.
But as regular storage, they're simply too deep to be efficient.

Second, it's a shelving unit: the purpose is to store things on it. Look at all the wasted space you have on your shelves. I define wasted space as the amount of dead air between the top of a box and the shelf above it.
If you tightened up the storage on your pallet racks and maximized it, you'd be able to get one of those pallet racks completely out of your shop.

In my shop, I have plastic tote boxes. Parts and "stuff" is put in the plastic tote boxes, they're stacked two-high, and slid on the shelf. The next shelf above has about two inches of space between the box and the bottom of the shelf.
Look at it this way: If you have a shelving unit that's 8 feet tall, and you have 18 inches between shelves, you've got 6 shelves. If you tighten everything up, and find you can make due with only 12 inches of space between shelves, now you've got 8 shelves on the same unit... that's several horizontal feet of free, found storage space for boxes.
Do you have cylinder heads, intake manifolds and valve covers? All those things require a shelf to set them on, but they only require about 8 inches of space to do it. Make one shelf 8 inches to the next one, and store all your long, but short-height items on it. Again, free found storage.

That's where I'd start.

-Brad

Click to expand...

Hear you on space efficiency. Trust me - I know how to pack things TIGHT. Been doing it for a long time. I did notice , that there is time efficiency /space efficiency trade-off - the tighter I pack things - the longer it takes to put stuff away, and also later it becomes difficult to rearrange, in case I want to keep certain things grouped together, like say paint equipment and supplies - paint gun, cleaning brushes, mixing cups, strainers - if it's all in one spot - makes it a lot quicker to gather all the tools and supplies for a job. If I just put each box wherever it fits best - end up looking for things all over the place.

Getting tight fit on the pallet rack - good point ... I'll get where... When I was stacking things on pallets, I was not done setting the rack so most of them aren't built to any specific height. I also having a problem with the forklift - one fork hangs lower than the other one, barkes don't work, and it's a manual-trans - can be a bit "jumpy" ... I'll fix the brakes and add decking to the pallet rack - hopefully in a couple weeks, after finishing this endless sorting and organizing, than I'll go back and get that rack set tight.

Since you have a fork lift and pallet jack, I'd look for large crates or job boxes to store stuff in. Larger boxes are more space efficient, because there is less space between items and fewer empty corners. They are also easier to move if you have the right tools for the job, because there are fewer of them. Properly sorted and organized around type or purpose and they also can be convenient to use. Pull them down when you need something of a specific type (eg. Chevy parts) or when you are going to do a specific job (eg. carpentry), Think of them as giant tool kits or parts bins. Large boxes also work well on pallet racking.

Small boxes waste space, make it hard to find stuff and require too much effort to repack for storage.

Jeff Ivers said:

Looks to me like you are trying to put triple Ds into a B cup and expect it to look nice!

Click to expand...

I live for stuff like that. Without that to look forward too I am sure my heart would just say f it.

Alchymist said:

Anyway, while thinking about - what if I have to move again", it dawned on me that perhaps I could just bolt plywood around each rolling shelf, forklift it onto a truck or trailer, and haul it away.

Click to expand...

Would love to hear if somebody done something like that.

GarageWarrior said:

Would love to hear if somebody done something like that.

Click to expand...

everything in my shop will will have wheels.
this link is the beginning for the few items i have (including the bench at the end of the thread).
i may abandon my plywood idea and fabricate some square brackets with casters.
if you have a forklift, you don't even need the > $12 for the casters...
you could just use 4x4 posts on their sides under the plywood like a pallet.



.

GarageWarrior said:

Like - garden tools, tractor, lawn mower, carts and implements, household stuff and furniture, stuff left over from remodeling projects - like tile, moldings, siding, a hundred or so cans of house paint, deck cleaners, stains. The day before closing I actually had to come in with a van and pick up a bunch of garbage. Not sure what I'm gonna do with a dozen shovels, half a doze rakes, bunch of hoes, I don't have a garden or much of a lawn for that matter.

Click to expand...

Again if you don't need all this stuff get rid of it. Sell it, give it away, recycle it, what ever. What is the point of keeping it all for the sake of keeping it? Sounds like you have too much of a pack rat mentality and until you solve that no space will be big enough.

K13 said:

Again if you don't need all this stuff get rid of it. Sell it, give it away, recycle it, what ever. What is the point of keeping it all for the sake of keeping it? Sounds like you have too much of a pack rat mentality and until you solve that no space will be big enough.

Click to expand...

Yeah, lawn equipment I'll be getting rid of, just holding on to it till spring. Who's gonna want to buy a garden tractor now when it's snowing outside

There is only one solution I know of to make a move easier - go government and throw money at it.

This was where my stuff ended up when we sold the old house (plus a stuffed full 12x16 building)

That all went into the new shop one two wheeler load at a time.

luvit said:

everything in my shop will will have wheels.
this link is the beginning for the few items i have (including the bench at the end of the thread).
i may abandon my plywood idea and fabricate some square brackets with casters.
if you have a forklift, you don't even need the > $12 for the casters...
you could just use 4x4 posts on their sides under the plywood like a pallet.



.

Click to expand...

Your thread gave me some good ideas, thanks! My cabinets are all still sitting on the ground, but I'll be building bases for them in the near future.

I dunno how you get by with casters though. In my experience - they don't roll or maneuver well at all once there is any kind of weight on them - at least inexpensive ones. A typical 5000lb pallet jacks is about 100 times easier to move around in tight spaces.

i can't load my cabinets down hard enough.. they're only holding tools instead of boxes of parts/fasteners. so there is a lot of air inside and they move nicely.
a pallet jack sounds like a great idea for the size and weight of your things.

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Today, after 2 months of praying, Craigslist gods finally answered my pleas for some "portable" storage

17 file cabinets, mostly 4 drawers, with a few 5 drawers in the mix - $85 for all 17. The guy was nice enough to help me load, and we got to chat for a bit, so he also offered me a job Gonna send him my resume, will see how it works out. I've been fully employed for the last 10 years, but might take an offer for more $$$ or an opportunity to travel, been stuck in CT for the last 10 years and not really liking it, although current job is ok.

Anyways, here are the cabinets: 8 on the trailer:


9 in the back of the van, nice and tight:


All are pretty heavy duty, so I hope to get rid of hundreds of boxes and just put everything in those cabinets.

A few were older ones and weigh a friggin ton. Should work good for metal stock and heavy parts.

Verticals are designed to be transported loaded, so with help of appliance dolly this will hopefully make my next move easier. I don't mind moving boxes, but can do without packing/unpacking.

Also picked up 15 drawer plans holder cabinet yesterday - $100 bucks - 270sq ft of storage



That's a stack of 13 drawers, 2 that slid off and almost hit me on the head are not in the picture ...made a note to self to start wearing a hard hat during loading/unloading:


Wanted to set it on a pallet, but at 54" wide/42" deep there weren't any pallets big enough, will have to fab something out, probably out of 4'x4's - need to give it a bit of thought - all of the weight is on the sides, and it needs to be well supported if picked up by 27" pallet jack (there is going to be 14" overhang on each side). Should be good sockets, screwdrivers, levels, drywall squares, etc. It's not super heavy duty, so I'll have to watch how I'm loading it.

Hopefully this will take care of my portable storage needs. I'll probably do a move rehersal in a couple months, once all the cabinets are loaded, so I'm not caught like a deer in the headlights during my next real move. If I can get contents of the unit in and out in a day, I'll be satisfied

i hope those file cabinets really work-out for you!
don;t procrastinate on getting that resume.
do that very first (today), so he sees you;re serious on that discussion!
good luck!

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