posted
I don't know about the rest of you , BUT..I am soooo overwhelmed everytime I come into my shop and especially my office, because working alone means , running off from job to job and NOT getting things put back in their PLACE!
Right now , I don't know where to begin!! That there "clean sweep show" could do me wonders I'm sure...lol I do know where everything is (most of the time!)It's really my office that concerns me.I can't seem to throw anything away...especially sign magazines.I LOVE ALL MY ART & SIGN related book collection.Do you all file everything under cover or what? Special cabinets, shelving??? My office measures 10 X 16 AND MY SHOP IS 20 x 24, with my office built on the end with a shed roof.
Please send me some pics of your "neat offices"...Thanks in advance!!!!
posted
"Getting things done" by David Allen is a book which would benefit you tremendously- I can't praise it highly enough.
You can pick up 2nd hand copies via Amazon dot com readily enough.
Move out of sight, all nonessential material in the office. Nonessential means you don't need to be able to reach it while you stand there.
I have a book case for essential reference books, and another one elsewhere for 'favourites' & another elsewhere for 'periodicals & catalogues' & three filing cabinets for stuff that needs to be kept, but doesn't need to be constantly in sight.
(and the office is still a congested mess, but that's some of the theory, which needs to be reapplied from time to time!)
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
I know how you feel, Debb. I spent 4 hours yesterday morning cleaning the front lobby and my office (and I'm still not finished). Two weeks ago I spent an entire day cleaning out my home office (and still not finished).
I've still got the truck bay area, the textile printing area and the "flat" printing area to clean. Then there is the wood shop in the other building.
Lets see.... still gotta replace the sign. Letter the pickup. Window graphics for the shop windows. Cut down a tree by the fence. Post new "policy" sign after I figure out what I want to say. Print new sweatshirts and jackets for the shop.......
posted
The key is simply having a place for everything. Boxes stacked against the wall is NOT the same thing.
One part of my office is new. I have folding work tables and my desk but not enough storage solutions yet. Whenever I bring something in there, I find I want it out again so I don't have to keep 'looking'at it. If it looks out of place, it is. If small things were neatly tucked into some rolling portable drawer system you could roll under a table, that would look streamline, that type of thing.
Right now my poor laundry room is suffering. Floor to ceiling stacked hardwood flooring, all the boxed crap from my office, until I figure it out and buy storage that works and looks good. I refuse to bring the stacked box look in this time around. So I'm intentionally suffering until I bring it in properly!
One key thing I love is having a place to quickly put all your desktop paper work that you're currently working on so it isn't mixed up with last week's projects. This enables me to scoop off my desk in a moment's notice when I'm just sick of looking at it and can still find it all.
Ikea sells some cool under the desk drawers on wheels. Since my desks are Ikea too (meaning, no built in drawers), these things are cool and mandatory.
I'm also utilizing closets in different rooms to house some of my supplies. I'm staring at a wall that could really use a nice floor to ceiling pantry doored look to hide a whole lotta crapI have to hang onto.
Curious where most of you store old paperwork you must hang onto for 7 years? That's a big issue storage wise for me.
posted
it's 6 am & I've committed to myself to do a day of organization & internal shop refinement projects today, so I had to get up since my mind awoke to begin wrestling with the project internally. In a way, it's a luxury to have a day, given to myself, to do these things... but it's still a chore, & I'm on here with my morning coffee, to avoid the chore aspect of it for a while longer.
I expanded my 2000 sq. ft. to 3500 sq. ft. this year, and have spent many many months in the transition. Most of the new area is quite organized, but the process of spreading out is challenging, because even though there is more space, the best use of it has involved reassigning the use of space in some existing areas & moving a multitude of well organized stuff.
Today's job is restocking 200 sq. ft. of 18" deep shelf space with my various tools and supplies which have been mounded up in piles all week since I moved the shelves to the new tool room last weekend.
Maintaining organization is easy for me, because I am compulsive about it, and it just happens. Leaving thing disorganized would be more of a chore for me. I guess there are worse sickness's one could have, but it is a liability at times. To create new spaces is a bigger challenge for me, because I am obsessive about proper planning with a need to feel confident I have arrived at the perfect plan to serve me for years, and there will be no shortcuts in implementing that plan.
I will be a slave to my OCD today... but when I'm done I'll have a new, well organized tool room. I'm looking forward to it... but I think I'll get back to avoiding it for awhile now
posted
Shelving, file cabinets, dressers, then the tubs...I start there! I think having the places to put things is essential to start with, but sometimes not always affordable, so I use what I have and then have to get smaller containers to fit among and inside the other spaces. My table for the plotter and printer consists of a long door with 3 file cabinets holding it and spaces in between for baskets that have wheels. Then there's a computer desk to the right with great shelving built in. Now is the time to start filing and looking for those small plastic or wicker baskets at the dollar store and get busy! But, put on the music when you're working, I say!
-------------------- Deb Fowler
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible - Walt Disney (1901-1966) Posts: 5373 | From: Loves Park, Illinois | Registered: Aug 1999
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A couple of times a year, weather permitting, I set aside a weekend and literally empty the shop. Everything goes out. Once that's done, Gump and I do a thorough cleaning of the building itself...sweep, vacuum, dust, clear out the cobwebs in the corners and do some minor repairs if needed. It never ceases to amaze me how big this shop really is when everything is out.
After the cleaning, whatever is needed goes back in an orderly fashion. Whatever doesn't go back in either gets donated somewhere or thrown in the trash. Less clutter later...easier to keep up with.
just a method... Rapid
-------------------- Ray Rheaume Rapidfire Design 543 Brushwood Road North Haverhill, NH 03774 rapidfiredesign@hotmail.com 603-787-6803
I like my paint shaken, not stirred. Posts: 5648 | From: North Haverhill, New Hampshire | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Like Doug, when we made room for the router, well, everything that had to be displaced, still needs time allotted to reallocate it to a new 'home'. You get to do areobics as you walk into the shop, dodging this and that!
We're also on the throes of putting up a farm shed- (with poles) 60 ft x 30 ft, & 18 ft high- started yesterday. It's so we can store hay better without it getting rained on (if it ever rains), and get the truck & tractor under cover to protect them from this rain (when it finally comes)!
That shed won't help the workshop space though...unfortunately.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
Ah right, you got a big mess. Just pick a corner and start at it. You get to he corner, pick up something that out of line and put it in it's proper place, or at least very near it. Now don't drift off, stay on course. Go in a circle, along the wall, pick up and put away. Half way down the line, you may be able to sweep under desks, benches, etc. and maybe put some stuff under there as well. Keep it up, don't do anything else until you are done. After you are done. Go back and make a few changes. And throw stuff out!! Lots of clutter comes from little pieces of papers, with chicken scratch all over them. Also for storage, if you have the wall space, go high with the storage shelves. Stuff you hardly ever use will go on the highest shelf.
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3812 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
First off , I need to turn the phone OFF...lock the door and CRANK the wildest MUSIC I can find to keep me pumped...but some how I always STILL get distracted !!!
When I first posted this, I couldn't wait to hear all of your great ideas...just to get me going "full force" for the weekend.....well...that all changed, because my husband's small "four-wheeler trailer" had first priority ! Yes, yes...four wheeling is much MORE important...so, of course I put it OFF again!!It's almost like going to the dentist, you just hate it!!!
Thanks everyone for all your input !!Hopefully NO four wheelers in my garage this coming weekend...lol..." Get er'done!
posted
Debb, I just sent you an email you might want to check out.
-------------------- Kimberly Zanetti Purcell www.amethystProductivity.com Folsom, CA email: Kimberly@AmethystProductivity.com
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” AA Milne Posts: 3722 | From: Folsom, CA | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
You could find some nice bookshelves you like that'll work in your space. If you like them, you'll want to use them.
When my space gets out of hand, I divide it into zones in my mind. It could be splitting the shop into 4 corners or 6 sectors or whatever, but they are zones in my mind. I start on 1 zone & force myself to finish it before I can do anything else. Like after I get 1 zone done, I can get the 4 wheeler out to go for the mail, but not beforehand.
If you only get 1 zone done the first day, that's fine. It'll be nice & organized & the rest of the shop will look even worse compared to it, so that will make you want to keep going on the zones.
I have 2 carpenter toolboxes that are my install boxes. Nothing lives in them. Before every install I pack them with what I need. When I get back, they have to be on my table (in my way) until everything is taken out of them & put back where it belongs. They are not allowed to be put on their shelf with anything in them. Constantly being in my way makes me unpack them.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
On the paperwork filing issue. We have filing boxes running from a-z, plus some individual ones for large customers. As each job sheet is processed through invoicing it is placed into its corresponding alphabetical box. They are all kept in alphabetical order. The boxes are marked with the year they relate to.
We have two large bookshelves in a storage room which hold four years worth of boxes so that we can reference back to them easily.
At the end of this year the 2008 set of boxes will move out of the main reception area into the bookshelves. The oldest set on the shelves will move into a cupboard that has 2 years worth in it.
From the cupboard they go up into attic space.
We have easy access to 5 years worth of job sheets. If a customer calls to order a repeat of a job done 5 years ago we can look though the sheets to find all of the info. It works really well. (saves on hard drive space on the pc too)
-------------------- Anne McDonald 17 Karnak Crescent Russley Christchurch 8042 New Zealand
"I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure" Posts: 877 | From: Christchurch | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
I hear your blues girl! My desk looks like a tornado went through! That is what this coming Thanksgiving Saturday is for. No its not that far away in Canada- just the weekend after this one. I just can't see getting to it before then. BUT>>>>>>>> Once organized it seems to stay that way for a bit. My next clean up will be New Years, after Christmas rush. Put it on your calendar to do it on a regular basis. Not just the weekly, but a thorough. Just once every couple months. It's amazing how helpful it is.
But it really doesn't matter when you do it when clients or other sign people drop in the place is always upside down anyway!
-------------------- Deri Russell Wildwood Signs Hanover, Ontario
You're just jealous 'cause the little voices only talk to me. Posts: 1904 | From: Hanover, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Dec 1998
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posted
Kissy's "zone defense" works for me too. I tackled the offensive disarray in my tool room on Sunday, as planned & I can tell you what works for me.
First I'll mention that getting up at 6am & sneaking to Letterville just to avoid the mental intrusion of the task at hand worked for a few hours... but then by the time I normally would leave for work... I decided I felt tired, and what are Sunday's for, if not to be free to sleep in...
so I went back to bed at 9 am, but I got up with more resolve at noon, had a starbucks, & headed into the fray.
My method was to conquer the zone in the crosshairs, but to spare no expense of time to do everything that needed to be done, to make the job correct, for the foreseeable future. My project ended up including plumbing (air), electrical, carpentry, lighting, flooring... and tons of physical labor moving 0ver 100 boxes or crates... and massive organizational tasks sorting out various fasteners that have accumulated.
I finished at 7:30 am, after a marathon of 19 crazed hours on my feet, except a lunch, and a few downs of the Bears game. It was a chore of epic proportions, but I now have an awesome tool room in my new shop & and empty room in my old shop, which is situated to become a lamination & finishing room, much more ideally located for air conditioning & an efficient workflow with other production departments.
posted
I hang all non-essential paperwork in hanging file folder boxes that stack.
They are labeled on the end and really don't take much effort to get out what I need. Most often used categories are stacked on top (monthly invoices & receipts etc.) I even put books in there.
I have a hand-me down credenza that I just swivel my chair around to access files. A-Z organized by repeat clients, and then divided into groups for single shot clients and then a dead file.
For reference books I use a lot, I just used some milk crates and a chunk of oak plank to make a little shelf in the open credenza space.
Instead of filing every day, ideally, I would do it every month, (but that doesn't happen), again on my credenza is a file box that i just plop the completed folders into...to be filed away later!
For everyday or ongoing jobs, I keep a rolling cart next to my desk. When I add a job, it gets a folder and hung.
To keep track of the folders and jobs, I use magnets with the job name, date it came in and organize them according to priority and approvals or check in's needed and to be invoiced.
When a job "times out" ( over 2 months on my desk without any responses back from the client) it gets moved to the magnet board for a monthly check up. It is kind of "in limbo" until I hear back from a client. After 6 months, the magnet gets removed and the client file gets listed in a spreadsheet and the file folder goes to the dead zone.
My invoices and receipts are in a file cabinet under my desk to my right that I can close the drawer to tidy the space. Keeps everything handy for doing a little bookwork here and then.
This is just the home office...If I get a chance, I'll document the shop, but right now my sign shop looks more like an auto shop...repairs to trucks going on now.
Sorry about the non-rotated pics...in PB they are correct but not here...
-------------------- Nikki Goral Image Advantage Signs 4050 Champeau Road New Franken, WI 54229 920-465-4500 "Finish every day and be done with it. Tomorrow is a new day."-Ralph Waldo Emerson Posts: 928 | From: New Franken, WI (East Green Bay) | Registered: Jun 2007
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posted
For the sign magazines, I tear out the pages or articles I find interesting and put them into clear page protectors. Then I organize them by topic; wraps, hand-lettered, trucks, semis, boats, gilding, historical etc. These I keep at the shop to show clients and let them pick from what they like or don't like to help the design process along.
I've got over 15 years of magazines (at least 5 subscriptions a month) filed this way. Most of the magazines are in our bathrooms. So while there is time being spent in there, some multitasking is being done! The balance of the read is recycled and I can find almost every piece of info quickly when I want to.
I put the ripped out pages in a hanging file box at home and when we take little trips to pick up stuff or go to shows, I put them into protective sheets on the drive.
-------------------- Nikki Goral Image Advantage Signs 4050 Champeau Road New Franken, WI 54229 920-465-4500 "Finish every day and be done with it. Tomorrow is a new day."-Ralph Waldo Emerson Posts: 928 | From: New Franken, WI (East Green Bay) | Registered: Jun 2007
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posted
thanks to Nikki for going first with the pics, maybe I won't be teased as badly for being TOO organized.. but here are a few pics of my recent marathon cleanup.
The old tool room is almost ready to repaint & add air conditioning & then move in my Arctic 63" laminator, my 60" "big bench" sheet trimmer, and a 4x10 production table w/ cutting mat. In addition, this area will evolve over time as the best use of this space becomes more clear. I used some shelves from my 3rd floor storage area as well as some folding tables to serve as a staging area while other shelves were dismantles & moved for the relocation of the tool room. This first photo shows that after 16 hours I burned out with only my pegboard w/ shelf left to be relocated. The rest of the items still on the table at right are for a new welding department down on the first floor where a concrete floor exists instead of this wood floor.
I just stumbled on this 4 year old photo of the old tool room when it was the new tool room, being moved up to a newly renovated space, to make room on the first floor for my large format printer & cutter. This pic shows shelves on the right, & the panel saw in front of them before it was in place on the left. Substrates had been stored behind where this photo was taken, but the new expansion allowed the moving of the panel saw & substrate storage down to the new first floor by the router & welding area:
The new tool room is on the second floor of the new warehouse unit next door to my current home of 12 years. In my current shop I built with 7' ceilings on the first & second floors, allowing a full 750 sq. ft. 3rd floor (minus stairway).
The new expansion included a well built office & loft with a finish floor height of 10' I extended the 2nd floor loft to the complete 750 sq. ft., but didn't have the remaining head clearance for a full 3rd floor. Instead, I used pallet racks to at least put in a 9' x 25' mezzanine, & thanks to the notched pallet rack beams & recessed 2x12 floor planks, I only lost 5" in floor framing, so by situating this mezzanine at the back wall where the building's roofline ridge affords the most clearance, I have around 7' head clearance in the 3rd floor mezzanine, as well as the new tool room built beneath it. The remainder of the new second floor is my largest open space now, at 20' x 25' with 14' ceilings. My just completed 4' x 14' smaltz & gold sign is shown in the foreground, & the new tool room is in the background:
...and last but not least, the ultra organized new tool room, minus the soon to be installed (and expanded) peg board w/ shelves on the right:
I probably wouldn't have thought to use the anti-fatigue mats shown here, except that the 16 hour process of getting this room completed had my feet beginning to complain... which reminded me of those old garage sale mats up in storage on the third floor... which reminds me... I gotta whip that disaster into shape now
posted
Awesome pics Doug and Nikki!!! Its very nice to read about and see how others deal with their space and organizational skills in their sign shops!! You have all been very helpful with your ideas and thanks for taking time out for "me".I will post some before and after pics for "yas all" Thanks again!!!
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