Spring cleaning.....should've been fall cleaning

[ssignshop]

I know any place of work will tend to get a bit messy over time but our shop has been pretty bad for a while now and the root of the problem is the boss who is admitedly a pac-rat. I work in the office and I do have a say about what gets in it (or rather what stays out) but when I walk out into the shop to try to decal a vehicle or whatever I immediatly get overwhelmed with all of the random JUNK. I've tried to take it upon myself to start to clean it but when I get rid of anything no matter how useless my boss finds out and of course is upset. Seriously its like dealing with a horder.
I know our shop would run so much smoother if we could de-clutter it but how do you when the boss is the cause of the situation? Anyone?

 

[gabagoo]

I agree. I don't pack rat stuff, but offcuts just seem to build up and you know one day you will use it.
Every few months I take a mental fit and just start tossing crap out into the bin. Bad enough you get rid of it, but you have to pay to throw it out too!!

Today I went in to set up my golf practise net in the back shop and I know where the net was but couldn't find it. What I did find were 2 boxes on top of the net which contained those plastic stands you get on the ends of large vinyl rolls. There must have been 50 or more!!!. Since I was on the mezanine I made a game of it throwing them like frisbees into the garbage on the mainfloor. Needless to say I had to pick up a good 30 or more that I missed!! Found the net and set it up to practice hittin balls

You can see the garbage pail overflowing with those plastic end caps

 

[weaselboogie]

explain to the boss how this is severely interfering with the workflow of the entire shop. Several options.... invest in storage solutions, shelving, cupboards that gets the just up and away. Clean your area and start moving everything slowly to your bosses area where HE has to deal with his own junk. Once he starts tripping over the very junk you've tried throwing out, he may get finally get sick of it. Final solution would be to do some research on either a POD or a rental storage place where all of the stuff that he 'needs' and that you know he doesn't will be out of the way.

I deal with a business man who is an admitted packrat. He has the money to buy random crap that he doesn't think he'll ever use, but also has the money to buy buildings just for the sake of storage.

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

I can top that. I was once a designer at a company that made clear acrylic pulpits every tv preacher stands behind ( we did 'em all ). When I came to work there, I immediately noticed all the offices piled floor to ceiling with stuff. I took it upon myself to declutter my office, throwing out everything from 8 year old calendars to years old catalogs. Pretty soon, the janitor and shop foreman came in, wheeling my trash can back to me. I was told to restore everything as near as possible to where I had picked it up. Turns out the owner had an OCD and couldn't tolerate any kind of change, and NEVER threw anything away. In fact, his office was a maze of walkways through piles of post office baskets he kept all his junk mail in!. He also never got rid of any cars he ever owned and had two warehouses full of them, including 13 Merecdes that were all silver. He filled our shop warehouse with his auction treasures too. I'll never forget the day he had the forklift driver unload a pallet of old IBM Selectric typewriters he had just bought. That place was a veritable Smithsonian in its own right. The owner brought me in a newspaper one day from the year I was born - 1953. I was told his living room was piled high with grocery bags of old newspapers. The guy was a certifiable nutcase.

 

[ssignshop]

OMG. I would go crazy just having to look at it. Yuh know no matter how bad you have it someone always has it worse.... thanks for putting some perspective on the situation. Let me guess you up and quit right there on the spot. Ha Ha Ha. I know you probably needed the job but that would've been my first instinct. Thanks for sharing.

 

[btropical.com]

we throw everything in junk cars for weight , nice to go to auctions of pak rats find cool stuff from ecentric people in this throw away world . The good old stuff was not made in china

 

[ssignshop]

Let me guess you're a pak rat, Right? I can appreciate the well made old stuff but thats not what I'm talking about. My boss has a tendency to store stuff for people. Along with keeping things of his own that he thinks he'll use some day. Like as the one guy early said the plastic ends to vinyl rolls.....Well, he would like to keep those but I pitch 'em. Thankfully he seems to forget or not care enough to ask me about 'em again.

 

[Gino]

I guess it all depends on whose money is being thrown out.

If I paid for something, I tend to know the value of it and behind it. Our employees and even my wife have no problem throwing MY stuff out and they do it all the time. Then they bitch at me for going through the trash. BUT, let me throw out stuff of theirs that they bring in and junk the place up........ and see who starts hollering then..................

 

[ssignshop]

I'm not talking about pitching stuff out just to free up space. I'm talking about some order to the mess and basic cleaning skills. Don't get me wrong I appreciate my job and I do a wide variety of things around here. One unspoken requirement of us fellow employees is to clean up after the boss on a daily bases and go track down your knife etc...when he's taken them. I have been dealing with it for ten years now and just thought maybe someone out there might have a trick of the trade to share.

 

[TheSnowman]

I was watchin Hoarders on A&E last night. That's a mental disorder I've decided. Maybe your boss just needs a wake up call. That's a horrible thing. We bought our office from a bank repo, and there was just like 50 years of JUNK up in the upstairs floor. Two dumpsters, and three COMPACTED garbage trucks later, we had it empty. It's not good.

 

[StopSignGraphics]

What the heck is with the sign industry and horders? My old boss was pack rat too. Half of the shop that I worked at was used to store his crap.

It sucked when you didn't have enough room to do your job because a box of 8 tracks and his leisure suits from the 70's was in the way.

Not to mention that they always kept their old equipment. They had at least 7 printers from different manufacturers that no longer ran! We used to call it the museum of "Printology".

If you started thinking about it in terms of how much it cost to house all of his old crap versus how much space we actually needed to run the shop you would realize how much money was being wasted in rent. It was enough to make you sick!

 

[Patrick46]

Hmmmmmmmm....I guess I need to speak up here.

I run my own shop...and it's absolutely full of hot-rod & chopper projects. (I should post a pic).
Now, I'm not the guy that just collects junk either (denial!! hahaha)...the big mess is from my current project that I work on most evenings & weekends. Once this badboy is done and outta the shop, then I'm going to finish my lastest bike build. When that's done, I'm going to take a break from building stuff...and enjoy myself with these things!...(before I start another project.) b'sides...the bike builds don't take over the shop like the truck project does. (I'm thinking I may build a few teardrop trailers next year.)

Actually, I'm hoping that my 'large-scale hot-rod' project sells this spring. I'll use that money toward buying my own building...finally!

 

[ssignshop]

Best of luck on the new building and fresh start. We may be moving too to a smaller building. I hope though with half the stuff and if not then I hope it all gets a good once over to determine its worthyness. "To keep or not to keep....that is the question." ha ha ha ha