Be it your hobby or profession, crafting requires a lot of dedication. When you are crafting, a clean and mess-free workstation is a must. A messy workshop not only hampers your productivity, but it also can also be extremely hazardous.
According to DIY experts, a messy workshop can be even more dangerous. That fact’s especially true for woodworking. If you don’t clean your workshop regularly, the tiny wood scraps can cause multiple respiratory problems. So it’s essential to keep your workplace tidy. This article lists some tips and tricks that can help you keep your workshop clean.
Six Tips to Keep a Clean Workshop
Whether you work in a shed, carport, or garage, keep a clean space!
1 – Start with a proper design
No matter how hard you try, if you design your workshop without proper planning, you will have to struggle to keep it neat. For instance, if you don’t select the perfect layout, you may not be able to fit in all your machinery or necessities. Even if you manage to fit them in, you may have enough space to walk or work freely. Not only will it hamper your work, but it will also make it very tough to clean.
When you are designing your workshop, determine how many machines, benches, and tables you need to fit in. Estimate how much space they might need. But that’s not enough. Keep enough space for easy movement. Another thing to keep in mind is that your tools and machines may increase with time. Keep some space spare so that you can store them there.
2 – Remove immediately
Are you one of those who postpone cleaning scraps until the last moment? This might be the reason your workshop is not as immaculate as it should be. Not only does it make your counter very messy, but it is also extremely hazardous as well. If you or anyone else smokes in the workshop, these wood scraps can cause a massive issue.
You should clean all the wood scraps as soon as you are done working. Be careful while working with wood scraps. Something sharp or hazardous may hide in the scraps like nails or small tools. After you collect all the scraps, don’t pile them in the workshop. The best way to get rid of them is to recycle them.
3 – Invest In A Good Quality Vacuum Cleaner
A vacuum cleaner is the best cleaning tool anyone can own. It makes cleaning super quick and easy. Especially if you are a woodworker or own a workshop, a good quality vacuum is a must for you. When you use a saw, sawdust, small wood scraps, and debris fly everywhere. There is no better way of cleaning fine dust than vacuuming.
Make sure to have a regular vacuum cleaning routine. This way, your workshop will always be free of wood dust. Wood dust can be very hazardous for you if you don’t clean it regularly. Breathing wood dust can cause many respiratory diseases. So make sure to get a good quality vacuum. If not the best, try to get one that’s smarter than average.
4 – Declutter Occasionally
As you keep working on new projects, you may need to get different tools. Some may be very useful while others would be no good for you. Like this, your workshop will get overloaded with tools, scraps, and so on. If you find it hard to let go of the things you don’t need, you can never optimize your space.
Duplicate or old tools and wood board scraps only make your workshop more clogged. They make it harder for you to reach the things you actually need. They also take up a lot of space which you could use to store something you actually need. What you need to do is to declutter your workshop every now and then, and get rid of things you don’t need.
If you are concerned about wasting them, hand them over to someone who might need them.
5 – Get A Metal Broom
This has to be the cleverest hack in cleaning. It’s very easy to do, but the results are life-changing. As mentioned before, among your wood scraps, there might be many sharp or hazardous objects like nails, or you could even find some of your tools lying beneath them too. This hack helps you to get those nails out without having to search the whole thing with hands and getting hurt.
You can find metal brooms in your local woodcraft store. Even if you don’t find one, you can make one at home. A metal broom is basically a medium-sized magnet attached to a stick. You can simply get a medium-sized magnet and attach it to a stick, and it will work just as fine.
All you need to do is to take the magnet and run it over the wood scraps or anywhere you feel some nails or tools could be hiding. The magnet will attract the metal, and the metal will stick to it. Then you can simply collect it from the magnet.
You can even use this broom to attract the nails from somewhere they might have gotten stuck where your hand can’t reach.
6 – Cord Management
One thing everyone will agree to is that woodworking workshops have no lack of electrical wires. Almost every machine you use is operated by electricity. Be it your saw, drill, or bench grinder, it has wires. Also, you need to take care of the wires of your computer and fans.
If all these cables and wires are not taken care of, they would surely get tangled and will create a great mess. This will make it difficult for you to manage the machines because you’ll need to struggle a lot to get rid of the tangles and knots that might have formed.
Moreover, if your wires are lying on the ground, they can cause tripping, which may lead to serious injuries. So you need to invest in some cord managers. These managers will keep all your cords and wires tidy, and most importantly, they would be up from the floor, so the floor is very neat and comfortable to work on.
The Bottom Line on Keeping a Clean Workshop
Once you practice keeping your workplace all neat and tidy, you’ll surely notice the differences in your productivity. Follow all the tips and tricks mentioned above to make your workshop neat and safe. Happy crafting!
She has a B.S.Ed. in Secondary Education/English and a Spanish Minor. In addition, she holds a Certificates in Natural Health and Herbology from accredited programs. She pursued these natural wellness certifications due to her love for herb gardening.
Despite freelancing to make a living, her love is "all things home."
Deborah grew up in a family that grew a large vegetable garden and a fruit orchard, helping her parents pull weeds and can home-grown foods as part of her childhood. In fact, she had no idea that she could purchase veggies and fruits in pre-packed steel cans until she went to college and made a food run.
Today, she lives in Bertie County, North Carolina, an agricultural rural area with more chickens than people. She lives with her husband and two rescue pets a sweet toy fox terrier and a cat who showed up one day and moved into the house. Together, they enjoy DIY projects, furniture refinishing, gardening, and canning.
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