How To Organize Any Space

It’s about time time. After 7 years of accumulating tools, projects, and general clutter from making stuff, my workshop had become an unorganized mess. I could no longer easily access the things I needed or find motivation in the chaotic environment. But I had a plan to rethink the entire 1,100 square foot space.

My top priorities were creating a friction-free area to immediately start building ideas, while also optimizing for well-lit video presentations. I began by ruthlessly purging anything I hadn’t used in over a year – finally recycling metal scraps, donating unused tools, and tossing sentimental project remnants. This opened up vital space.

Next, I divided the shop into distinct zones: a wood workshop, storage area, and dust-free “clean room” for electronics and 3D printers. For each area, I listed priorities, physical constraints like walls and utilities, which objects belonged there, and how I needed to interact with the objects. Mapping this out, whether digitally or on paper, provides a flexible plan to reference.

Actually, this entire process of reorganizing my shop again led me down the path of distilling my thoughts into a repeatable worksheet that can help anyone to organize any space, whether it’s a workshop, a closet, or even a drawer. You can download the free worksheet here and use it to organize your own spaces.

With my woodshop area defined, I rearranged large tool stations like saws and workbenches based on workflow. Smaller tools found new homes through trial-and-error placement. Empty walls became welcome breaths of decompressed space. Organizational accessories helped declutter remaining items.

While not fully complete, the revised layout already inspires me with renewed making momentum. I’m excited to continue iterating and improvising storage solutions and the new clean room build. I have A LOT more space to organize—that clean room is next on the list—but I’m now confident that this system will help me keep everything in order as I make my way through the shop.