Workshop Move Out to the Garage – So much more space!

How many times can I work on this poor room!? When we took the barn down this summer one of the things that helped me cope with the loss was the idea that we would be replacing it with something better. Something I have always dreamed about and wanted: A REAL WORKSHOP… Not just trying to make it work in a bedroom in our house anymore lol. At the same time I had managed to squeeze myself an office into said workshop / bedroom and frankly, I really haven’t been happy with it. Besides that I also wasn’t building anything or working on anything as I had no place to do so.

Would a separate heated shop building have solved all of our problems?

For sure! Don’t we all want one of those?!

But not only do I pride myself in being quite frugal I also pride myself in being quite sensible. We have a three car garage, a three stall shed and two out buildings.

In my opinion, if that isn’t enough space, than we just weren’t trying hard enough!

Out in the garage you guys know that I’ve been busy. I got the work bench and cabinets repainted and moved after getting rid of our old bar.

I also installed some pretty awesome wood storage racks that I’m still totally thrilled with. In the meantime we also made a lot of room out in the garage by organizing our horse shed for our outdoor tools and stuff.

So now I’m standing here staring at these empty cabinets and the work bench thinking, “That’s an awful lot of storage space…” While I’m eyeing my over packed workshop in the house wondering just how much stuff I could move out here…

Let’s be honest, after any major renovation a lot of us end up with a lot of tools we don’t use very often.

I can’t even remember the last time I used our PEX tool… In fact it wasn’t even me that used it but a friend that borrowed it for a couple of days… I’ve used something out of our plumbing bin exactly ONCE that I can remember in the last two years.

Nothing in that bin needs to be kept warm in the winter lol.

Do I still want it accessible in the event that we may need it? Of course! But it doesn’t need to be in the house it just needs a safe spot to be stored.

In fact, there’s EIGHT big bins all together that can absolutely move out: That’s our sheet rock, craft supplies, electrical, plumbing, hardware and paint bins.

We also have two big bins in our workshop that are full of camping supplies not to mention our portable grill!

The ONLY thing that really needs to be inside in the winter are batteries and paints and stains.

Otherwise, it’s about convenience.

What do we WANT to have on hand all of the time?

At first, I thought to just keep all of our power tools in the house but that does seem kind of silly… I’ve used our angle grinder exactly ONCE in the last four years…

When we were considering putting up a workshop / shop building (thus completely emptying this room) I had planned on putting my desk in the closet and then maybe having a fold out sofa in here for extra sleeping.

(I’m not gonna lie – not everyone is going to appreciate sleeping by the dog door but a den office with extra sleeping in a pinch would be nice to have.)

I’m starting to think I might actually kind of achieve that!

What if this move out actually made it possible for me to eliminate the workshop from this room and, instead, get it all in the closet?

ITS A REALLY BIG CLOSET!

So after the move out of all the big bins now I’m realizing I can bin lots of small stuff out of the closet and store it in the garage as well…

Ugh I am so annoyed with myself with this whole thing honestly. How many times can I work on this room and change it up yet again!?

First it was an after thought guest bedroom, then I made it my workshop, then we moved the back door here so it became our doggie door / back entry / workshop, then I moved my desk and computer in here and changed everything around to make it make sense as an office too.

That included somehow keeping everything jammed in here by adding an extra shelf!

Now here I am messing around yet again with this move out!

So all that “wainscoting” I put up all those years ago that’s holding our drills, hammers and hand tools really doesn’t need to be there anymore either.

In fact all of the tools will fit easily in the closet now and that, officially, will remove the workshop from the room… WOW.

So I’m thinking that I’m going to take all that wood down…

If I do I’ll definitely have some sheetrock to fix etc. but this space would go back to looking far more like a “normal” room again. (No plans on changing the color scheme… that would be a nightmare anyway so its a good thing I still dig it!)

I might even install real closet doors or, at least, curtains.

I’m going to move out the big shelf I bought last year as we can use it in our garage.

I will keep the narrow table in here I think as its little and not hurting anything.

I’m also going to be moving out one of my big black tables as we can also use it in the garage.

After all of that there will definitely be room for some seating or even a small futon in here so I’m really excited about that.

I like my “rustic” chandeliers but the lower one will need to go which (fortunately) is easy as all I need to do is unplug it and take it down. I’m going to leave the lighting at that for the time being but I may decide to do something entirely different later…

Getting pretty excited guys, this room feels better already!