Lately getting into the garage to access the chest freezer at the back has required me to physically climb over the nearside rear wing of the Invacar because of how cluttered the place was.
After three or four hours I managed to get to this stage.
Which doesn't look like much, but at least means I can actually get in now!
Doesn't do anything to address this disaster area though.
Basically the problem I have in here (aside from too much utter junk) is a chronic lack of storage or any space to go through some of the boxed things to figure out what's worth keeping and what is honestly just useless detritus which is fit only for the bin.
While in there yesterday evening though I did finally make a point of having a look around and coming up with a proper plan of attack.
Along both sides of the garage I will install a more or less full length shelf slightly above standing head height. Those will hold a lot of the consumables and light weight items that are used on a more or less daily basis in a way that's relatively easily accessible but doesn't impinge on the actual working area. The intention there is to leave the floor either side of the car completely free to allow me to shift it to the left or right a little to suit whatever I'm doing. As it stands even on the clear side there isn't enough room for me to sit comfortably to access anything, much less see what I'm doing. I've got a couple of old coat racks from some old wardrobes which will go on the wall to the offside of the Invacar which any spray bottles with triggers can be hooked onto. There's no need for them to take up shelf space when they can hang on the wall.
At the far end things will be completely reconfigured.
The far wall will be pretty much entirely given over to full width, full height shelving. Right up to the ceiling as there is going to be quite a bit of stuff in here that I only use now and then, so I don't mind having to grab the little stepladder now and then.
The Sun diagnostic machine will be positioned pretty much directly in front of where the Invacar is currently parked (the Crypton one has been sold and will be collected by its new owner shortly hopefully), between it and the wall (to the offside) I will hopefully then have room for a small workbench. Nothing huge, but at least somewhere I can finally fit a vice as not having access to one is really annoying. I've lost count over the last few years of how many times I've sliced, hammered, wire-wheeled, frozen, set fire to or sanded my fingers because I was holding onto the thing I was working on rather than having it firmly held in a vice.
Behind that I'm hoping to then have at least two ranks of free standing shelving running right to the wall on the right, just leaving room to the left for a comfortable access passage.
This should give me masses more storage than I've ever had access to before which should then hopefully be sufficient to allow me to get rid of all the piles of things on the ground and the disintegrating cardboard boxes. Once that's done hopefully it will give me enough room to actually go through a lot of the stuff that was brought down from Aberdeenshire in a hurry when I had to clear out my folk's house at short notice and decide what's to be kept, what's to be donated to the charity shops and what is honestly fit for nowhere other than the recycling centre.
All previous attempts to tidy this place up have just consisted of picking up the piles of stuff from one place, moving them somewhere else then putting them down again without actually achieving anything, so having an actual plan in mind to deal with it feels like progress.
I've a few things that I'd like to get stuck into over the next few years, but step one before I can even think about any of these has to be "get my stuff sorted out!" if things have any hope whatsoever of getting off the ground.
Not least a few of the jobs coming up on the Jag...They're going to be far more pleasant with access to a reasonable work area than doing it sitting cross legged on the driveway while being eaten alive by the ants which inevitably get everywhere here in the summer.
