Lessons Learned in Basement Workshop Set-Ups

You know we love talking about basements on this blog!  That’s probably because we spend a disproportionate amount of time in our basements, as that is each where we have our workshop set up and do most of our DIY projects.  Sage set hers up first, and Naomi followed after seeing how awesome Sage’s was and getting jealous.

These are clearly NOT meant to be pretty spaces, just organized, flexible, and functional.  And they are.

Nonetheless, now that we’ve each lived with our set-ups for a while and worked in them on a lot of projects, we’ve noticed some things that annoy us.  Clearly no space is perfect, and some things just can’t be helped given our constraints, but some things could have been done differently. In hopes that it will be helpful to anyone out there setting up their own workshop space, here is what we’ve learned!

Naomi

Workshop Lesson: Wide Pathways

My biggest annoyance in my workshop is how hard it is to maneuver around.  I have two sawhorses with 2x4s set up in the middle where I make cuts and lay things out to paint, and then storage and smaller work surfaces around them.  The problem is I purchased these sawhorses before I had the plan for the workshop and used them out in the driveway for a while.  At that time, I prioritized making them super sturdy and portable and ended up buying ones that are big for the space I now use them in.

This is the size of the path where I spend most of my time making cuts:

It works but it definitely feels constrained.  Further, most of the tools are on the other side of the room, so I feel like I am always picking my way in and out of here.

In an ideal world I would simply not have a support pole there so I could move everything back for more breathing room.  Otherwise, I wish I had purchased smaller sawhorses!

Workshop Lesson: More Closed Storage

When setting up this workshop I was transitioning from a truly awful arrangement in which I stored my stuff in various toolbags and toolboxes and it was impossible to find anything.  I reacted strongly against this by creating tons of open/shelf/hanging storage so I can easily see and find everything that I need.

And it works!  I can find everything and it is easy to keep it all organized and put things back.

However, what I didn’t account for was all of the sawdust.  For example, see if you can spot where I moved a roll of tape in the photo below:

A “glass half full” type of person would say that just makes it even easier to stay organized since it marks where everything came from… but I just find it messy.  And yet I’m obviously not going to spend my precious time dusting my basement.

Instead, I wish I had set up just a few more pieces with drawers or other closed storage to put the small things like tape, glue, craft paint, etc.  Clearly labeled, that would be just as organized and much less messy!

Workshop Lesson: Whole-Room Lighting

I knew I needed to improve the lighting in my basement to make it a viable place to work, so I made sure to have two strong lights over the two main work surfaces:

I figured that those, combined with two bare bulbs in other parts of the basement, would make it super easy to see.  I was wrong.

They definitely work for task lighting, but what I didn’t account for was how extreme the shadows would be, especially when working at night without the light from the small windows to soften things.  I wish the room was better lit overall.

I really should just go buy a couple more of those lights to hang in different areas, but so far I haven’t gotten around to it!

Sage

Workshop Lesson: Dust Collection System

As Naomi mentioned, sawdust gets everywhere in a workshop. That’s sort of just how it goes, but in the short term that’s particularly a pain if your workshop shares space with other functions (like your laundry room) and in the long term repeated exposure to sawdust is bad for your lungs. As much as you vacuum up after each project, fine dust gets into the air and settles everywhere.

My table saw is a particularly bad offender.

While it’s obviously not too late to install a dust collection system and I definitely want to down the road, this is something I wish I had prioritized earlier before 3.5 years of sawdust collected in my basement.

Workshop Lesson: More Off-Bench Storage

This is one I recently remedied when I moved the old dilapidated workbench our seller left behind over to the workshop corner of the basement to sit across from my main workbench — but I let the issue last for a few years first.

Now all the things I had been storing on my main workbench live here:

And my main bench is actually available to use for projects!

If you’re setting up a workshop and find that you’re storing a lot of tools on the surface of your workbench, it’s time to get more storage before you totally lose the functionality of your work surface.

Workshop Lesson: Fix the Floors *First*

As I posted about on Monday, we finally decided to put down new floors. That’s meant clearing out the workshop I so painstakingly set up.

While I know it will all go back together fairly quickly, I definitely wish I’d done the big stuff before I started settling in. If your workshop space is a work in progress, think about what main improvements you might make before you start building big pieces, attaching things to walls, and meticulously setting up tool storage.

Overall we still love our workshops and find them very functional for getting projects done, just wish we could make a few tweaks 🙂  What would you recommend on these?  Do you have any similar or different issues?