Do you clean before you create?

I used to be super tidy and organized in the workshop when I was younger.
However after 30 years of working for myself, I must admit I have dropped the ball in the cleanlyness and organize department.
I now tend to make a mess first, clean it up, when I feel curls or chips underfoot.
 
I'm hit and miss on the clean up. Welding and grinding projects get cleaned up at the end of the project or the end of the day. As we keep our house cats locked in the shop at night and I don't want them walking around on metal shavings. My tool box on the other hand sometimes get somewhat messy unless I'm actually working in there every day. I end up doing a little project here and another one there and before I know it the top of my tool box is a mess!

Tim
 
I cannot work in ANY chaotic environment. Even when I make espresso on the weekend, I have to clean the kitchen before and after. I'm sure you shop makes more sense to you, but looking at the OP pix...I'm feeling hyperventilate-y. A place for everything and everything has a place.
 
Guns,
I get it. After I took the pics, I cleaned the shop.
For one, I have more space when cleaned up. For two, I know where everything is so I can pull it out again.
I have to wire up every machine. I hate pulling out an extension cord to run a machine.
 
My brain geo-tags and catalogs the last location of anything I touch in the shop (house, closet, etc.) and retains it for sometimes years. The problem is when someone else (wife, curious friends, etc.) touches something and puts it down six inches from where it was when they picked it up. Then it's game over, I won't be able to locate it. Eventually I'll have enough hooks, pegs, and drawers to keep the horizontal surfaces clear, but that's an ongoing project that spans the decades.
 
I don't always get things clean the day I make the mess, but I refuse to let myself start working the next day without 100% cleaning everything up. I really do a pretty good job of keeping it clean. A place for everything and everything having a place REALLY helps. Even if it is just a dedicated space on a shelf.

Also I have 3 cats and no door to the basement. I would feel terrible if they cut themselves on a chip, so that gets cleaned up the same day the mess is made. It is a good motivation.
 
I can't stand a chaotic shop, so I tend to keep mine pretty clean all the time. By clean, I mean the tools have to go back
where they belong when I'm finished. Sometimes, if I'm in the middle of a big job, I'll stop halfway and put away all the
tools and junk I've pulled out and scattered around the bench, and then continue. As for cleaning up the chips and dirt,
I'll let that slide a bit, but I usually do it the next time I have a reason to be in the shop. I give the lathe a good clean/lube
session after each job, or maybe after a couple if I run them back to back.

I think the reason I'm a little obsessive about putting away tools is that I hate looking for them when I need them. I just
want to go to the drawer, or whatever and pull the tool out. Hunting for them really winds me up. Also, when I was
young, I worked in my Dad's shop, and he would only give me one chance to put his tools away when I was done. If
I left them lying around, I was banned from using them, a fate that I avoided at all cost! :)
 
I clean up at then end of the day and whenever I start having trouble finding the tool that I need or when I run out of bench space. Quite a bit different than my old chronological tool storage system, recent tools on the top and layer, others you dig through the layers.
 
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