by Doug Coulter » Thu Jan 19, 2012 3:52 pm
Yup, a lot of the same here - I have two of all too many things I need one of now because of that one. The plan that's been working for me when I find a lost thing, is not to put it somewhere "safe" - had the same problem there, but to put it where I *thought* it was when I first started to look. No mental recalibration required for the next time that way - don't even have to remember where I did finally find it - I make the reality match what was in my mind already. Lazy, but it works. My projects tend to get a couple layers deep as things move up and down the priority list - I built huge (for me) amounts of bench space here knowing that, but I guess you never have enough. I have 24 linear feet of bench up here, another 12 feet downstairs, another 32 in the next building over...and it's not enough to hold all the partly done stuff. But what it does get me is that on any given day, if I'm not feeling useless, I can just pick any project in progress and go push it along a little further without having the setup/teardown overhead, and it seems I'm most effective when inspired, so net productivity goes up with this plan. The thing I guess you never overcome is that each bench is more or less specialized to a sort of thing one does at it, and if there is more than one project needing that specialty it becomes a train wreck. I do for example have another electronics bench not pictured, but in winter that implies heating the building that one is in, which I avoid when not needed. But two of any one specialty implies also having to have two of all those special tools and test gear.
Posting as just me, not as the forum owner. Everything I say is "in my opinion" and YMMV -- which should go for everyone without saying.