[TheForge] Shop (Office) Cleanliness

Tue Jan 22 19:15:01 2002

To All,
Many years ago when I worked for Texas Instruments, the site laboratory 
manager was Teuvo Santala, a Finnish tank commander from WWII.  The tank 
stories will come at another time.  Anyway, I had just gotten beat up by my 
boss because my desk was messy and I had to go over and see Teuvo about I 
project I was about to have his lab do. You walk into his office and his 
desk, the 3 six foot tables in it and a good portion of the floor were 
covered with 8-12'" of paper in what appeared to be no particular order.  I 
sang my sad song and I asked him how he got away with having his office in 
such a state. He said that whenever his boss got on his case about his office 
being a mess, he would say, "There are many great ideas in this office and 
all of this paper is the mulch to help them grow."  Good advice but it did 
not work for me then and it doesn't work with my wife now.  She has finally 
relinquished control over my half of the garage.  I think that I just wore 
her down.
I do put all of the tools away about every three months so I can find them 
again.
My big problem now is the 750# hydraulic press that I built in the middle of 
it without providing a means of moving it to its final resting spot.  I have 
the casters picked out and the mounting plates cut so it won't before I can 
move it.

Hochewa