When you have nothing but a glorified shack to use as your workshop, you have to learn how to organize the space carefully. My garage is, at best, minutes away from being condemned, but somehow remains upright and keeps the rain off my junk. But it’s small, and any hope of increasing its footprint is a distant pipe dream these days. I’ve had to learn how to be frugal with space, utilizing every inch of horizontal and vertical area for storage or working surfaces. Whenever I’m out there, I typically spend a half an hour cleaning up after myself, putting things in their right place, and trying to plan out my next project before actually doing work.

So when Brian warned me, on my way across the bridge to his shop, that it was a disaster, I chuckled to myself and sent a reply: Don’t worry about it. When I got there, his mess did not disappoint: he’d emptied out a storage locker and dumped its contents in the empty bay of the garage, so there was a pile of random contractor’s tools, building materials, and other stuff covering all of the free space. I’d driven over to make a plan for resuming work on the EV project, but quickly realized what he really needed was help cleaning things up and organizing the space (and our collective headspace). So we dove in: He started sorting the big pile in the center bay and I tackled the area around the EV, organizing the shelves, separating old ICE parts from new EV parts, collecting scrap metal, and opening up a space around the truck. Then I did a rough pass across the workbench, collecting hardware, putting tools away, and making more free space there. We then spent about an hour talking over where the truck is and what we need to be doing, and I left for home with a checklist. We’ll see how well we do there.

On Sunday, I answered the call from Bennett, who was looking for help moving Phantom, his ’53 pickup, out of his garage and onto a trailer for eventual transport to Brian H’s shop. Eight years ago, we’d dragged the pickup out of the shop at his Mom’s house and stuffed it into his garage, so I knew what we were up against before I got there. He’s been working on several cars out of that space (the Hudson, his Crossfire, a ’67 Mustang, and a Speedster replica), so it was completely packed with tools, parts, and other stuff. He’d cleaned the area out around Phantom before I got there, and after we staged the trailer in the street, we used the Travelall to pull Phantom out of the garage. After two tugs we realized we didn’t need the truck—the slope of the driveway was enough to keep it moving, so he got behind the wheel. I kicked the chock away, and he steered it down the driveway, out into the street, and it stopped right behind the trailer. Hooking the winch up to the front axle, we pulled it up and strapped it down, and then secured all of the parts in the bed. With that done, we brought it to his storage lot and hid it under tarps and a car cover.

After driving out for some pizza in the Hudson, we got back to the garage and started organizing boxes, moving them to the back of the garage and organizing by type—old pickup parts on the left, Scout stuff on the right, and ‘other’ in between. He’s having a new set of garage doors installed so the main goal was to make room for the installers first, and then prep the space for the new Scout. Hopefully that situation will work itself out soon, as I’m hoping I can piggyback on that effort to get the title for the DanScout—making it easier to sell down the line. But for now, I feel pretty good to be able to help my friends declutter and organize.