A funny thing happens when you go raid a neighbour’s broken down fence.
First, it sits in your own front driveway for your neighbour’s viewing pleasure for WEEKS on end.
Then you finally take it apart with this handy dandy idea.
Then most of it got cleaned and stored.
But there was a massive pile that never made it. It’s been sitting on the back sidewalk all winter collecting more mildew. And was looking like one giant mess.
So one sunny day, I finally dragged the pressure washer beast out of hiding, and put it to work.
But… then of course you need to find a place to store the wood…
Which is generally when my single car garage workshop is at its worst.
Nothing a little focus won’t cure!
Ok, that’s a bit of a lie. A LOT of focus went into this, over a couple of days.
Lots of unneeded wood got put on the driveway… and a neighbour happily took what he desired.
I sold a bike that had been in the way for a good solid 2 years!
And the rest filled up the back of my truck, and got dropped off to various places.
I even took GALLONS of old, half used and dried up paint to the recycle depot!
Bare space on the work tables = one happy junker rarin’ to build again
Everything inside the workshop got a good sweep, and a little reorganizing. But I didn’t focus on magazine ready this round. I just wanted it clean.
Here’s the magazine worthy tour awhile back. 🙂
I emptied 2 tanks of gas for all the wood, the stairs, patio roof / rails / floor, shed, sidewalk, travel trailer, and yard junk.
It felt good to see it all squeaky clean again! Maybe this is the year to do something cool to those stairs… now that they’re clean and all.
And NOW I could finally after MONTHS give these cleaned up guys a new home!
And these huge beams and such, for those just in case huge beamed kinda projects.
Welcome home, guys!
Find how I store my reclaimed wood in THIS POST.
Now… what can I make with you, to mess up my workshop all over again?
It felt good to showcase a cleaning post once again! Here’s a few more from the Crap to Clean series…
How are you making out? Still going full tilt?
Woah! What I would do with a stash of reclaimed wood like that! (truthfully though I’d probably never sleep) That’s amazing! You have a great organized place to build Donna.
I just love your site
so informative
I learn something new everytime
your too funny too
thanks so much for the ideas ect…
Rose
Please send your nice weather to Michigan!! The winter won’t go away here – this morning it was thundering, lightening & hailing! I was waiting for the earth to crack open and swallow me up. I have some old picket fencing stashed outside beside my garage and I’m eagerly awaiting some warmer weather to trek back there and haul it in the garage to be cleaned and made into rustic signs and maybe some kind of shelving unit for good looking storage on my covered porch. I have to tell you that I absolutely love using the stencils I purchased from your website on everything from signs to old furniture pieces. They are the best I’ve ever used!
What a great stash of wood! Oh my, I would be in heaven! But you know what Donna? I was admiring your beautiful yard with items in bloom and liked the way the bike looked standing against the tree (I think it’s a tree) and thought it looked nice. I read further and you talked of getting rid of the bike. Did you? I just happen to be one of those people that sometimes like those items people use for props to showcase their items. I really enjoyed your post. Goodness you had a lot of wood to clean. Now I can’t wait to see what you do with it. You teach me so much. Thank you!
Hey Joanne! I still have the rusty bike… I had a newer bike in the garage that I sold as it was too small for my son. Maybe that’s the one you’re referring to?
I would never sell my rust! haha
Love what you do!! Do you ever have bug problems in old wood? If so…..what do you do to deal with it?
Hi Cheryl! On the west coast we don’t have a termite issue. I’d investigate how to properly protect wood against bugs in your given area. When I visited Hawaii and wanted to make something for inside the condo, it was suggested that I only use new, treated wood to reduce the possible issue.