RANT: I can't work on my MAME cab!

[RayB]

   Just wanted to let out some steam cuz I CAN'T WORK ON MY MAME CABINET!!! I've been collecting the parts for it since last August, and I have everything ready, even a brand new monitor which has been sitting in its box for 30 days now.

Why?? Because my basement is FULL of crap and I have NO room to work. My cabs are blocked off with furniture and there's no room to move anything! UGH!

So close, yet... so far!

Ray B.  

[crashwg]

I feel ya...  I don't have a garage, basement, or shed to work on my cab.  Matter of fact the only tools I have are a cordless drill/circular saw kit, a borrowed router and a borrowed belt sander!  I live in an apartment, which is luckily ground floor, so I have to bring all my crap outside to cut, paint etc.  Needless to say, I don't get a whole lot of work done on it.

So if I can do it, so can you!  Throw some of that stupid furniture crap out of the way and start building.  

[mumble mumble] furniture, who needs it anyways[/mumble mumble]

Good luck.  

[AlanS17]

I built my first machine in a storage room so small there was only about 1.5 feet of space around it to walk/work. If I can do it, you can do it.

[jam92102]

Maybe have a big garage sell and make some room.

[fredster]

Keyword here : Organization.  

Stack it all up and organize it.  Once you are done with the cab you can go back and collect it.

[RayB]

I haven't had time for organization, cleaning or garage sales.   Otherwise two-thirds of the stuff down there would be GONE. Heh. Just have a hectic life these days.

I'm crossing my fingers for this weekend...

[fredster]

  That's funny RayB.  If you don't have time to organize, you don't have time to make the cab.  It takes a while to make all of those little connections. It also takes a while to line the job up.

It's an old saying, but it's true: If the job is worth doing, it's worth doing right.  You will save more time by organizing than you will climbing over the mess. You will be more comfortable and you will make a Mame machine of the GODS.  

[SirPeale]

Keyword here : Organization.  

Stack it all up and organize it.  Once you are done with the cab you can go back and collect it.

Wrong.

Key word here: dejunk.  May I recommend some books by Don Aslett that cover this very subject?

Pretty much the theme is: people are notorious packrats (myself included) and here's some good tips on getting rid of the stuff that clutters up your life.

I borrowed a book from my mother-in-law regarding dejunking, and let me tell you, I didn't think I'd actually go thru with it.  Then my wife read it, and she convinced me to part with a lot of the 'treasures' that I've been holding on to for years.

What an awesome thing it is!  Seriously!  It's a new sense of freedom!  Cleaning the house took an hour, and before it would take all weekend!  If/when we move we'll be able to take a far smaller truck, because there's less stuff to move.

If you don't want to shell out money for any of his books (which are quite good) then here's some rule of thumb.

• Does it give me fuzzy warm feelings inside?  No?  Pitch it!
• Have I touched it in the last six months?  No?  Pitch it!
• If I have to move, am I going to look at this item and say "here I go, moving you again..."  Yes?  Pitch it!

There are, of course, obvious exceptions to the guidelines above.

I wish I had access to the basement in this place.  It's QUITE large, and expansive, and lots of room for projects.  Unfortunately, the lady that has it never even goes down there.  

[mmmPeanutButter]

Keyword here : Organization.  

Stack it all up and organize it.  Once you are done with the cab you can go back and collect it.

Wrong.

Key word here: dejunk.  May I recommend some books by Don Aslett that cover this very subject?

Pretty much the theme is: people are notorious packrats (myself included) and here's some good tips on getting rid of the stuff that clutters up your life.

I borrowed a book from my mother-in-law regarding dejunking, and let me tell you, I didn't think I'd actually go thru with it.  Then my wife read it, and she convinced me to part with a lot of the 'treasures' that I've been holding on to for years.

What an awesome thing it is!  Seriously!  It's a new sense of freedom!  Cleaning the house took an hour, and before it would take all weekend!  If/when we move we'll be able to take a far smaller truck, because there's less stuff to move.

If you don't want to shell out money for any of his books (which are quite good) then here's some rule of thumb.

• Does it give me fuzzy warm feelings inside?  No?  Pitch it!
• Have I touched it in the last six months?  No?  Pitch it!
• If I have to move, am I going to look at this item and say "here I go, moving you again..."  Yes?  Pitch it!

There are, of course, obvious exceptions to the guidelines above.

I wish I had access to the basement in this place.  It's QUITE large, and expansive, and lots of room for projects.  Unfortunately, the lady that has it never even goes down there.  

My name is Jonathan and I have a problem.  

I've been thinking a lot about all the stuf fI have and how I'm becoming more and more tied down to the possessions that I own (but I'm building a MAME cab, go figure).  Anyways, I'm planning on getting rid of it all, but it's not easy.  

Peale, if you could reccommend only one of those books, which one would you reccommend?  Or maybe, Book X is better for This and Book Y is better for this other thing... or something like that.  I could use as much help as I can get.

(I blame my parents - they're packrats too!)

[Witchboard]

My wife and I just finished cleaning out a good chunk of the garage.  We had a yard sale, then what was left over sat in the garage until a charitable orginization called.  They came and picked up the stuff and we got a receipt to deduct on our taxes.  Now I have to just get in there and orginize all my computer stuff.  

[tcottle]

It gets worse.  Once you get the cabinet "working" but not "done", you spend all of your time playing games and not finishing the cabinet.  I have intended to add a volume control knob to my cabinet for 2 weeks now - guess what I am doing in the evenings  

[SirPeale]

My name is Jonathan and I have a problem.  

I've been thinking a lot about all the stuf fI have and how I'm becoming more and more tied down to the possessions that I own (but I'm building a MAME cab, go figure).  Anyways, I'm planning on getting rid of it all, but it's not easy.  

Peale, if you could reccommend only one of those books, which one would you reccommend?  Or maybe, Book X is better for This and Book Y is better for this other thing... or something like that.  I could use as much help as I can get.

(I blame my parents - they're packrats too!)

Any of them are good, and I've only read "Clutter Free" (it's sitting in my bathroom right now!).  I think that this one would be cool.  And you can purchase it *with* the other book for a discount.

[FractalWalk]

"Because my basement is FULL of crap and I have NO room to work."

A side-benefit of this project is that it forced me to get organized. I cleared out a corner of the basement, made 2 6 ft benches, put up some pegboard, bought a drill press, router and table saw.  Before I knew it I had my own little shop. And now I use it for everything!

[mmmPeanutButter]

Any of them are good, and I've only read "Clutter Free" (it's sitting in my bathroom right now!).  I think that this one would be cool.  And you can purchase it *with* the other book for a discount.

Well, maybe I'll pick up that one and read it.  If I get a chance to, I'll let you know how it is.

[fredster]

Peale's right.  I wish I had that kind of conviction. I have collected toooo much stuff.

If the stuff is in your way, then decide if you need it.  I have been to so many auctions I have crap laying around I may never use again.

[TOK]

I've been reading the forum for a while, and this was enough to get me to post my first message. I JUST went through your same problem, and I'm fighting a continuing battle against garage clutter.
My problem is that I have a one car garage as my work area, but I also have a lot of hobbies. My cab-in-progress is sharing floor and workbench space with a mountain bike, a motorcycle, radio controlled airplanes, and various other small projects. The cab itself it pretty big and needs to be in the center of the room to work around it.

I had to clean my garage to be able to even get it in there, and it was a big enough hassle that I figured it was worthy of mention on the build page. Things are under control now, I'm nearing the end of the main part of the build (just need to mount monitor), but I'm still fighting clutter. First time I dedicated a whole afternoon, subsequent times have been an hour or so. Its really a problem, because as you get into the build, you might start accumulating more stuff. I bought quite a few tools that I had to make room for in already packed cabinets and drawers.

I suggest just considering the clean out part of the build. If it's old clothes and stuff in the way, just pitch or donate them. If you find yourself falling into the trap of just moving stuff to make room for more stuff, some major reorganization might be in order. I've thrown out the junk I don't need, hung the mountain bike on the wall, cleared out a corner where the dirt bike is "least in the way", and moved most of the airplane stuff out of the room. The major reorganization is now the is the stage I'm at, and it's going to be the battle of the century.  

Tim - http://home.comcast.net/~tok/

[RayB]

  Welp I managed to clear out an area around the soon-to-be-MAME'd cabinet, so now I've been measuring control panel layouts. WOOHOO!

[big_garryb]

i had the same problem......the anwser?? USE the girlfriends mothers garage..... problem sorted.

[CCM]

My name is Jonathan and I have a problem.  

I've been thinking a lot about all the stuf fI have and how I'm becoming more and more tied down to the possessions that I own (but I'm building a MAME cab, go figure).  Anyways, I'm planning on getting rid of it all, but it's not easy.  

Peale, if you could reccommend only one of those books, which one would you reccommend?  Or maybe, Book X is better for This and Book Y is better for this other thing... or something like that.  I could use as much help as I can get.

(I blame my parents - they're packrats too!)

Any of them are good, and I've only read "Clutter Free" (it's sitting in my bathroom right now!).  I think that this one would be cool.  And you can purchase it *with* the other book for a discount.

People actually need to buy books to learn how to clean up their junked up houses?  Damn, I have to write a book and cash in on this... maybe "How to brush your teeth in 10 easy steps', or 'Getting Dressed for dummies'.  Seriously though, if your place is that cluttered, throw some crap away and organize yourself.  I don't think a cluttered house is a valid excuse not to do something.

[SirPeale]

People actually need to buy books to learn how to clean up their junked up houses?  Damn, I have to write a book and cash in on this... maybe "How to brush your teeth in 10 easy steps', or 'Getting Dressed for dummies'.  Seriously though, if your place is that cluttered, throw some crap away and organize yourself.  I don't think a cluttered house is a valid excuse not to do something.

It's not learning how to get rid of stuff and throwing it away that's the problem, it's the emotional attachment that a lof of people (myself included) that people associate with 'stuff.'  

Case in point: a co-worker of my wife has a large tub filled with those cheap stuffed animals.  It's stored in their garage.  

The tub of animals was given to her for her son to play with by her grandfather, who died about a year later.

AFAIK the animals have never been played with, but she "can't" throw/give them away, because she loved her grandfather very much, and the emotional association is there.

The books help you to get a perspective on that kind of thing.

If you're not a packrat, the books really won't help you.  After reading it, there was a lot of things I was just 'hanging on to' for a variety of reasons.  I got rid of them.  At first I thought I'd miss them somehow, but truthfully, I don't even remember what I got rid of.

[danny_galaga]

dammit, i cant work on your MAME cab either