6 distractions worth having in your garage
Of all the tools people will tell you to add to your garage, anything that would derail you from efficient work would seem the least worthwhile. However, items that many would label as distractions can be very helpful in specific situations, and to ignore their benefits is to risk complicating your life.
Let’s take a look at six things that appear to be distractions but that deserve a place in your shop—even if you have to explain why to your friends.
Television
Let’s start with the ultimate distraction. When I’m cleaning, I’ll often put on the reply of an endurance race or a favorite concert, sideshows that I can tune in or out of without guilt. It also serves as a generously sized screen on which I can review my own race footage or watch a how-to video. Recently, the TV proved its worth when a friend was over with a motorcycle I’d never worked on before. We ended up watching a how-to video on the big screen and talking through the process together. Very helpful.
Fridge/freezer
A staple of the garage for those who spend hours belly-up to the workbench. Kept stocked with cold beverages, a fridge is always a threat to productivity; all it takes is one pop tab to turn a night of productive wrenching to one of bench racing. Sure, some folks can enjoy a cold beverage and notice little change to their productivity, but any change in judgement combined with a high-risk task is a recipe for trouble.
Imbibe wisely, and remember that thermal changes can be very helpful during assembly of some pieces: That fridge or freezer can provide the perfect temperature differential to make press-fits just a bit easier.
Computer
I know it’s not just me that spends the whole working day on a computer. Therefore the last thing I want to do after hours is peer at a screen. Heck, that’s why my cars have carburetors. I don’t want anything on the car that requires a screen.
Yet having a computer on the workbench helps me assemble a parts order while looking at the project, and review reference materials or how-to outlines easily. My personal favorite is using a full-sized computer screen to review photos of assemblies I took apart weeks or months ago to know I’m putting them back together correctly. It’s far easier to scroll photo albums on a computer than on my phone. Do I need the laptop all the time? Certainly not, but it can really make life easier.
Comfortable chair
Sometime you just need to take a mental break. Personally I find it helpful to continue looking at what I’m working on while I think through the process. Even reading shop manuals is more productive when the parts are in front of me. (Plus, I haven’t sold the missus on bringing engine blocks into the living room.)
A nice place to sit is a luxury worth having in your garage. This could mean a barcalounger, if you’ve got the space, or even a supportive, bench-height office chair to replace that battered, wooden kitchen stool. Anything that creates a comfortable opportunity to get off your feet for a bit.
Stereo
The right music can dial in your focus, while the wrong tunes can be attention-grabs that do nothing but sidetrack you. Background noise can help keep you maintain focus and motivation while plugging away on tedious projects, like parts cleaning or bodywork, so don’t be scared to have a nice stereo in your shop. Bonus points if you listen to era-correct music while working on your car. That’s just affordable time travel!
Friends
Having a “helping hand” can sometimes mean that even less work gets done, but such is the cost of camaraderie. The human connection is more important than the cars. Never feel bad if the conversation ends up being your focus, instead of the project. Our friends bring a different type of joy into our lives and it is not to be ignored.
Are these the only common garage distractions? Of course not. Let us know the worst offender in your shop in the comments below.
I understand the sink, computer, and a source for music. When working with impact wrenches, torches, presses, and lifts I’m afraid TV isn’t the thing for me. Distractions of that magnitude would leave me open to doing something stupid, a talent I’ve already mastered without the intrusion of the TV. Can a person who needs all this stuff in their work space really be thinking about working?
Friends, OK.
Cold beer, OK.
Radio, OK.
Comfortable chair, nope. A real garage has milk crates and lawn chairs.
Computers, with all the grease and dirt? NO way! If you need one, clean up and go use the one inside.
TV. If you’ve got a TV in your garage, your not much of a mechanic! Only weenies & waxer’s have TV’s in the garage!
Now a heater would be nice and a heated floor would be even nicer.
AC like TV’s are for weenies & waxers!
There’s something most guys are missing that’s a REAL DISTRACTION– a pinup calendar from the ’50s-early ’70s. Miss Hurst, Ms Goodwrench, Snap-on Tools, or any of a variety provided by vendors to garages and mechanics always caught the eyes of us teenagers back then. However, having a wife and daughters precludes my having one hanging up. Unless I want to live and sleep in the garage.
they’re all ideal to have – if you have the room and means. but most of all friends
Loved reading all the comments! Two garages here house garage for my Raptor and my partner’s car. The big garage/shop is 32 x 50 which I had built as my retirement gift to myself. I try to always park my pickup trucks in the garage along with mini split, TV, radio, wifi, bathroom with urinal, wall mounted laundry tub, also plumbing installed for a washing machine, a few Ford truck signs. No fridge though as long as I have water to drink I’m good to go. Work is not in my vocabulary so my garage is for distractions, detailing my trucks, changing tires/wheels spring and fall, sometimes I just go out and watch the news, open up the big door and sit in the sun. My only regret it should have been just a little bigger. The comments have given me ideas, thanks!
TV is great for You-tube videos on specific tasks. It can double as a computer monitor for access to parts look ups (Like Clarks for your Corvair, Kyle) I do not have a comfortable chair, just a solid stool for welding. I added an appropriate “CORVAIR” neon sign and, just recently, a large digital clock, to remind me I am married and need to go back into the house – eventually.
Are those rally tires underneath the work bench
Looked like Motor Cycle knobbys and trials tires.
For those in the northern states a moderate size electric heater hung from the ceiling set to 50-degrees makes for an enjoyable area where the chairs are along with couple of sonic rodent deterrents plugged into the wall at strategic locations help to keep the unwanted nature guest away.
I learned a long time ago that if I had cold beer in the garage friends would show up to drink it and productivity slowed to a fraction of a crawl, so the beer fridge left the building. I drink one, sometimes two, room temp beers at the end of the day. Beer lasts longer that way and I get more work done. No TV, no computer, no stereo (I do have a small bluetooth speaker and a radio), no room for comfy chairs. Friends, only when I need help moving a body.
When we were house shopping in 2010, toured one home with a three-car garage arranged not unlike a portion of a railroad turntable roundhouse. Driveway was smallish, due to limited access to the very small cul-de-sac in front of the house. Three individual doors opened to 3 bays, but the bays were 28 ft deep each, and of course extremely wide at the far ends. So there was a lot of space to open car doors, store tools, parts, engines.
This guy had a sink in the garage for washing up after a project, and a urinal. Now that’s thinking ahead.
Alas, as the girls were little at the time, and the property had zero yard, I got vetoed by my other half.
Like the pic. of the tires set up for riding bikes on the ice. So much fun!
I must be deprived. The only item from the list in my detached garage is the dual monitor 2012 engineering workstation. I taught myself a bit of 3D CAD there one winter trying to reproduce car parts of course.
My only real conclusion was that I made a design mistake in my man cave. That is that it should have been set up with radiant heat in the poured concrete floor. The garage would be so much more conductive for winter work with even a 50 degree F floor.
Six out of six! Plus a couple of extra.
My garage is very organized and I would like to add the comfort touches to make it a combo garage/man cave. However, I’m in South Florida and the temp in the garage is consistently in the 90s. It’s not as bad during winter and spring months – I can open the windows run a big fan. But during Spring and Summer is impossible to stay in there for any length of time. Have considered portable A/C unit but I don’t think it would adequately cool the area. The ceiling is 15 feet high and the garage is a larger than normal 2 car. I’m thinking the proper solution would be a split A/C.
Hmm, no mention of toilet facilities yet. Wonder why.