Organizing the Paint Shop

Almost since I began working in the paint shop, Jared has talked about reorganizing his paint.  We were so busy last winter and right through the summer and fall that there was no way that was going to happen.  

The day before Thanksgiving was the day I began.  I pulled the top two shelves of paint down and put them on tables in alphabetic order.  The same way they were on the shelves.  Each can needed to be shaken and opened to see if it was any good.

Prior to doing that job, we had to make sure that each color on the shelf had a matching color stick.  These are kept on the shelf with the paint so that if you're trying to match a color, you can take the stick to the place needing paint to see if you have the correct color.

There is a paint sample with the name of the paint on it attached to the shelf below the can(s) of paint.  Since they all had to come off as some colors were being added and others deleted, we decided to make new ones.  

They look like a xylophone.  It surely is a lot of colors.  

When opening up the cans, we found a plastic cup as well as a mini roller and roller grate.  One of the final cans I opened had a roller grate inside that was stuck in the mostly dried up paint.  I was able to pull the paint out of the bottom of the can.  It looks like some unknown monster.

Here's a  view of the wall of paint.  There are hundreds of cans on these shelves.  I opened them and shook them all.  Only about a half dozen actually leaked when I put them on the shaker.  Jared and Sister Chestnut did all the painting while I did all the moving of the cans off and back on the shelves as well as the shaking and opening.  We got rid of several colors and I think I threw away about 50 cans.  Some of them were dried up while others were combined since there was so little in one can.  It only took 6 1/2 days to complete the task.  No wonder it didn't get done earlier!