oh mate no, you're not being precious. i had to give up half my windowsill for ginger's empty pot and i still feel weird looking at it, and that was MY idea. one shelf at a time is exactly how it happens. stand firm on the twenty drawers, that's your whole system in there.

twenty drawers of sorted fasteners is basically an organ. you don't give up an organ. tell her the car goes in but the folding table stays folded when it's not paint night. case closed.

> twenty drawers of sorted fasteners is basically an organ

people donate organs. i think the point dex is making is that you don't, which is convenient for him.

for what it's worth, gearhead, the parts cabinet is the wrong hill for her to pick and she knows it. the folding table is the actual negotiation. if it folds flat and goes back against the wall, you've lost twelve inches. if it stays up, you've lost a winter. name which one she wants and stop arguing about drawers.

lurker here, first post. i split a two-car with my brother for six years. rule we landed on: anything on wheels stays mine, anything that gets carried in goes to her. cabinets, carts, the compressor - mine. tables, easels, tubs - hers, but they have to be movable by one person when the car needs in. sounds dumb but it ended a lot of arguments. you're not losing ground, you're just negotiating the terms early, which is better than doing it in january with the door shut

okay but hear me out, this photo is basically two still lifes having an argument across one bench - sorted drawers on the left, loose brushes and tins on the right, and that little CRT glowing away like it's taking notes. do you actually use the monitor, gearhead, or is it scenery at this point? because if it's scenery that's the thing i'd trade first, not the drawers.

the monitor stays too. twenty sorted drawers and a CRT is a workshop. a tarp and a folding table is a kitchen table that gave up on life. tell her the car comes in, the table folds flat when it's not paint night, and the drawers are simply not on the agenda. case closed.

we had this on the crossings... the crew house mess had a folding table for the dominoes and every watch someone left it up, and you'd come in off the deck at four in the morning stubbing your shin on the leg of it. nobody ever admitted it. i ended up putting a chalk mark on the floor where the leg should sit and writing LEAN IT in capitals. worked for about a fortnight... point is, gearhead, a thing that folds is fine, a thing that stays up is a splinter in the household. your drawers are the wrong argument, Wren's got it right there...

the monitor's not scenery, it's where i keep the manual PDFs open while i'm elbow-deep. takes up maybe 8 inches of bench and i'll defend those 8 inches before i defend the drawers honestly. Wren's right though, the folding table's the actual fight. i don't care if it folds flat, i care that it's currently sitting where the cart lives and nobody's asked the cart's opinion. i'm going to tape the outline of the cart on the floor tonight and see if she even notices. probably will, she notices everything i move and nothing she moves.

the tape outline thing is exactly what i'd do except i'd do it to my own cat to see if ginger notices his pot moved an inch. he would, he notices everything. anyway yes to what wren said, pick the fight about the table not the drawers because the drawers are your heart and she'd win that one on sympathy alone. six years of a shared garage sounds rough cold_solder, did your brother ever admit to leaving things up or was it always a mystery?

> i'm going to tape the outline of the cart on the floor tonight and see if she even notices

taping the cart's footprint is fine but it only proves absence. if you want to know what she actually moves, photograph the floor before you go to bed and again in the morning, same angle. i do this with the reading room chairs. you'd be surprised how much travels between closing and nine.

also the monitor earns its eight inches. manuals you're elbow-deep in is a working tool, not scenery. that one's off the table and you can quote me at her

documenting is just arguing with receipts, gearhead, and it's the correct way to argue. case still closed: drawers stay, monitor stays, table folds when it's not paint night. the tape outline is a nice touch. if she moves the tape you've got her, if she leaves it you've got the cart's parking spot in writing. either way you're not losing ground, you're surveying it

photographing the floor is fine but i already log this stuff. the shed notebook's got a line every time something gets reset or moved by someone else. half the entries just say 'moved, not by me'. i'll add the tape outline tonight as its own line so she can't say it was always there. 8 inches of monitor stays, i'll tell her myself, thanks wren

a dated log AND tape on the floor. you're not negotiating anymore gearhead, you're building a case file. i respect it. the maintenance notebook is the strong move here, the tape is just the exhibit. table folds, drawers stay, monitor stays. final answer, i'm not doing this again

we split a fridge once. lasted a week, then i just started writing my name on stuff. your notebook sounds like a lot gearhead but i'd read it. does it have tabs

okay but hear me out, if you tape the cart outline and she leaves it alone, all that proves is she's polite, not that she's lost. i'd clock the tape instantly and move it out of spite just to watch you write the line. fwiw i'm her in this scenario - i paint at the kitchen table and i've slowly annexed the good window light, one chair at a time, and i didn't ask either. the drawer cabinet stays though, that thing sounds like it has a personality

tape's down. line's in the notebook: 'outline applied 7 nov, cart absent', underlined. not doing photos, the notebook's enough and i'm not cluttering the shed with a tripod. and no tabs tern, it's one notebook, chronological, entries run together like a confession. if she moves the tape i'll know before she's had coffee

> entries run together like a confession

chronological is correct. tabs are for people who don't trust their own index. one thing though, underlining the line means you'll underline the next one and the whole page goes to seed by december. rule the margin instead, you get the emphasis without the theatre

the chalk mark on the crew house floor worked for a fortnight and then somebody scrubbed it because it looked like dirt, so tape is the upgrade... i'd still put a short line where the cart leg sits and not a full rectangle, a full outline reads as a claim and claims get contested. a single mark reads as a parking guide and nobody argues with a parking guide... your notebook is the real weapon though, mine was always in my head and my head lost to a folding table every winter