Messy or meticulous?

[cyrus]

I was visiting a newly-installed darkroom of a friend of mine. I gave him what I considered to be one of my best tips: always have many scissors laying about here and there, enough for one to be in easy reach at any moment you need to cut things, because cutting things is generally a good idea in darkrooms since you're inevitably minimizing the bad. He sort of looked at me funny and said, "I find having one pair of good scissors in a specific place to be adequate," as he pointed my attention to the very neat little toolbox placed on top of one of the counters in his darkroom. A very, very neat darkroom, as a matter of fact, where everything was placed with precision, like a scientific lab. If ever there was an example par excellence of that old saying, "A place for everything, and everything in its place", here it was. Then I realized that we were two very different people. My place was always a shambles. My trays are regularly left unrinsed for days, I have negatives -- with dust caked on them -- laying about, along and on top of the parts for half-built/cannibalized enlargers and print dryers. I aspire to achieve that standard of "A place for everything," but an aspiration is all it is with me, which is not even a goal. I seems to me, I just have better things to do in the darkroom than clean up.

So which are you, messy or meticulous? Why?

[John Kasaian]

Meticulous. One reason is that it is my daughter's bathroom and I set up before every session and clean up afterwards. A mess is just that much more work to deal with.
Another reason is dust, which is bad ju ju in any darkroom.

When it comes to scissors i use for opening packages of sheet film and paper, and cutting off the backing paper when i soup roll film, i don't have one dedicated to the dark room but borrow a pair from my bride's scrapbooking table or sewing machine (and put it back afterwards!)

The mess is in the storage room, which i'm working on. At the rate I'm going it should be clean in another 15 years or so. Anyone here want a Houston Fearless aerial film processor on a pallet?

[Brian Ellis]

Meticulous. I can't stand a mess in a darkroom or anywhere else.

[Shen45]

Everything is tidy in the dark --- room.

[Jay DeFehr]

My darkroom was a lab, and I treated it as such. I miss it.

[Erik Larsen]

Clean and tidy when I begin a printing session. Usually a mess at the end of the session with every flat surface covered with this or that.
Erik

[Robert Hall]

It's clean until I use it. I use it a lot. Then I clean it again.

[Heroique]

My meticulous darkroom is a sign of my messy mind.

[Bill Burk]

Somewhere in-between. For example, this morning I sleeved my last batch of film before vacuuming out the grafmatics for reloading because I knew that activity would kick up airborne dust. After 18 sheets, when I needed to cut open another pack, the scissors were in their place.

I didn't exactly expect them to be there.

[Jerry Bodine]

One of my pet peeves is cleaning up a mess made and left by someone else, so if I make a mess I'd feel guilty leaving it for someone else to clean up. And I'm an avid believer in "a place for everything" because it's such an inefficient use of precious time when spent looking for something. Don't anyone dare to use my stuff without putting things back where you got it when finished. I can find nearly anything of mine blindfolded. Years ago one of my bosses at work kidded me with that "A neat desk is the sign of a sick mind" bit, but we got along very well just the same. Shortly after getting married, my wife would get annoyed with me for sopping up her little water puddles (where they shouldn't be) in the kitchen almost as soon as they happened; I tried to tell her that it was just an instinctive habit that I formed in the darkroom (and she believed me, I think). Then there were (and still are) the razor sharp knives lying around with the cutting edge UP that must be spotted and the situation corrected without a word. During high school when I finished my homework in my room, all the #2 wooden pencils (loooong before computers) were sharpened for the next day and placed together on the table, side by side with the lead points aligned in a very straight line using a ruler. How can I live like this ... AM I sick, really? My darkroom is entered by permission only ... that's MY room.

[jcoldslabs]

Utter and complete disaster. Messy, shabby, unorganized. I have multiples of everything--scissors, dust blowers, tape dispensers--just so that at least ONE is at hand when needed, and half the time I still can't find stuff. Unsurprisingly it isn't just my photo processing area that is like this. You've seen some of my photos taken around the house, right?

Oh, and, uh, I almost got kicked out of boarding school for having the messiest dorm room on campus. True story.

Jonathan

[Mark Barendt]

Messy.

[darr]

Meticulous.

[Ari]

Somewhere in between right now.
I try to keep things organized, but I have a small darkroom at the moment, and it share space with laundry, storage and tools.
Hard to stay on top of everything, but my predilection is toward neatness and organization.

[bob carnie]

Organized and a place for everything.. Sometimes it gets really hectic , but I like to keep the tools and such in a general area.
We move different setups all the time from making contact sheets to 30 x40 murals so there is some leeway.

Trays are always washed and put into their correct place, Dev Trays are in a different location than the others.
Chemicals Components are in groups for the different processes we do . Nothing is allowed to leave the darkroom to the general area.

[Chuck P.]

Meticulous.......

[Jim Jones]

I believe in a place for everything and everything some place or another. Stuff is piled in the darkroom sink and on the enlarger baseboard. It's dusty. I can find some often needed items in total darkness but often can't find other things with the lights on. At least the trays are clean. The rest of the seven room house is worse. The barn is dusty and cluttered. I'm beginning to fill up a larbe metal grain bin with things I'm not likely to ever use. However, what is clutter today may be valuable in some project tomorrow -- if I can only find it.

[jp]

Dust free and clean, but not neat. My enlarger baseboards are covered. I shift books and boxes from one enlarger table to the other when using them. Somewheres under this pile there is an extra scissors. I keep an extra pair just incase it gets borrowed and not returned.

I keep the place dust free with an air cleaner though, and keep trays and measuring containers clean all the time.

When I need to handle film in the dark, I put everything I need for the task (which sometimes includes scissors) in a big clean dry tray, and do the task contained in the tray. Loading combiplan tanks, film holders, loading 120 film into reels, etc...

[E. von Hoegh]

I was visiting a newly-installed darkroom of a friend of mine. I gave him what I considered to be one of my best tips: always have many scissors laying about here and there, enough for one to be in easy reach at any moment you need to cut things, because cutting things is generally a good idea in darkrooms since you're inevitably minimizing the bad. He sort of looked at me funny and said, "I find having one pair of good scissors in a specific place to be adequate," as he pointed my attention to the very neat little toolbox placed on top of one of the counters in his darkroom. A very, very neat darkroom, as a matter of fact, where everything was placed with precision, like a scientific lab. If ever there was an example par excellence of that old saying, "A place for everything, and everything in its place", here it was. Then I realized that we were two very different people. My place was always a shambles. My trays are regularly left unrinsed for days, I have negatives -- with dust caked on them -- laying about, along and on top of the parts for half-built/cannibalized enlargers and print dryers. I aspire to achieve that standard of "A place for everything," but an aspiration is all it is with me, which is not even a goal. I seems to me, I just have better things to do in the darkroom than clean up.

So which are you, messy or meticulous? Why?

Meticulous, so if and when something goes wrong, I cand find out why. I don't need the frustration of searching for a tool in the dark, either. A dirty work area is just begging for troubles, and shows a disrespect for both the tools and the finished product.

[Michael E]

Messy. Definately. I still find things reasonably fast. I can walk into my garage (even messier) and pull something that I haven't used in years out from under a pile, without searching. I make it a rule to have only one pair of scissors in my darkroom, because I take much better care of it. If I had several, I wouldn't find any when I needed them.

Michael

[Pawlowski6132]

Meticulous.

On a side note... I've never had a pair of scissors in my darkroom. Can someone give me an example of how you use scissors in the DR?????

[E. von Hoegh]

Meticulous.

On a side note... I've never had a pair of scissors in my darkroom. Can someone give me an example of how you use scissors in the DR?????

Very carefully. I use mine only when the lights are on.

[Bill Burk]

Meticulous.

On a side note... I've never had a pair of scissors in my darkroom. Can someone give me an example of how you use scissors in the DR?????

Scissors do a few things better than teeth/fingernails... Cutting open a carton of fresh paper, cutting heat-sealed film packages open, cutting paper into test strips. For roll film cutting the film off the spool and then cutting between frames to put in sleeves.

I can see that a real paper cutter could do much of this work better than scissors. And some film comes in folded-over plastic bags instead of sealed packaging. That leaves cracking open new cartons which you could do with fingernails or keys.

[cyrus]

What Bill Burk said...plus, cutting masks for dodging & burning.

[jp]

For me...

opening sealed sheet film inner-bags from kodak. opening film/paper boxes (I love that smell),

test strips, opening bags of kodak dry chemicals, making special shapes for dodging/burning,

for medium format, cutting negatives into strips, scoring the lick-seal paper prior to loading into reels, cutting film to go in printfile pages, opening new bags of printfiles,

Cutting leaders off 35mm film, opening 35mm cassettes, cutting film into strips.

Nothing that couldn't be accomplished with a sharp knife and paper cutter, but scissors seems safer and easier. I've got a decent scar on my hand to remind me to be careful with knives.

[ROL]

...always have many scissors laying about here and there, enough for one to be in easy reach at any moment you need to cut things, because cutting things is generally a good idea in darkrooms since you're inevitably minimizing the bad.


Scissors?!? I don't need no stinkin' scissors. Just a good stout knife for anyone who doesn't respect my lab's (mostly) tidyness.

All seriousness aside, I would suggest a correlation between "minimizing the bad" and general untidiness.

[Scott Walker]

Meticulously messy, it may look like a disaster but I know where everything is.

[Dennis]

The way I work makes a mess. Starting the day with a mess already there is irritating and sometimes disastrous. A place for everything and everything put back in it's place. An orderly clean work space is a pleasure to go to work. Walking into a mess that first needs cleaning is depressing.
Dennis
5 pairs of scissors with specific functions in specific places.

[domaz]

Messy. Althought I am careful to wash chemicals out, (don't want them evaporating to dust and getting into the air). I don't really ever have trouble finding anything even though I don't always put things back in the same place. I also have a few pairs of cheap scissors and other things like trays etc. In my view the time spent organizing is equal or greater to the time spent finding something in almost all cases.

[SpeedGraphicMan]

Messy...

I still have a week old water-bath I need to empty out. :)

A darkroom is a workroom, if it ain't messy and well worn, it ain't used enough.

My darkroom seals very tight, so dust is usually not a problem.

[ic-racer]

I'm pretty messy. As you can see here; dodging wands scattered about, post-it notes and empty negative sleeves laying about.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v670/ic-racer/DSCF4515.jpg

[John Olsen]

Dog hair floating down onto paper under the enlarger or onto film as it slides into a holder is a big source of aggravation. The only way to keep ahead of it is to make it relatively easy to sponge surfaces free of lint and hair. I prefer neat; darkroom sanity enforces my natural tendency.

[Winger]

where everything was placed with precision, like a scientific lab.
I worked in a lab for 14 years. I can get anything I need with my eyes closed. I've been gone from that lab for 5 years now and I could still tell you where every item was. But the darkroom does get cluttered in between uses because it's the last ditch overflow from everywhere else.

[AuditorOne]

Messy or.....what was that other word?

I plan out what I will need to accomplish the task I intend to do before I turn out the lights. Then I set it out where I can reach it without a problem.

But before and after is always a question. It most certainly does not look anything like a lab!

[Chuck P.]

I'm pretty messy. As you can see here; dodging wands scattered about, post-it notes and empty negative sleeves laying about.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v670/ic-racer/DSCF4515.jpg

Yes, and those sloppy drawer labels, how can you ever find anything.................

[jk0592]

I try to be meticulous. I am afraid of cross-contaminating everything within reach if the darkroom is not spotless.

[cyrus]

I'm pretty messy. As you can see here; dodging wands scattered about, post-it notes and empty negative sleeves laying about.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v670/ic-racer/DSCF4515.jpg
Oh my gosh such utter messiness! LOL