@steve, I think you're ok.

 

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I would never allow my shop to get into that kind of shape.  I fully understand "to each his/her own" however I can only wonder how anyone could work in that kind of an atmosphere.  Putting aside the basic safety issues with this kind of clutter, I can only guess at the amount of wasted time just looking for that whatever it was that they just set down 5 minutes ago.

"too pretty to burn"

 

and that is how you drown in worthless scraps.

 

trees grow everyday, God is always making more wood for us.  use what you can, and let the rest go - toss it, burn it, compost it.  

 

my rule is not to let 10 cents of lumber take up a dollar's worth of space.

 

many years go, i remember reading an article about a fancy shotgun factory.  they had the prettiest, fanciest Claro Walnut stocks you ever did see.  and they noted that some of the cut offs would later become pistol grips.  the author, who was visiting in the dead of winter, noted how comfy and warm the factory was.  "oh, you're enjoying the heat?  good, because our boiler also burns walnut scraps that are too small to use for anything else".  that's some expensive heat, but they didn't drown in pretty scraps that were too pretty to burn.

That shop is dangerous. I saw the aftermath of a wood shop fire back in the late 80’s and it was ugly. It was down the street from our shop and it was the same scenario. To busy to clean it up. With all the shavings etc it went up so fast one guy got severely burned on the way out. Lathe shavings can flash burn from a single spark like the ones from a grinding wheel etc. I’m not a clean freak but I do vacuum up every few days and do the Bill Murray job with a leak blower every few months. To let it go as far as that guy did is just crazy. 
Paul