I like to have all of my gear already plugged in and ready to go at the flick of a switch apart from the finding and plugging in of the test leads, hence I keep everything as low and close to the work bench top as is possible and of course, my bench is not that extensive to allow me to drag something and plonk it down close to the project.
Most of what I need is already plugged in and ready to go. I have a lot of extra gear because I like to buy and restore it. I have an rf signal generator, two scopes, two DMMs, a spectrum analyzer, pulse generator, four PSUs, two frequency counters, A GPSDO, soldering iron, and microscope all there and a shit load of tools in the two drawers on that bench. What more do I need to pile on there?
I never gave your martial status a single thought, I just thought that American homes are that much larger than European ones, as it seems judging by the number of hobby / lab rooms pictured on these forums from the USA, nearly always feature loads of space, that is it, plain and simple
My house is not that big really. Have you seen the amount of stuff some of these people accumulate? I frankly need to stop buying much more gear because it's just piling up.
Hey! Maybe I do have a mess after all!