Keeping a clean environment

I'm new to growing and am using soil pots just straight on black plastic sheeting on the ground. I notice this is messy and can lead to bugs and the runoff can lead to mold. Should I be putting my pots on a hydro table and sucking out excess runoff with a wetvac? Is that what most people do?

Umm either that or set pots on bricks milk crates if room is available. I have plastic pallets that's I use. Also I would shy away from plastic on floor as it rips easily go to.Lowe's home Depot etc and get a pond.liner. it's pretty heavy rubber and hard to rip. I built.my room to grow in so when I built it I angled the floor in my room. The room is 12 ft long there is almost an inch difference. I uses a bilge pump thru hull fitting in floor.so the excess drains itself. I had to bore the hole formfitting.to sit flush with floor and it drains great. I have a lil rubber cork I put in hole to keep room sealed when not watering

Wow! Sounds really nice

I like to use deep collecting containers, deeper then regular pot liners.
Car Oil pans are great for larger pots..these are at Walmart


That way I can water and soak the pots real good and not worry about overflow.
What ever water dripped through the pot I would just leave and it will evaporate eventually and help with keeping the humidity higher if you need that extra humidity boost.

yes try to keep your grow area nice and tidy as possible.