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Keepin’ It Real
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My Dirty Little Secret
It is a New Year. Usually I don’t have New Year’s Resolutions (as you will see from the photos below), my life is just lived a bit more haphazardly. Remember that girl up there in my header is me—skipping along, stuff falling out of the wagon and while I never want to let go of the shear bliss of creating, it is time to let in some organization.
I would love to open this up for a group project as I am always willing to receive help and take advice. However, I remember not too long ago when I asked for your best organizational tips many of you seemed as befuddled as me (hehe). I will put it out there again. What should I do? How do you do it?
I will post a new photo of my room the 1st day of each month this year. Hopefully this will document the progress I have made! Any companies out there that want to take me on as their personal project—don’t hesitate to apply!
Turn away now if you are squeamish!
The Room
The Closet
A crazy shaped nook built into the wall where I stuff fabric
I have started reading Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
. I would love to implement his system. I do wonder what he would do with all of the #6 plastic containers waiting patiently to be made into Shrinky Dinks? You can take a little quiz to test your Getting It Done IQ at his website.
I realize by posting these photos Martha will never want to be my BFF! I do feel the need to explain the photos (my husband even said he was embarrassed for me)—-it takes so much stuff to do all the projects here at Skip to my Lou, the room is too small, I don’t have money to buy more organizational aides(and obviously don’t know how to use what I do have), I have three kids, I am so busy, on and on………but really!
Help!
Oh, for my spools of ribbons – I took one of the pants hangers that we got from the drycleaners and put it in the closet. With a little tug, the metal part separates from the cardboard part so I can slip my ribbons on and off easily and they’re contained in the closet. I also have several fabric closet organizers that I need to take up there.
Oh, I love you! Thank you for posting; it makes me feel better.
We moved into our home a year ago this month (Wow!), and all of my craft and sewing stuff is sharing a room with a computer that doesn’t work, our eliptical trainer, boxes of stuff that my MIL insisted we take from her closets (my hubby’s childhood memories stuff) plus furniture that we weren’t sure quite where to put.
So, yesterday I decided to claim the space. I cleaned off two shelves on the bookshelf and added my paper. I put the old computer in the closet and took back my craft table. I brought over an old chest of drawers and made it a printer stand and stashed a bunch of my supplies in the drawers. I even added a small power strip to the tabletop so I can plug in my glue gun, sewing machine, etc. I was so excited! Last night, I actually went up there and started on my Valentines cards.
There’s so much more to be done, but the biggest challenge is getting started.
I think this is pretty normal–mine looked like that b4 it got turned back into a kids’ room again. i keep saying that i’m one of those people who thrive on disarray, but its so a lie.
so on that GTD-IQ test, I am a 1!! I am SO a Responder/Victim. Well, now that I have been analyzed so thoroughly I’m off to drag children out of bed for the day.
I could scare your pants off if you looked at my craft room! I try to keep organized but it gets out of hand because I do more than one craft at a time, and the next thing you know they are all laying out all over. As for the shrinky dink containers… if you cut the rippled sides that aren’t used off, the flat tops and bottoms can be stacked. That at least looks neater and leaves room for MORE pieces!
Wow. It looks like you’ve already got a ton of good advice but here’s some more. 🙂
I like to color coordinate my fabrics, that way it’s easy to see what I have and well, it’s just darn pretty to look at. I also bought some accordian filing systems – they’re inexpensive and hold lots of those little pattern pieces, templets, graph paper, patterns off the internet, etc. Those have been the best thing ever. Also I used to store my fabric in hanging shoe holders in the closet – inexpensive and not permanent.
Good luck with your organization! I’m tackling my room too!!
You are lucky… I don’t even have a dedicated room for my sewing! I’m feeling a bit of sewing room envy right now. I love the color! I got myself a label maker, and I love it. Here are a few ideas… I see you have a lot of shelves. I would use clear stacking bins with lids, put like things in them, and label them. Also, in you closet you could add more shelving on the back wall to make it more U shaped. Have you tried over the door shoe and jewelry bag storage? They are great for smallish bits. I am a visual person, and I need to see what I have so I do not buy extra. Can you hang your thread and bobbin storage unit on the wall? You could add a lazy susan style art cart in between you sewing table and desk. If the top is fixed position, you could put you TV on top… bonus! Bags are not your friend. They wrinkle fabric, you can’t see what’s in them, and they get lost easily. I need to take my own advise, ha ha. Good luck!
Ha! You are so much more organized than I am! I WISH I had shelving in the closet so I could actually find things. The only reason that RIGHT NOW my room is cleaner is because it is also the guest room and we just had guests.
A couple of thoughts/questions:
1) Craft supplies are such odd shapes and sizes so it’s hard to figure out what will organize them best, but still look nice. I like reusing food or paper containers but often these are ugly or don’t allow you to see what’s in there (especially for the little ones). I think it doesn’t matter so much if you have doors or some other cover over your storage but for me I don’t.
2) Do your mesh baskets work for you? I’d be more inclined for something closed so things wouldn’t poke out the mesh holes…thinking plastic so that it could also slide off the shelves easier?
3) Good luck!
First, start with the towel hanging on your chair, throw it in the dirty laundry:)
Then, Grab a trash bag. If you’re anything like me, you like to keep stuff, but you have to learn how to throw/give/recycle it away. Fill up one trash bag of stuff that you will get out of your house one way or another.
You have lots of organizational baskets/cabinets. Empty them all out and group stuff that belongs together, then start putting them all back away.
The Key????? Only do TEN MINUTES at a time!!!!! Before you sit down to begin a Skip to My Lou project each day, FIRST clean/organize for just ten minutes. Time yourself. Then be done for that day. Trust me, even with the mess you make afterwards, you’ll really start seeing a difference. Happy organizing!
Thanks for keeping it real – I needed to see someone else like me. I too am a crafter – a homeschooling mom crafter at that – so our home is teeming with things my DH is itching to throw away.
I’ll be working alongside you to organize. This will be fun.
one more great book…”Organizing your craft space” also by Jo Packham. More great pictures and ideas.
I love using apothecary jars for everything from colored pencils to scissors to small containers of paint. The jars come in every size and you can find them at Michaels and Hobby Lobby. They also look great lined up on a shelf with all the goodies in each one…
Organization is my priority this year too. I love the idea of posting a photo a month.
That really puts the pressure on to have some progress to report every single month-lol.
Good luck and happy new year.
I feel your pain. I just posted about my reorganization attempts yesterday.
Oh my… Thank you for posting this! I think everyones craft area gets messy. What do I do about it?? I remember every thing has a place and every place has a thing. And I don’t start another project until I clean up the last. Good luck!!!
I want to thank you for the interesting, inspiring, and entertaining bits I’ve been reading here for the past few months. This site is on my daily blog check and I really love it.
That said, I think if YOU want to have a less cluttered space then maybe you could make it your project to create a work of art out of the place where you create art. I think that you have demonstrated an ability to create amazing things, this could be a snap for you if YOU want to streamline things and beautify a space where you spend a bit of your time.
here is an inspiration pic from soulemama for you… mind you on occasion I have seen even her immaculate studio in a cluttered condition…
http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/2007/05/come_on_in.html
That said, sometimes clutter stimulates creativity IMO… I think what you have been doing obviously works so really, with all the beauty coming out of the room does it really matter what the room itself looks like?
Labels and Bins!!! Keep it simple and Go with a a kindergarten classroom model. If everything has a home and a label it’s easier to find and put back. Your kids would even be able to help out. Second tip is to purge, I know it’s really hard with art supplies but some need to move along. Fabric folded in wire baskets, clear under bed boxes, or stacked in fat quarter piles or rolled up like towels would be nice on your fabric shelves and of course, stacking them in a color spectrum, “rainbow style” is pretty to look at AND lets you know where to find what you’re looking for. I love cleaning and organizing, I wish we lived near each other, I would hop over and come play with you!! xoxox pink and green mama