Freeing my Muse

Here are some shots of the space that I lovingly call “My Studio”. 

This area… well, what can I say.  It is a disaster.  A mixed up mess of things!!!  It includes a 4-drawer metal file cabinet, some a book shelf with fabric, some plastic stacking bins full of regalia supplies, a cart with my photo printer/scanner on the top and who knows what inside, another bookshelf full of…. junk, oh, and a futon!  Yikes!

And this is the opposite side of the room.  This is one of my three cutting tables.  They are supposed to be used for cutting fabric.  Good luck with that the way things are now!

Oh, and this is the space under the table.  Yes, I use it for storage, but really??  This is just a cluttered mess.

I am sorry to say, I don’t have a photo of my beading table from before I decided to reorganize.  I just really got inspired and started to fix things up yesterday morning and I didn’t think to take “before” photos of that area.

I found, when I started yesterday morning, that I had so many of the same type of things in different places.  I decided to start with grouping like items together and putting them in the same place.

This piece of furniture is affectionately known as “the white dresser”.  I started here.  As you can see, I have put labels on the drawers now.

One of the first things that I discovered was that I had glues, tapes, sprays, hooks and magnets in so many places all over the room!!  It is no wonder I could not find the tape that I needed or the hook.

But now, I can.  They are all in this drawer.  Glue gun, masking tapes, glues, packing tapes….. easy to find!

Here’s another label that eliminated three of my storage boxes. 

All of my shawl fringe, leather lacing, greek thong, and kumihimo cords are safely stored together now (along with a fan handle that I painted and did not really know where else to store it)

Well, this is what my beading table looks like Now!

I know it is probably hard for you to tell, but I do have a lot more space.  The carousel in the center used to sit in the middle of my work space.  Now, thanks to some reorganizing, it sits back by the wall out of the way.

And my letter sorter trays, now actually are sorting things I need!!   Not just miscellaneous scraps of paper.

I changed some of the storage under this table too!!  I discovered that I am not the type of person who works well with stacked storage boxes.  Even if I can see what is in them, I am not very likely to move the stack to get the items in the bottom boxes.  And I am less likely to put things away.  I need drawers and shelves.  I was lucky enough to find the metal corner units at a yard sale and I got the drawer units at a really great price.  I used my label maker to label each drawer.

After several hours of cleaning this morning, this is what the front corner of the room looks like now.  I know there is still a lot of stuff.  But now, I can get to everything.  Nothing is piled in front of anything else.  Oh, and the wooden cart is gone!!!  The reorganization left room for the printer on the black bookshelf.

And here is my cutting table!!!  Yes, I think I could actually cut some fabric today!!!  But, I think I will finish the beaded necklace that is laying on the board right now.

And now, the storage space under the table actually looks like more organized!!! I am so very happy!!

This is the stack of storage boxes (the ones with the blue lids) that I reorganized into the drawer units!  I will probably repurpose these in the garage for some of the seasonal baking stuff that Meg and I have.

This small collection of items along with a medium sized box and a rack of paint are going to a friend who is also very creative and can make better use of them than I can right now!

Tanner is happier too!  He has more room to play!!!

Blessings,

Beth & Tanner