ORGANIZATION 101: Or How to Cram Tons of Stuff Into a Tiny Room
Hey, crafty bloggers! Happy New Year! I've been busy in my teensy-weensy craft room trying to get some organization done (again). My daughter tells me I organize as much as I craft. Too true. But I find that a clean and organized craft space helps me be more creative. Less distractions = More creativity.
My craft room is maybe 8x10. And I have enough "stuff" to easily fill a room 16x18! What I have learned over the years is how to condense and organize without doing a lot of purging. I am admittedly a paper hoarder. I can't seem to part with any paper I've accumulated, no matter how dated or ugly. I vow that I will find SOMETHING to use it for SOMEDAY! But when I can't find anything because I have so much "product" laying around, it's time to do something about it.
What prompted me was the fact that I needed to make more room in my bedroom closet. I had a tall black shelf in there holding shoes for my DH and I, but it took up too much space. I needed something shorter. So, without having to spend a dime, I repurposed a shelf from my craft room to hold my shoes in my closet and thus created the space I needed. But then I had all the crap that came off the shelf from my craft room and needed to put it someplace so I could go back to crafting. Enter black shelf. After a few hours of putting away and reorganizing, I actually ended up with a few empty drawers, got labels on one of my units, and found a couple of treasures I forgot I had or couldn't find. Whew! It was worth it!
While I don't have any "before" pics, I have a few "after" pics that I wanted to share. Here is a little peep show into my special little place.
This is the first glimpse. Here you see my shelves and carts in my pink and orange paradise. I wanted bright colors that reminded me of my vacations on Captiva Island. Everything is very "beachy" with lots of bright colors and seashells. (Notice the stuffed pelican sitting on my printer in the lower left corner.) These spaces hold all kinds of crafting supplies including stamping, jewelry-making, clay, sewing, and anything else that catches my fancy at any given time. You also see the place where my furry kids like to hang out. (I have 7 dogs.)
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| What you see when you enter my room. |
This is panning a little to the right. Here you see my black shelf repurposed from my bedroom closet, my pegboard, "guest" chair (actually it's to prop my feet up when I'm reading), and the back of my stackable cubes.
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| Straight In from Doorway |
Here you see the upper half of the wall next to the doorway. It holds (top to bottom) boxes with my computer cables, spiral binding supplies, photos, CDs and DVDs, my printer, office supplies, more equipment, vinyl and tools.
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| Wall Next to Entryway |
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| Lower Half of Wall Next to Doorway |
Turning to the next wall, you see more crafting supplies and shells (which I use on a lot of home dec projects), markers, decorative scissors, and sewing supplies.
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| Pan Right from Doorway |
Gazing down you'll see more storage for jewelry, distressing products, embossing, stamps, and other miscellaneous supplies. Notice all the Cricut boxes in the lower left. I just moved them from the cube drawers and condensed the space the contents took from 4 drawers to 2. Haven't decided what I'm doing with the boxes yet. I hate to get rid of them. I'll think of something....someday.
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| Lower Half of Wall Panning Right |
Continuing down the wall, this is the upper section of storage. I have lots of pens, markers, embellishments, Stampin' Up! Stamp Pads, Unity Stamps, buttons, and Xyron machines, in addition to many other crafting items and doodads.
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| Movin' On Down the Wall |
The lower half shows all my carts which house my prefolded card bases, envelopes, unfinished boxes and frames, clay, paper-making supplies, stamps, punches, tissue paper, painting supplies, small-sized cardstock, etc.
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| Lower Section of Wall and "Footrest" |
Hanging right to the wall opposite the entryway, you'll see my pegboard of often used tools and the cart which was repurposed from my kitchen and now holds all my cardstock and 12x12 papers. I added some tacks to the front to hold the rulers and label stencils that I use most often.
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| Wall Opposite Doorway |
This is the corner where I create. I love the natural light coming in from the window, little drawer organizers to hold things like "bling", Stickles, Dimensionals, Markers, Ink Pads, Scoring Boards, Stamp Cleaners and other miscellaneous crafting tools and supplies.
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| The Craft Zone |
Upper cabinets hold magazines (on top), Stampin' Up! stamp sets, RubberStamp Tapestry stamps, my mini sewing machine, embellishments, Sizzix Dies, Spray Paints and Spray Adhesives. Below is my computer and TV. Under my desk is another storage unit and a rolling cart which holds my Cricut, which I just roll out and off to the side when I'm cutting.
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| Computing Area |
This is the repurposed shelf. It holds my pressboard, ribbon, more embellishments and tools, bin of stamps not yet "cataloged", stamp catalog, some current craft magazines and my Dremel. (One of these days I'm going to learn all the neat stuff that little Dremel can do for me!)
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| Repurposed Shelf |
I had to share with you my "find"....I saved my old shower rack just knowing I'd find a use for it in my craft space. And I did! It now houses my glue gun, my canned air, favorite glue, stamp cleaner and water/alcohol mix. It also gives me a great place to hang my little dust pan and brush, and my brayer. On the wall on the left, you can see where I store my punches. It's an old crib rail. I had my DH remove every other bar. It is PERFECT for all my favorite punches.
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| Side View of Shelf |
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| Repurposed Shower Caddy |
My 9-cube unit holds a lot of the paper embellishments and specialty papers that I use most often. It also houses my glitter, embossing powder, ArtBin full of metal dies, and Hot Off The Press stamps, plus a few card books and my photo book where I store my unused Dazzles.
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| Next To Computer -- Area with Most Used Supplies |
I took all the booklets, overlays and cartridges out of all their boxes and made dividers for my cube drawers. I was able to condense four drawers down to just two! MUCH BETTER! Now I just have to decide what I'm going to do with all the boxes (as I said earlier). They're too nice to just throw away.
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| Cricut Organization |
I hope you enjoyed the tour, and I hope you got a couple of storage ideas in the process. I'm now busily crafting away, making a few cards to have on hand for those special occasions. I'll be sharing those tomorrow.
Until then, Happy Crafting!!
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Alma