Reconciled

I have reconciled myself to the fact that I am not going to have a regular crafting partner. Mickie's life has been crazy busy and Elizabeth's crafting is mostly done on the loom in the living room.  Since my studio becomes so unwieldy the way I had it arranged, I decided to make it fully my room.  I haven't really been happy with it ever since I changed it from the first set up when we moved in, and each move has gotten it further out of whack.

Yesterday morning I was scrolling around on Pinterest and found a blog that declared this organization week.  I had already decided to clean it up yesterday, but after reading some of the inspiring posts, I decided to take their advice and think about how I used the room and make it as functional as possible.

They said not to worry about appearance, and to focus on accessibility of tools and supplies. I can't do that exclusively because I really do need a pretty place to work. Sometime in the next year I hope we are able to empty it all out and put down tile on the floor, paint it a little brighter and build in a few shelves, but meanwhile, I have shuffled things to a more manageable configuration and I think I will like it well enough once I get used to where everything is.

I started out thinking about how often I use certain items and built my plan from there. The things I use most frequently are closest at hand.  I brought in a tall plastic drawer unit that Elizabeth had emptied and was getting rid of, and emptied several baskets and other drawers into it. Rubber and clear stamps, ink pads, pens and markers, adhesives, alcohol inks and paints all moved in there. I can just pull out the drawer I need and have everything at my fingertips.

The little five drawer unit I had been using for desk supplies took on a new life as well and now houses beading supplies, polymer clay, misc. tools and a whole drawer for x-acto!  There is still one empty drawer I hope to use for the twinkling H2O's when they arrive for my class. I don't know how much space I will actually need for that.

The paper holders moved from the closet back out where I can more easily access them, and the other little four drawer cart is still FULL of scraps. I didn't make it very far with my sorting/purging of those drawers when I worked on it last, but there is a little more empty room in some of the drawers.  Some of the baskets and little clear boxes found new purpose, and all but the clear boxes got labels. *click-click* The very bottom shelf on the bookcase against the wall is filled with bags, boxes and envelopes for cards.

I am not real excited about the location of the file cabinet and printer, but it needs to be away from the sunlight that comes in through the window, so it was the most logical spot. I do like the fact that I have the lamp on the wall to help light the right side of the table.  The little drawer units are easy to move around as needed, and I am sure they will shuffle each time I craft!

In other news, Elizabeth had a job interview yesterday afternoon and thought it went very well. We did another quick run to the resale shop to find a pair of pants for the interview--she bought one of the only two pair of dress pants in her size they had on the rack! We are all anxious to hear that she got the job. What a blessing it would be to cut 40 minutes off her commute each way!