Craft Room Clear Out Continued

This pile is just some of the things that were covering my desk and workspace.  I have been trying to find homes for all this randomness.

My desk now looks a lot more usable.  However I still have many piles and boxes to be sorted.  I'll get there one day.  I will.

Craft Stuff

I have a lot of  'stuff' especially crafty stuff.  It is really getting me down.  I am in a catch 22 situation in that I want to make things but am unable to do so whilst I am surrounded with chaos. The chaos leads me into a downward spiral and then I don't feel like getting things sorted out. I have just bought another six 35 Litre Really Useful boxes to store my stuff - I now have 15 in total.  They are spread between the computer/craft room, hallway and bedroom.  In addition to this I have four 9L boxes, two 5L boxes, eight 4L boxes, one 3L box, two 1.6L boxes and a small unit of sixteen 0.3L boxes and a huge 64L box.  That is just the boxes I have in the Really Useful range!

I can't just 'get rid' of  'stuff' as it still needs to be sorted into what to keep and what to give/throw away and even then I have to see if it goes in recycling or normal refuse collection.  I want to keep most of it but need to find a way for the most effective way to organise my supplies.  I would love to have a clear desk space but yet again, I need the extra space to store things on top!

Today I tackled this mammoth sorting out job again.  I have a long way to go but at least I have set the ball rolling once more.  I have cardboard boxes full of random paper pieces and coloured envelopes.  My sister inquired why I sent her a shop bought Birthday card rather than make one knowing that I have all these card making materials.  She has a point.

What annoys me mostly about trying to reorganise my stuff/room is the length of time it is taking.  When I watch television shows about hoarders it only takes a couple of days to clear an entire house!  Sometimes I wish I had a skip parked outside and someone else to make the decision for me on what and what not to keep.

Just sorting out one box today I found loads of dressmakers pins loose in the bottom of a plastic bag.  I could have just thrown them away but I started to think how this would impact on the environment and could envisage wildlife looking like walking pincushions if they should frequent a rubbish tip where the pins would have been strewn.  I collected them all up and put into yet another small container.  It would have been so useful to have a magnet for this arduous task.

I wish I could focus on one area of craft. Papercraft is my first love but I feel shackled to all the jewellery making, fabric, wool and other crafts that surround me.

Hold Your Horses!

With the craft fair imminent (well, 2 weeks away) I have been panic crafting.  The craft room is in a terrible mess and in need of a good tidy up.  I have been cantering away for the last few weeks and now feel I must gallop to the finishing line!  No!  I must slow down and think about what else I need to make/do and write up a plan.  I should really have done this weeks ago as I have now missed the opportunity to source various supplies to make things with.

In addition to all the craft fair prep I have something else scheduled for next week.  My first ever...............wait for it...........................singing lesson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wishing you all a tuneful weekend!

A Usable Space

There is a long way to go until I am happy with this room but at least it is now a clean, tidy and usable space.   We had all our windows replaced this year so now I can sit in comfort without drafty window panes rattling in the wind.  My budget was nil for my newly revamped spare/craft/studio/study and so I had to make use of any storage I already had.  I hung up curtains that used to be in my sons room and they will do the job fine.  Getting the room just as I want it will be an ongoing process.  I still have loads of 'stuff' that should go back in the room but I really don't want it to get cluttered again.

I am going to concentrate on my first love of  papercraft, painting and drawing so there will be no room for fabric in this room.  I already have a bedroom drawer full of cross stitch materials and I have no idea where I am going to put my jewellery making things.  I really do need  a separate room for each craft!

With the clocks going back next weekend I want to get this room finished so come the cold and dark evenings, I can cosy up in my little room with the curtains drawn and my daylight lamp lit and get on with my art/craft projects.  I must get on now.  You should see the mess I have made in the other rooms!

Have a great week!

Craft Room Tidy Up

This is just a sneaky peak of my craft room tidy up progress.  Things came to an abrupt halt when I caught a nasty cold but hopefully I am back on track sorting it out again.  As you can see it is a vast improvement on last time I showed you but there is a long way to go before it is complete.  Once it is tidy, I intend to keep it that way!

You can see how the room looked before the tidy up by clicking here. The now tidy wall is on the right of the photo.

Have a great weekend!

Den of Despair

This is a sneaky peak of a corner of my 'craft room'.  There are things in boxes, things out of boxes,  sewing paraphernalia, wool, paints, rubber stamps, die cutting machines, sewing machines, paper printed and plain, pens, felt, fabric, jewellery making supplies and things I don't even know I have - until I open up my boxes.  There is also craft 'stuff' all along the hall way and in my bedroom.  Enough is enough! :-)

I have seen so many wonderful creating spaces on blogs this week and I wish to follow their example.  My current environment is hardly conducive to creating and a reflection of my highly chaotic state of mind over the last few months! 

It is overwhelming when confronted with such a lot of things to sort out.  I think I will start off by putting things in large boxes then dealing with one box at a time.  If I ever get on top of organising this room I will let you know.  I believe I have posted about sorting out this room before and it was tidy for a time but never properly organised.

I am still finding and commenting on blogs in the 300in30days challenge and it has indeed been a challenge. So far I have commented  83 times since 1 October so I am on target.  Well, I'd best get on now.  I have a helluva lot of sorting out to do.

Have a great weekend!

In the Midst of Mayhem

It is hard to believe that I am now on the fourth  full day of sorting out the craft room.  You should have seen what it looked like before!  It  looks worse than it actually is, for although things are scattered around the room I now have empty boxes to put things away in.  I have cleared out old wool and craft materials and heaps and heaps of magazines.  Why on earth did I cling on to this stuff  for so long?  I am sure a psychologist would have the answer.

This will be the last of my cluttered craft room posts.  The next time it will be featured will be when it is organized and a fully functional space!  The reason I am blogging about this rather uninspirational topic is to be a reminder to self to never let things build up to such a state again.  Once it is tidy,  I am sure I will take pride in keeping it that way.

Woolly

If I want to have a spacious and workable craft room, things really have to earn their keep.  Today I spent a great amount of time going through my wool/yarn stash.  The box above is all I am going to keep which contains all my crochet hooks and knitting needles and a selection of the more unusual yarns that can be used for dolls hair, tying up parcels and other small woolly projects.

The photo above is of a bag of unfinished projects including a knitted top that I started back in the 1980's!!!  I really hope that a charity shop can make use of them or even finish them off.

Yet more wool to donate.  I really can't wait to get rid of all this excess 'stuff'.  No wonder I am feeling woolly headed with all the materials I have accumulated over the years.  Right, I need to step away from the wool now and tackle the paper tower.

Making a Start

I have lived with clutter for so long, the worst place being the craft/spare/box room.  Yesterday I decided to tackle it head on!  I was in there for hours and there is still a weeks worth of boxes/piles to be sorted out.  What stuff do I keep?  What should I get rid of?  Will I ever take up silk painting again or punch craft or crochet? What am I going to do with all those polystyrene balls!!!  The trouble is, when I put things away I forget I have them.  I am sure I have duplicate purchases of certain items. 

Anyway my main crafting hobbies (at the moment) are making jewellery and paper craft.  I have put the jewellery making supplies on the raised shelf at the back of the desk leaving the desk clear (yay!) to work on.  Behind the desk I will put clear boxes of my card and papers and pen pots and containers of various scissors and tools.  It all sounds very organised but it is going to be a mammoth task.

Well, the job is underway.  It took many years to reach such a cluttered state so it would be foolish of me to imagine that it will be a perfect space any time soon.  Hopefully I can now keep the tidy bits tidy and work my way towards tackling the rest of it a little bit at a time.  I certainly feel better for making a start.