I just got home from helping my friend Natalie organize her craft room, and what a wonderful, wide open,
happy room it has become! She had been overwhelmed with boxes and storage bins of assorted stamps, tools, ink pads, ribbons, paper, etc., all over the floor (not to mention the treadmill and weight bench taking up a good portion of the room), and didn't have a clear vision of how to get it organized so she could actually
find things and use them!
We started by designating areas to put things as we
(well, really it was Natalie who did the work, I just barked orders, lol) sorted through it all. The treadmill became the landing place for all things stamp-related (all stamps, acrylic blocks, stamp cleaners and scrubbers). There was a laundry basket to toss the ribbons into, all the ink pads, ink refills, sponges, daubers, and markers were set together by the revolving storage rack, and everything related to the Big Shot and Cuttlebug (dies, embossing folders, cutting plates, etc.) was set by the Big Shot and Cuttlebug. Heat embossing items (powders, embossing buddy, heat tool) had their own spot. Same for embellishments (brads, eyelets, buttons, glitter, pearls), as well as cardstock and patterned paper.
I could see a lot of progress about halfway through the
day, but Natalie wasn't quite convinced, because it still looked
cluttered from the boxes and bins in the middle of the floor. After everything was sorted and a
lot of things purged
(really no need for ten year old catalogs!), we rearranged the storage units, assembled the one unit still in the Ikea box, and then started the fun task of putting things away. Toward evening, when most things were neatly up on the shelves, and most of the empty bins removed, she started to get excited.
There is still some work to be done, like putting the ribbons into the ribbon organizer, getting the punches on racks, the rather large task of sorting through the stamps currently residing on the treadmill, and gathering up the piled shipping materials into their organizers (lots of the stamps are going on eBay!), but now there is a plan that Natalie can follow.
This morning when I got up, I found her in the room walking around with a big smile on her face. It really made my heart happy that, for the first time, she felt
good about her craft room instead of overwhelmed and depressed. She has the absolutely PERFECT space to have friends over for stamp classes now, and when she wants to do
any project, she'll know exactly where to find the things she needs to make it!
