I'm hosting a little challenge over on Song of My Heart Facebook, and you're invited to play along! We are cleaning out our craft rooms during October, and the results are going to be spectacular! We're going to feel great about our spaces and be far more efficient than we have been. We're going to USE IT UP and GET IT OUT! Join us!
For this challenge, I've asked those that are serious about it to post a "before" photo of their spaces. Well, I'd never ask you to do something I wasn't willing to do myself, so…. (gulp)…. here goes!
Welcome to my craft room! Let me introduce you to the space.
We live in a small two story bungalow built in 1920. My craft area used to be the kitchen; hence, it's best feature, the built-in cabinets you see here.
This picture actually looks fairly organized; usually this area looks much worse. The shelves and the fact that I can close the doors on the mess are great! But you can see that I have things piled in front of, next to and on top of the stamps and cardstock storage, which means I have to move stuff to get to stuff.
Plus, that's not all my stamps (cough). I have about ten more sets that are stacked on the floor.
The six foot table I work on juts out into the center of the room so that, theoretically, I can have a friend work at the same time. Except that there's no room for her feet, because there are all sorts of rolling totes, baskets, rubbermaid bins and Thirty-One bags under there. This part really bothers me. I can put up with a lot of clutter on the surfaces, as long as the walkspace is clear. Unfortunately, that is seldom the case. Ok, it's never the case.
Goodness, I feel like I'm on this week's episode of Craft Room Confessional…
Scared you off yet? No? You must have nerves of steel! On to the next problem area, then–the left hand side of my table. It is, to put it mildly, a disaster. The tool turn-about is full of items I rarely use, and all my washi tape is just hung off random pens and whatnot. My embellishments are good in the Stack N Store, but there's not really room to turn it. And I'm so ashamed to show you where my poor beautiful Blendabilities are right now!! Don't look!!
I painted my craft room a while back (was that just last year?) and I love the burlap color. It's a good foil for my black, white, and red picture frame collage, and neutral enough that I can change it on a whim (I get whimsical a lot). But I never finished framing most of the items, so I have pieces leaning up against the wall, not to mention things piled up high enough to obscure anything pretty I'd hang there, anyway.
My kids get hollered at if they leave drawers and cupboards hanging open, by Mommy regularly does it in her craft room!And naughty Mom has a bin of 12×12 papers covering the air vent, too…
Notice how I have just room enough to back out my chair? There's junk piled everywhere that I won't run over it with the wheels. And that's my ribbon storage, way down there next to the floor. It's pretty inconvenient, not gonna lie.
Last photo. This is a little nook created when we turned the old dining room into a kitchen and had an extra doorway. It's crammed with craft fair racks and baskets, my sewing machine, and I see random spools of ribbon, paper napkins, catalog display racks… and is that hand sanitizer???
I did NOT take a picture of the inside of the closet. I do have my limits. I DO have to maintain a little dignity or I won't be able to look you in the eye ever again, after all!
Ok, so there you have it… it's out there for the world to see…. by the end of October, this is going to have drastically improved, and I will be able to do better work faster and with a better attitude because of the work I am putting into this area of my life this month. JOIN ME!
Bless you, Lyssa, for sharing your creative space! You are not alone! I feel the same way about my stamping space and it’s definitely in need of a makeover! I’m looking forward to your tips and I can’t wait to be inspired by your transformation! Good luck! PS: Ain’t no way I’m posting my before photos! LOL!
Congratulations for being so BRAVE! Your little space is very creative and beautiful, just like you! 🙂
Thanks for the tour. I love the first picture of the cabinets with chalkboard on the inside. Looks like you have a great space!
I’m totally in a predicament…. not only can I not find what I want when I want it, but my craft room doesn’t have a door, and it visible from my main living space, oy! Thanks for the challenge… I’m going to do it! But no sharing the ‘before’ until the ‘after’ is done…. I’m just too embarrassed 😛
You are a brave soul. We all this mess to somewhat a degree! I will be interested in what you do.
I found myself looking at the photos and saying “me too! Me too!”. Good luck with the big tidy up, and I’m sure you’ll inspire me to do the same.
Oh, you are brave! Putting it out there for all to see…….I don’t think I would do that in my space. I am fairly cramped ( as it looks like you are) and don’t have a lot of space to do much cleaning. What I need is a nice counter height space. Have to do my standing up things like Big Shot and paper trimming on the bathroom counter! I will see if maybe I can take on your challenge though and clean out some little areas. Thanks for sharing your space. I like looking at other folks’ crafting spaces.