My Craft Room

And the days and weeks fly by again...

I reorganized my workspace again. There are things that I no longer enjoy doing and some that I am unlikely to ever do again for various other reasons.  Have you heard of Swedish Death Cleaning? There is also a Japanese method (Konmari) where you are supposed to hold something to decide whether or not to keep something based on whether or not it brings you joy.  I had begun paring down stuff a few years ago, but in small ways. The momentum has picked up, not that most would notice it as I still have lots of things in the house, both useful and joyful.

Oddly enough, decluttering began by bringing more into the house, this time carts. My craft closet has bifold doors centered on a wide, shallow space. By that I mean that this is not a walk-in closet. It has served me well but I needed to be able to get to things without unstacking multiple bins to get the one item I needed that was behind others. Carts and diminishing my stash made sense. My hobby life would be simpler if I only had one hobby but that has never been the case.

Here are two carts in full view of the open closet doors. The white one is from Michaels, the other is from Target. Bins could be my middle name as they are all over the house, confining clutter. The cart on the right has stamps in it, organized by themes. The pink labels on the bins list the themes within the bin, the yellow, orange and red cards seen in them are subject dividers.

The shelf holds less used sewing trims to the left, multiple use ribbons come next and then bins of items that relate to paper (card making and scrapbooking) crafts and also art supplies.

Inside the closet to the left is fabric, wall hangings and table runners that I've made, some beading supplies and my sewing machine (not visible). Labels are my friends.

Looking into the right side of the closet is another cart with multi-colored drawers that hold embellishments, embossing folders, specialty papers, and stencils. Not visible beyond that is a wooden cart that holds paper. I have 12 x 12 inch papers in that cart along with some 8.5 x 11 inch in bins that slide out from those shelves. 

Once upon a time, these shelves mostly held books. I don't save novels anymore and have pared down my cookbooks and craft manuals. I have them in my office now. Their defined spaces prevent me from slipping back into collecting more than I need. In this split view of the bookcase wall, there is a wooden cart that used to be in our business' kitchen which had very little counter space. My die cutting machine sits there now.  

 

Across from the wall of shelves is a large work area. This room was once my older son's bedroom until we added an addition. It was another two years before we began defining it as my (then) sewing room, adding all of the cabinets and bookcases.

This is where most of my seated crafting happens. The shelf unit used to hold teacups in another room. The painting on the right is a watercolor sampler of my hobbies. I have a picture of that in my sidebar on this blog.

This room makes me happy. When it is messy and I'm working, I'm happy. When I'm not working and it is cleaned, I am both happy and surprised.

I recently bought a flamingo print shower curtain at Target. Previously, the shower curtain I used had a gray geometric print. The only print on the wall was a purchased print of three women on the beach. All are chubby, all are wearing hats, and are seen from behind. One has a one-piece suit on, one has a two-piece, and one is only wearing the hat. 

The two pictures on the right are from art lessons a few years ago. The lower one is a whimsical image of four women in/on inner tubes in a pool, the upper one is a realistic flamingo. I never imagined I would hang it and use it in my bathroom! The beach chairs were printed on glossy paper and added to a piece of wood with a rope hanger (from Michaels). This bathroom is an interior room (no window) so I like to keep the wall color light and I'm enjoying the color in these pieces.