now that's better!

So here's the problem, in a nutshell. I clean my craft room. I enjoy it for a while. Then one day I slip and don't clean it up after a project. Then another. Then I abandon the craft room for the kitchen table. Then the kitchen table craft and all its supplies are relegated to the dining room table. Another day, another kitchen table project and all its supplies are moved unceremoniously to the dining room table. Repeat as necessary until one day in a mad dash to clean the dining room, I dump all of the dining room table craft projects and supplies and anything else that might've landed on the dining room table (which, by the way, is never used for actual dining) into the already messy craft room. Maybe that happens two or three times, to the point where even passing through the craft room is an impossible task. Oh, and then to make that mess even worse, when I go into the room to retrieve craft supplies, I do that in the messiest possible way, all the while shooing Alfredo out of the room because it is so dangerous in there.

I am really hoping this time things will be different.

Here's how I'm hoping to change things:

1. All supplies and tools have proper homes. 
2. I craft only in my craft room. However, if for whatever reason I craft outside of my craft room, I will return the project and all its supplies immediately to the craft room.
3. When a project is complete, I will replace all supplies in their proper homes.
4. Every Friday will be my cleaning day. 

Okay, so do you want to see the fruit of my labors? Here's the tour:

Smack in the middle of the room is my main work area. I bought this workbench from Costco probably at least ten years ago. It's a great height and size. But you know, I would love to get giant casters for it...wouldn't that be fun? It came with a vise on the side but I'm not sure where it is now. For a few years this workbench was in our family room and was the extent of my crafting area. (There's still a paint spill on the carpet to proof it!) Someday I hope to cover all those drawer fronts with vintage wallpaper...

I covered the top with scraps of inspiring papers and had a glass cut to fit on top.

Whenever I'm painting, gluing, and glittering, I pull a piece of paper from this butcher roll to make clean up even easier.

And that blue cabinet? Do you remember when I got it? It was about 5 years ago. I got it from a local ebay auction and I think it was only $300. It's huge! I mean huge! It used to be in a pharmacy in Loudoun county...it even has trays that pull out that still smell of sulfur & chemicals! And you can't really see it in this photo but the whole bottom part is drawers! Drawers, drawers and more drawers!

I love this poster by Katie Daisy...it makes me so happy. 

This is a little cabinet of flat drawers...

I'm using it as a holding place for projects-in-progress and special bits that I want to use.

I found these lockers and file cabinet at the cottage in Leesburg. The locker store glue, paint, glitter, etc. and the file cabinet stores paper.

I have a LOT of vintage suitcases, as you can see. They take up a lot of room and make a tower too tall to be safe. So I decided to "stack" them using industrial shelving. This makes it ever so easy to get to, say, the bottom suitcase. I need to make labels for these so I can remember which holds vintage lace and which wool felt without opening all 9 of them! Mostly these cases store fabric and trim but one holds Christmas crafting stuff. That one and two other rarely used ones are at the tippy top.

One thing that made a HUGE difference in the craft room was putting in these blinds. Previously the windows just had sheers on them and I felt funny crafting at night in my pjs. I was sure the neighbors across the street were looking in and saying "What is she doing NOW?" while eating popcorn. Now I can craft all night long with crazy hair and in my pjs without worrying about peepers.