Craft Space Clean Up - AFTER

Well ladies - with all your encouragement, I got down to business and have completed my craft space clean up and reorganization!

On my last post Patio Postcards asked if the word "Simplify" was a prior One Little Word.  YES! It was my word for 2016.  And it's still so relevant for me.

Susanne of Snaps and Snippets wondered about all the Scrabble games.  They were definitely purchased to harvest the tiles for crafting.  I thought I would use the game boards for backgrounds for wall art or covers for journals.  During the clean up, I had to admit that the likelihood of that EVER happening was slim, so I dumped all the tiles and trays into a gallon size plastic bag and recycled all the boards and boxes.  It takes up so much less space now!

Here are my AFTER photos with some commentary...

The view from the office side of the craft table toward the front entry hall.  You can SEE the table top!  All that delicious making space - and no boxes, bins, or piles of stuff!

Under the table are storage shelves.  The upper shelf has 8 full photo boxes.  The lower shelf has 6 plastic boxes of miscellaneous supplies - ribbon, sewing, beading, some small bits of specialty fabric.  I don't access these items often so this spot was chosen because it's not as easy to get at.

Side of desk facing the wall. From this view, you can see my actual "workspace".  All the inkpads in the wall unit were tested and labeled.  I donated about 20 different colors of glitter in teeny tiny baggies.  I never use glitter on anything anyway!  And I added one new item to the wall unit...

Sarah made this mug for me years ago.  It's been sitting unused in a cabinet in the kitchen.  This space was perfect, and honestly, it's inspirational in terms of scrapbooking!

You may recognize the quote from the 2008 movie "Australia" as something said by the Drover, played by Hugh Jackman.

And those yummy distress ink pads? Can you believe I had five unopened ones?  I haven't bought scrapbooking supplies in at least two years!!

View of the bookshelves. At first glance it may seem like nothing changed from the original shot.  To be honest, this bit took me the most time of all!  I went through every storage box, bin, and basket.  A few things were culled out.  Many things were moved to group with other like items and contents of many of the baskets and bins was changed out.

I tried to group all my most used tools and supplies into this section - in the easiest reach from my workspace.

Other sections of the shelves include my Library of Memories Binders...

Paper and Photo Binders...

And other albums.  Jay and I before kids, my high school/college scrapbook, an album for just my art journal/artsy style layouts, Week in the Life, etc.

Here's a close-up of the bulletin board wall.  I have been hanging onto those vinyl wall words since before 2008. I'm so glad I finally put them up!  I added a command hook for my apron and switched out the desk lamp for a smaller one that fit the space better.  All those markers and paints in the Coca Cola tray?  Every single one was tested - all the dried up ones were tossed!!!

Below the bulletin board - my Ikea carts and storage. To fit the second Ikea cart, I had to move the table toward the office about 6" which really opened up this space.  Moved my punches out of the bottom drawer (which I could barely open with the weight) and onto the new cart.  Reorganized what was in all the drawers based on what got used the most.  Everyday adhesives and foam dots are now in the drawer unit up on the table and the glue gun is in one of the storage drawers.

All the craft paints were tested as well.  Tossed quite a few dried up bottles.  Added color samples to the bottles that didn't already have them.  Before testing this rack was full!  I now have space to add new paints.  Not planning to rush out and buy anything - this is my "room to grow"!

From a little further out on the side of the desk, you can see my small modular shelving unit which fits partially under the table top. You also get a glimpse into my office and the new furniture I bought last August.  My next "big" purchase will be a new stool for this space.  The table is counter height. The stool was snagged from the kitchen, but it is bulky and uncomfortable to sit in for any length.  I want to get a new one that is on wheels and lighter weight.

This shelf unit holds all my "once and done" type albums and each year's One Little Word album.  I had green fabric bins in three of the sections originally.  As the number of albums grew, the bins have been removed and their contents relocated.  I removed the last one in this purge and relocated the milk bottles that I use for flower vases onto a high shelf in the kitchen cabinets.  That freed up space for some empty photo albums and journals that will, no doubt, become scrapbook projects in the future.

All those albums and I haven't even included a photo of the Pottery Barn window seat bench that houses about 15 albums in the cubbies under the bench!  I have done some scrapbooking in the last twenty years!  Yes, I've been scrapbooking over twenty years now!

I'll leave you with this close-up of a piece of art work you may have glimpsed on the bulletin board (note: the mermaid painting was done by my sister Deanna - she was going to toss it).  The one and only Lifebook 2020 lesson I've completed to date... the "warm up" lesson.

So are you feeling sufficiently inspired to tackle your own craft space? What change do you think had the most impact?