Craft Room Cleanse

Kate over at Sparkle Tart is doing a 30-day Craft Room Cleanse and I am joining her!  Unlike Kate, I have a whole room to myself (sort of) and some cupboards and lots of stuff to use, but I am woefully unorganized and a mess maker so I need to do this cleanse.  However, it may take me a little longer than 60 days....  I know, it sounds like a cop-out, but my room does have stuff in it that belongs to other members of the family and in order to get it out of my space, their space has to be rearranged too, so that part of my cleanse is not totally dependent on me.  So to begin with, and I think this will be embarrassing enough to actually make me do this since I will be posting pics and keeping you all posted on my progress, here are some pics of what my "craft room" looks like right now

I told you it was scary!  This is from the doorway.  To the left you can see a closet, which is filled with my hubby's stuff.  So that has to be moved out.  To the right behind the water bottle, is a bunch of boxes and stuff that we all need to go through.  Above those is my window.  It does get pretty nice light in the daytime and I have the dreaded fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling.  And I have the lovely Clip it Up by Simply Renee but it is definitely not being used to its full potential.

I have cabinets up and down and they are metal which are great - I like to print out current challenges I am working on and have them up there with magnets so I can refer to them as I craft.  That counter underneath is pretty much unusable as I have it covered with stuff.  The magazine holders I got from the dollar store and they are perfect for holding 8-1/2 by 11 paper, but I don't know where to store my 12 x 12 paper.  I do have a paper holder from Creative Memories but it does not nearly hold all my paper.  I have a bit of a paper addiction.  and the same goes for my ribbons.  Yes that basket is full of reels of ribbon which have come unrolled and I have left them that way - I know it is shameful.

 I was looking for specific stamps and left all my stamps out all over - yes I need a new way to organize those.

These 2  pics above show my "work space"  I have a 4 foot table in the middle of my room which I can work on, but I have so much stuff on there that I leave myself about a 2 foot space to work, but the bottom picture is what my work space looks like right now.

So now you have seen a little of what I am working with.  What I did not put in my pictures is what else is in my room.... One wall is filled with my boxes of fabric - about 10 large plastic boxes of fabric and fabric related stuff - once upon a time I thought I would have time to sew.  I have actually down-sized my fabric already.  If I could clean out the closet, that is where my fabric would go.  On the other side of my room is my hubby's reloading table (for reloading bullets) which he has not used in 20 years but won't get rid of so we need to find a place for it.  Also other assorted boxes of stuff I need to go through, things like the kids' school projects which need to either be put in memory books or something, not sure what, and wrapping stuff for wrapping presents.  Also some more cupboards which are filled with my crafting magazines - cannot seem to get rid of them, but these I have not looked at for years so will be going through them again to see what I can live without now.  Also 2 cupboards that have lazy-susans in them which I cannot even get to because of the crap that is in front of them.

Now, see why I said it might take more than 30 days?  But I am determined to at least get my crafting area cleaned up.  So now I am going to go browse some web sites to get some ideas for what I would like to do and figure out my lists for what I have, need and want like Kate has done.

If you are interested in doing this for your own craft room, join us!  I can use all the encouragement I can get.  Needless to say, I may not be crafting for a while.  Lately I have been using my work desk (I work at home) and so now my "office" looks like my craft room and no I am not posting pictures of that!!!

Wish me lots of luck - I am going to  need it!

Hugs,
Becky