Whew! What A MESS!

I don't care how hard I try, I cannot keep my craft room clean. Part of it stems from just having TOO MUCH stuff in this room. My craft room is my computer room, scrapbook room, sewing room, and also houses much of my daughter Melissa's crafting stuff as well - she has sewing stuff, knitting and cross-stitch stuff, jewelry making, and scrapbooking stuff in here. In addition to my L-shaped desk, we try to keep a 4 foot table as well so that she has a place to work or I have a place for the sewing machine - the table is normally in the closet opening which works out well. In the space where the table is now, I am going to be putting a small desk for Melissa to do her classwork on - she needs a place where she can be held more accountable to help her stay on task.

It's pretty sad actually - when we moved here 4 years ago - we had TONS of room. We upsized from 3 bedrooms & 1300 sq. ft to 4 bedrooms and 2000 sq. ft. Now every closet and cabinet is stuffed to overflowing. How does this happen?

So, I've decided to start with my craft room - I'm going to try to participate in Scrappily Ever After's Boot Camp and see if I can get the craft room under control. If the process works here, then maybe I can follow the same steps and tackle other rooms in the house!

To get started, we were supposed to take pictures of our mess and post them for all the world to see - here's my mess (and this is actually MUCH cleaner than it was 2 weeks before Christmas - I cleaned before the kids came down). With the exception of the closet, most of this mess has happened in just a week.







The closet is actually stuff I crammed in there before the kids came - stuff that was sitting around that was not safe for the grandkids so I put it in there. No clue where it's going to go now.



Here is my Day 1 exercise as well - establishing goals I want to achieve:

What Works What Doesn't Goal My actual scrapbook work space - love having most everything within arm's reach. Stamp pad & Ribbon storage - have to get up to get them so they never get put back away. Find a way to incorporate these items into my work area. Paper storage - organized and visible - easy to return things to proper place. Stamp storage - in cardboard photo boxes - out of sight/out of mind, and a real hassle to get them out and return them. See if I can free up some drawer space for stamp storage. Clear front drawer storage - I use what I can see, it's more likely to go back to the right spot since I can see it and don't have to move boxes to put it back. Photo storage boxes - cheap storage but they just don't work out for keeping a room organized - can't see what's inside and hate having to unstack to get to the bottom boxes. Shop for some drawer units that will fit my shelving units - or replace shelving with some drawer units.
If you stuck it out to read all my ramblings - thanks so much. I hope you'll stop by and help me stay on track.