Deep cleaning sure takes a lot of work. I have been going through every bin and drawer, sorting, rearranging, recycling and getting rid of a few things. I haven’t gotten rid of much, really, I keep a pretty tight ship over here, but I have been stuffing miscellaneous items into the wrong drawers and bins for quite a while.

I have been thinking about what helps me feel organized. The main thing for me is, I don’t want to see too much visual clutter. If I continuously stuff items on top of bins, and do not clean up after an intense project, this is visual clutter. This does not mean that in the middle of a project that my workspace is pristine, not at all. When I am in the process of making a thing, my workbench and every surface around it is a total mess. It has to be this way. But! My goal is have all of my supplies, materials and tools easily accessible, so that when I am in the process of creating and exploring ideas, I don’t get tripped up by not being able to find particular stamp or stencil. Being organized also helps make clean up easier because everything has its place.

Last week, David and I were returning home from a walk about and we came across this Trofast (Ikea) wooden bin in someone’s trash. I already own 4 of these bins (with the drawers, not shown here), so we nabbed it and brought it home. I really like bins and boxes with lids. This feeds into my need for visual simplicity and also helps me define aspects of what visual clutter is: Visual clutter is the inability to properly shut a bin or drawer! If the bin is stuffed chock full? The lid tips? It drives me crazy. 

I really like being able to grab a box, bin or drawer and be able to get what I need, then put it away. Salvaging the Trofast bin created the need to purchase the matching bins to go with it, So I packed my bags with sweaters and socks and (Oh, sorry. That is a different story– one of my favorite childhood stories), and walked over to Ikea to get a few items to complete this organizational extravaganza.

The items in these boxes got reorganized and put into the Trofast bins. Like items together, I put some items into ‘deep storage’, others got grouped by type (sewing items, fusible webbing, printed sacks (which I have fallen in love with for some reason), and painting items each got there own bin.

I am sorry this photo is blurry. But I think you might get the idea that this pegboard bin had a layer of dust and grime. Well? No longer. Dirt and dust has emotional weight in addition to visual. I emptied each bin, got out a toothbrush and scrubbed it clean.

Deb Lacativa once told me that keeping beads separated by color and type was akin to a bead prison! And while I still chuckle at this analogy, I was never able to make leeway in changing my perspective. I like things sorted by color, type, need and project. This bead prison  😎 holds items related to purse making, rivets, button release clips, bells, and embellishments. So why have a stuffed brass letter stencils in there, when they could be more easily accessed in my new painting area. This has been remedied but is an illustration of just how deeply I want to clean and organize. There really is no use in having supplies if you are unable to find and use them.

And, I think this is really important too, ‘It isn’t the supplies you own, but what you make with them’! For some reason this jar of Presist became precious to me and I put it aside, I remember thinking it was expensive stuff and that I needed to hold on to it for the right project. Well, I don’t know if you can tell but it is dried up. I had to throw it away. To add insult to injury, this product is being discontinued! 

My organizational extravaganza is almost complete, When I am done, I will create a video and show you what is in each drawer and why I think it works well. In the meantime, perhaps you could encourage Mary Ann to get her sort on! Mary Ann posted to facebook that she hung pictures and unpacked 5 boxes, I want to see some photographs!

The above cabinet is really a monster. I jam pack stuff into and need to pull stuff out and rearrange things every time I need something stored in it. My intention for this cabinet is to store items that will be used in wet work, In other words, soda soaked cloth, urea, textile paint, brushes that cannot be hung on peg board, aprons, soy wax tools, stamp pads, and a few other things that need to be in the studio room, like my wall projector, scale to weigh dye and so forth.

The way this looks when I open those two doors drives me n-u-t-s. Not to mention the books and magazines above.  The soda soaked cloth at upper right? I can’t grab soda soaked organza without pulling every little stuffed bit out with it. I use those plastic bins (blue and white) all the time and each time, I take everything out, place it on the shelf where the bins were and go about my business. Below that is were I store my handmade stamps, which I rarely take out because that means I also need to take out my freezer paper, parchment paper and zip top bags.

A few months back, I identified this space as a potential staging area for acrylic painting and I bought and installed the peg board, which  you can see under the plants. I began gathering the items that ought to go in this area but then, I did not finish the job and this table became the catch all for all things not on my workbench. And the area underneath became the place to stuff items I didn’t want to see. But I see them.

And here you see, oh gosh, a mess. I keep stuffing things on top of the bins, just to have a place to put them. Just looking at this photo makes me sad. Up at the top? I call that ‘deep storage’ That is where I put things that I want access to but don’t need in a snap. Sadly, I don’t use the stereo very often because my music and podcasts are in the computer… which, if I can wrap my mind around storing or getting rid of the stereo, could be more space for storage bins.

And here is my workbench with peg board attached. And although this looks decent, (I loves me some pegboard), there sure is a good deal of space that could hold more tools!

So: 

What staging areas do you need? Do you have to hop out of your sewing chair to grab a new spool of thread? Are your pens, paints, rulers and brushes close enough to your journals and canvases that you can simply lean over and reach for the fancy tool? What do you keep piling up and where does it need to be in order to use it effectively? 

Take all of these messy piles off their unintended surfaces and place them in a single pile in the center of the room. Get the trash bin, recycle bin, and a bag for the thrift store too. Deconstruct your piles by making more piles! This is going to look a whole lot messier before it looks better. For now though, if you find thread, place it on you sewing machine staging area, move on, this part of the project is about the big picture.

While you are ripping through your studio and putting stuff in its appropriate area, assess areas that could be used as ‘deep storage’. Look for small spaces that could neatly hold a thing or two (look under my workbench- there is a wooden wine box with a lid that holds all of my stencils and potting soil, both fit nicely and don’t scream, “Mess!”)

And remember, ‘Like Things Together’. Also remember, it is OK to donate, recycle and trash things.

My cleanly obsessions have inspired Pat Spillane to join in on the cleaning fun, please go tell her I said, “right on”.