Organised?? No.

[#1]

Hello!

I just bought a standing set of box shelves and am in the process of reorganising all of my materials and products. I have seperated them into categories, have baskets for fabric, a box for fired 'ready to paint' items, a basket for shipping boxes etc..

But im already nearly out of space! Theres so much stuff! Its so hard! I'm wondering how everyone else organises their materials and products.. How do you do it?! Tips? Any useful advice you've received on the subject?

Any help appreciated :)
Carragh

[Former_Member]

Im thinking of maybe building a wooden keepsake box too that stands vertically with different sized openings for pottery items... hmm

Rebecca - Thank you!! :) And funnily enough, Hoarders also makes me a crazy cleaning/ organising lady hahah

[Former_Member]

Finished Stock goes int zip lock bags..I put like 15 or so in one bag. Then those bags go into special box way on top of my desk. Then list on the listing what lot it is(so im not looking for one heart out of 200)

Have a decent system of keeping all my glass rods/materials too but not sure if that will help anyone else lol.

[MilkThreads]

My sewing room is an organized mess. Seriously, if I neaten up very much, I can't find a thing. And another thing, my creative juices just stop working in a perfectly neat and organized room.

[Former_Member]

@ Jean - LOL!!! At least your honest! :)

[Former_Member]

@ Sarah - You sound like me! LOL!! But I did find some really cute little apothecary jars that I found at an estate sale that started helping me TRY to organize things. I worked on my desk some more yesterday and will work on it some more. I keep telling my husband that we have to switch our rooms around to make room for an office for each of us. He hasn't bought into it yet. LOL!!

But I just recently checked out ideas on IKEA's website and Pinterest, which someone already suggested. I also found some nice bead organizers at Joann's that I would buy with 50% off coupons from time to time. They're great for beads! Each case has 6 (I think) screw together, small clear plastic containers. I go for clear containers 99.9% of the time, otherwise I'd go crazy trying to find what I want. I try to keep the same colors of beads in one case. I've also put different kinds of pearls in its own case. And just recently, I started separating my metal findings according to color as well, and am trying to keep them in one area. Makes it so much easier when I need to find something for a project!

Hope this helps!

[Former_Member]

Well now I don't fill so bad. I see pictures of these craft rooms online and think there is no way someone works in there everyday. My whole house is a disaster. Sewing machine and fabric on the dining room table. Stacks of shoeboxes in the living room lining the short wall. Cuddlebug on the coffee table. Another 14 or 15 (I lose count) of shoeboxes stacked into my closet. Beading supplies under the bed, and thats the only thing that is half organized, by color with 2 rolly-pollies and 4 tackle boxes plus two shoe boxes for completed project.

I have a desk in our bedroom piled with packing supplies and half finished projects, as for completed items that are listed. You geussed it more shoe boxes in the linen closet.

I try to stay organized by seperating supplies by what I will use the most, but it's hard when you have so little space. A one bedroom apartment is not quite enough for me my husband and my craft supplies. LOL.

[Former_Member]

@ Caleb's Granni-- I know exactly what you mean. I organize everything and it's soo pretty in here and I can't complete a project for the life of me.

[Former_Member]

we had cabinets made, so everything is tucked away. and another good idea that works great is, if you have space under your desk, get those plastic drawers and stack them under there, then everything is right where you can reach it. get a label maker and walah your all organized. hope this helps, and good luck.

[Former_Member]

Thanks everyone! I've got a label crazy plan for tomorrow morning now ;)

[KriyaDesign]

"Can we do something about this?" Referring to boxes of crafts at his already diminishing workout area. Yes, I need the space more than you do your push ups. And the battle for space continues

"Do you really need all these?" Referring to stack and stack of magazines. Which I need for references and to feed my addiction for glossy, colorful, printed pages

Simply annoyed me to no end when he stars to ask the questions. My answers are always the same, no and yes :-)

Rule of thumb, make sure everything is labeled... meticulously good.

[SAStudio]

I am super organized... for about a minute. And then my work area tends to resemble the aftermath of a hurricane.

My one aha moment? I started putting all my wire into gallon zip loc bags and bought a hanging file folder thingy to put them in. Each size/shape wire gets a different labeled file folder. Easy peasy to find the right size wire now instead of digging through a storage drawer.

[Former_Member]

I haven't started organizing my stuff yet but I really need to!!!!

[Former_Member]

I love reading all the comments... It makes me feel more normal lol my work space is the laundry room but luckily its big enough for a table and a few shelves. But a quick tip that I've really found that helps is the plastic tool box with slide out drawers. My fiancé uses them for fishing hooks, nuts and bolts but I use them for all my supplies! And you can buy them in different size compartments. You can also stack them or hang them to save space and label all of the drawers (for those who really want to take it to the next level lol) . I guess you would have to have a lot of smaller materials but I think it works great :)

[lipmeister]

I had to hire an organizer! It was getting out of hand. My store is vintage. Thank God, she was really reasonable. She built floor to ceiling shelves and then got boxes at Office Depot and labeled everything, so I could find it easily. The only thing that's tough are the boxes I keep to save customers money on shipping. You have to fold them up and then figure out later which ones will fit the item. They take up so much space. Now, I just have to keep it up or have her move in with me lol!!

[RaesSpirit]

I think it is a crafter's thing. I upset my toddler granddaughter when I went to put her down for her nap and her crib was filled to the top with fabric! I told her that it was ok and grandma would fix. Now the fabric is all on top of the day bed! Where to put it?

[BethWold]

Ugh, I'm terrible at organization. I've got most of the house under control, and it is usually company ready - but I just can't get there and stay there with my office. Not to mention that even though I have two rooms of the house that are mine(office and studio) I'm still overflowing and storing matboard, and such in my husband's space. I really can't figure out how I'm using so much space... Of course, the studio is full of props and needs to have room left for newborn pics... so there's not much I can do with that room... but the office? Camera gear, printing supplies, books, computer components, etc... I want to do pics of the office for the about page... but I'm just not there yet!

My usual method for organizing is to set the timer for 15 minutes and organize/put things away, etc. It's truly amazing how much that 15 minutes accomplishes, and it is so much easier to motivate yourself for 15 minutes instead of "I have to clean it all spotless now".

However, I still have the problem of instant disaster every time I do a project. So I'm guessing that I need to organize better so I don't need to make a disaster to do every little thing. Now that I've sold and fulfilled a few orders I'm getting a better idea of what I need available for printing, packing, etc. So I'm hoping that will helps me set up workflow based storage.

[Former_Member]

hehehe. Organized, I laugh in your face! Honestly, I don't do too badly as long as I keep a system in place. My digital stuff is organized into seperate folders; ie- my knitting patterns are stored in individual file folders with a specific number (K115, K105, etc) that are then stored in the K1xx file folder. When somebody orders something I check the title for my file number (it's alwasy at the end of my title) and then pull up the folder. Presto! Paper goods are (mostly) stored under my bed in Sterilite containers. They are not the rolling under the bed containers, but a cheaper alternative & I can fit four down one side of the bed & 4 down the other side with room in the middle of my queen bed for another 2. Antiques are kept in my basement in labeled boxes. Green glass, blue glass, table linens, napkins, etc. If I have more than 1 box I'll label the posting A, B, C.... My crafting goods I keep in those fab 12x12 cubes that Michael's sells. I bought mine at 40 & 50% off and have enough for my desk (two cubes stacked up o0n either side and I use the largest white melamine shelf Menards sells as my 'desk top'. Plus I have a stack of about 20 with another shelf across the top of those and I use the top as a display for my vintage pottery. Across the room I have 2 short bookcases for paper and other crafty stuff & the top of the cases holds my antique doll collection. My closet has about 3 large totes with all my yarn. The yarn used to live in open boxes across the top shelf of the closet, but I have a mouse issue, so now EVERYTHING is kept in plastic totes, and I toss one of the cats in the room to do her thing :) So far no mice, and the cat happily sleeps in a kitty tree in the craft room :-)

[RoyGBivandCO]

My boyfriend has excepted that creative people work better when they see their stuff out in the open....like all over the room. I have tried to get "organized" and have lots of shelving units in my studio.....,the thing is, they are mostly empty! I can't bear to stop creating for the whole day it would take to put everything on the shelves......and I multi task so I create several things at the same time....so the stuff works it way off the shelves very quickly. While I still "try", I too have excepted that my creative process works when I can see all my things in the open......I am organized just messy!

[AtHomeWithLolly]

I am fortunate in that I had an unfinished room above the garage for years and this past year , after starting Etsy, my husband helped me "finish" it. So all the cartons, tubs, rolls of fabric, ribbons left my closets and made it's way to my studio.

That is phase 1 of the organization. I now need to break it into sub-categories and have it by color and fabric. Vintage is in tubs and needs to be labeled. But I am one BIG STEP into at least cleaning out the house......see my ABOUT PAGE for photos!