Craft Room Organization

Jayne over at The Kelly House always talks about how old home renovation is a lot like  nesting dolls. You start a project and find another and another as you go. I couldn’t agree more. We’re ready to remove the doll wallpaper border from the parlor walls but before we start, 10 million other things need to be done. So, I’ve been working on getting some things organized around here and I’m starting to feel like I’m in the middle of a game of whack-a-mole. I’m tired and needed a break so I thought I’d show you some of my progress so far.

When you live in an old house you have a shortage of storage space, it comes with the territory. There is no such thing as a walk-in closet. The attic in this house is only accessible by a tiny hole in the ceiling of a bedroom closet and the basement is too damp to store anything in. If you suffer from IMBATUTS (I might be able to use that someday) syndrome like I do, it’s a real issue. Living in an old house without visitors noticing that you are a hoarder is impossible. So I have to force myself to purge and organize occasionally.

There is this awkward little room at the top of the back stairs that really is more of a large hallway than a room as it leads to all the other rooms. It’s one of those spaces that decorators despise because it is impossible to arrange any furniture in. It has been the dumping station for my knitting, spinning and paper crafting supplies for quite some time. I used to be a scrapbooking and rubber stamping demonstrator and I have an entire room full of supplies. I’ve vowed to simplify and reduce the amount to only what I can fit in a desk and a few shelves. That method of self-imposed space limitation has worked for my quilting supplies so I figured I’d try to apply it to all areas of my life.

I’m not going to show you any before photos because it would be far too embarrassing. Let me just say there was a plethora of shopping bags and stacks of stuff everywhere. To say it was not pleasing to the eye would be an understatement. I decided the room needed a makeover but I didn’t want to spend any money. Or very little money if I could help it. Here is the 360 degree tour.

The only new thing in the room are the cheap inexpensive cube shelves and baskets from Target (the French pronunciation) to store knitting and spinning supplies. Every thing else in the room has been dragged from other parts of the house.

Ethel volunteered to pose so you can get a sense of depth perception. Wasn’t that nice of her? The old trunk stores fleeces ready to card.

While it looks like there is a lot of light shining in that window, this is the darkest room in the house.  I had long drapes before but switched them out for this simple valance, which I happened to already have. It’s still dark in here but I can watch the sheep grazing easier.

I still have some artwork to put up and I think I still need some sheepy accessories, but I’m pleased with my progress. At least I don’t feel like I need to pull my hair out when I walk through here.

Now that this room is finished I have to clean the room where all that stuff I took out of here went, and so on and so on for three more rooms.

All because I wanted to strip some wallpaper in the opposite end of the house.