Craft Shelves: Organized

A long time ago (21 months) I wrote a post about my craft area needed some major organization help.  It started as my scrapbook area and then when I transitioned to photobooks I didn't need a scrapbook area.  I started sewing more and it became a holding area for whatever I was working on at the moment.  Or things I had been working on and might pick back up in the next 3-4 months.  Or just a place to pile things that needed addressed at some point.

It was generally a mess.

We always have a list of projects and some of them take priority (like all the work Matt put into repairing our crumbling porch foundation last fall) and this wasn't one of them.  But it was finally bumped up and Matt built the shelves in March.  I painted them in April.  They were even featured in a blog post here in May.  Then, as with most projects, the lingering details always take a while to finish and that pegboard was the lingering detail on this one.

But now it's (mostly) done and I am so thrilled with the massive improvement to this space.

 

The shelves hold my sewing stuff, both finished items (largely burb cloths) and fabric.  It has books that I use for decorating (some fabric covered, some not).  It holds pillows that I got from my grandparents' house that I will recover someday (I've already covered a few!).  It holds gift bags and tissue paper, wrapping paper.  Other projects in process like stocking kits, the mostly finished stocking I sewed last year for our next child, and craft things for Luke.  It has boxes of printed pictures, some that I rotate through for my Instagram collage, ones to send to Luke's birth mother with our annual letter, and others extras I have printed.  These shelves fit in a whole lot of function and storage that is A LOT more attractive than my previous piles.

 
My sewing machine sits on top and the blue basket holds most of my sewing essentials that I can carry to the dining table when I sew.  Makes it super easy and convenient.

I've said it many times.  I firmly believe in "a place for everything and everything in it's place" and I find it so satisfying that many more things now have a set space other than "just pile it on my table wherever there is room".

The IKEA cart holds most of the "Luke friendly" craft items like googly eyes, poof balls, pipe cleaners, paint, stickers, and markers as well as his school books.  It makes it real easy to find the items I need for our (occasionally) weekly craft projects.

And the pegboard, the part that took forever to finish.  Wrapping ribbons and scissors (out of the reach of a 4 year old for good reason!).  Those didn't take up as much room as I expected so there was room for my thread too.  Which, for now, is all stored on various hooks we already had.  I am brainstorming a better/more uniform way to hang those but for now, and no cost, this works.

I was especially thrilled that, other than the white baskets (all from Target) I could mostly use what I had on hand for the organizing.  The cart has baskets from my old scrapbook storage (from the dollar store), old formula containers, and cleaned out candle jars (after consolidating them).  My blue sewing notions basket was a free hand-me-down from my sister.  The jars holding tape on the top were a Target clearance find for $1.50 each.  I did buy the flamingo and pineapple photo boxes but really...how could I not??


This is the mess we started with:

With some work, a few (lot) months, I'm left with this:

And the part of my brain that loves organizing (which is a pretty big part) is so pleased with the results. It is SO SATISFYING to finish up these big (ish) projects!