Spring Cleaning (Studio Organization Update)

Well, it's official—spring has sprung. Colorado continues to toy with us by throwing random snow days amidst the warm weather, but we've got spring fever nonetheless. Spring is the season of growth and renewal—and of spring cleaning! In late January, I wrote about my New Year's resolutions—to organize my craft/computer room and to spin and knit a sweater. I won't talk about my sweater resolution (sadly, no news thus far), but I am making some progress in the studio. In addition to a lot of sympathy (I'm glad I'm not the only one with a studio that needs some help!), my post garnered a lot of great comments and handy tips to help me make my workspace organized and efficient (I especially love the idea of a pegboard wall with little buckets for tools).

The first thing I did was something I'm going to call "The Great Purge." Massive amounts of fiber, yarn, fabric, and random odd bits were donated or given away to crafty friends. It was hard at first, but in the end it felt great to get rid of so much stuff I know I won't use, and it left me a lot less stuff to organize.

Lots and lots of storage is key to keeping things clutter-free, and I've discovered that for me keeping things visible is very important, too—because if I can't see things, then I either never use them or I forget I own them and accidentally buy multiples. A couple of things I've found particularly helpful:

Gridded storage cubes (top left): I put up a large wall of gridded storage cubes shortly after I set up this room, but they were just a holding area for large amounts of stuff. It still needs a bit of refinement, but I re-organized, and now this area holds an amazing amount of supplies, and it's easy for me to see just what I have. Buckets along the bottom row hold yarn sorted by color, fabric is sorted by color on the shelves above, interfacing, batting, and sewing patterns have their own cube, and magazines are organized by title in holders. I have a massive amount of magazines, and the magazine section will probably have to be relocated to somewhere roomier once I find more holders, but this will do for now.

Clear rolling drawers (bottom left): I don't exactly know what to call this little thing, but it's one of my favorite storage tools. It has lots of drawers in different sizes, and most importantly, it rolls! I can roll it to where I need it or just remove an entire drawer and take it to where I'm working. The top drawers are for smaller things—one for sewing notions, one for thread, one for needles/hooks, and one for spinning notions. I'd like to add some silverware organizers to compartmentalize things in these drawers even further, but this is a good start. The large lower drawers hold extra flyers and bobbins, as well as unfinished knitting/crochet projects, each in their own bag (I usually make small projects such as scarves and hats, so this actually provides a lot of storage for those tiny things).

It is slow going but the studio is coming together bit by bit. Thank you for your comments and tips—I am definitely reading them and putting them to good use! Please keep the thoughts coming! And if you're working on your studio this spring, let me know how it's going and share some pictures!

Here's to an organized spring!
—Stefanie