Organizing Your Crafting Space, Part 1

I'd like to share some ideas with you that may help you in organizing your crafting space.  Whether you have a tiny part of your home or an entire room, organization is more important than anything else you can do.  I don't care how fancy you have it all set up, if you can't find anything and can't work efficiently, your creativity will be seriously impaired.

Before we begin, let me share one of my newest ideas with you --- a rotary stamp holder!  I've had this holder for a while and it certainly isn't new, but I had a new idea this week to try my own Stampin' Up! rotary stamps in it and they work!  How fun!

I was having trouble finding a way to contain these so I could find them, but not have them in the way.  This is the perfect solution!  If Stampin' Up! comes out with more rotary stamps, I have a little more room for them.  Bring it on!

Now... on to Organizing Your Crafting Space, Part 1:
I cannot tell you how to organize your space because each person has a different style of working and creating and you must do what works best for you.  I can give you tips and then you can take it from there.
One thing about crafting spaces is that they are constantly evolving.  The reason is:  We are constantly getting newer and better tools and products, keeping older loved tools and products, as well as retiring some each year --- to make way for something else.  Along with this, each new product creates a need for its own unique size and shape of space.  This makes organizing an ongoing project, totally unlike your clothes closet, for example, where you simply remove old clothes and add new ones --- all in the same space and same configuration.

So, how do we keep up with it all?  Here are some tips to help you:
- Keep experimenting to see what works best for you.
- Tour various studios and crafting spaces online to see what others are doing.
- Pinterest is FULL of ideas to help you.  I even have a board there with examples.
- Make small changes at a time.
- Try working on a project in your new space and see if it works for you
- If it's not working, change it.
- Maybe you need to start back at square 1 to organize your space.
- Maybe you just need to tweak things a bit to make your space work for you..
- Make notes and/or diagrams to help you plan.
- Incorporate things you like in your home into your crafting space.
- No matter how you do it, control and contain everything.
- Leave space for yourself --- space to create.
- Use a neutral color story, so you can add and change accent colors any time.
- Above all, keep a file or notes on ideas you may like to try.
- Ideas from others just may inspire new ideas of your own, too.
- It's your happy space.
- Make it fun.
- Make it functional.
- Make it be yours.

I truly hope this post will inspire you to get going on some new organization of your crafting space.  You'll be glad you did!  Keep scrolling down and see all the unique ways I've used vintage items to organize and store things in my studio.  You will see that I use a lot of favorite vintage items as useful storage containers, while adding interest to my work space.  I've done it all in a neutral black and white color story, so that I can add favorite new color accents whenever I wish to change things out a bit.  Enjoy your little tour!

Let's start out with 'Command Central.'  This is where I store all my CS and DSP.  I am fanatical about keeping it neat.  Neatness is not only essential to finding things quickly, but it also protects the papers.  There are 2 smaller drawers inside the armoir doors and then a large drawer on the bottom.  All the drawers contain alphabets, many of which are retired but still used for personal scrapbooking.

Now, let's go to smaller items:

I made this holder for string and twine from vintage spools that I mounted onto a round base that I stained before attaching them.  It is useful and fun.

A 3-tiered server contains all the odds and ends of pieces from ongoing projects so that they don't become lost or damaged or a pile of clutter.  My next post will have more about the cute little cup and the vintage mold being used as containers for smaller items.

This vintage crockery bowl was actually my grandmother's and I love having it out to enjoy each day while it provides a useful place to contain spools of Baker's Twine.

I added more little spools of twine to this little box made from the front of a sewing machine drawer.  I painted it and 'grunged' it up a bit.  I absolutely love it!

This is actually an old cheese box that I fancied up.  I keep it on my desk for corralling little note pads and 'stuff' I need close at hand. 

You've seen this decorated sewing machine drawer before.  It contains my embossing folders.  I keep it out all the time, so I have easy access to my folders and can enjoy how pretty it looks.

This is my sampler for our embossing folders.  Every time we get a new embossing folder, I add a sample to the ring.  When a folder retires, I keep the sampler but move it to a 'retired' ring.  I seldom get rid of an embossing folder.

And last, but not least for today, remember my longer sewing machine drawer?  This is incredibly handy for holding all my Thinlits and Framelits.  Since posting about it previously, I've had the opportunity to use it a lot and it works!

So, now you've seen some of my ideas for organizing a crafting space.  I've followed my rules of...

- keeping it fun but functional.

- keeping a neutral color story, so the pops of accent colors really have an inpact.

- using favorite vintage items from my home that are special to me.

- keeping all my supplies and tools contained, so I have plenty of room to create.

For more ideas, click here to see my previous Studio Tour.

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.