Studio Makeover - Progress Update - The Stuff

Welcome to the next installment! If you have read my first post, you've seen the before pictures......... I came up with some methods and different phases to help me sort through all the madness.

PHASE ONE

In order to paint I had to quickly pull stuff out of my studio. 

I set up a system of labeled boxes (keep reading for more details on that) and I started grouping like items in designated areas. I put all my fabric and yarn on the couch, magazines on top of the closet etc. There was also an area for boxes full of miscellaneous stuff that needed to be gone through.

Here are the categories I found helpful while sorting:
GIVE (items that will be given to a specific person or charity)
DONATE (items that will be donated to a thrift store)
SELL (items I'm hoping to sell, maybe on my etsy shop)
W.I.P (craft projects that are in various states of completion, each in their own bag)
V.I.P (items I don't want to lose in the chaos)
KEEP (basically, this box held my lamps so they wouldn't get lost)

Also important to have a place for:

RECYCLING (I used paper grocery sacks)
GARBAGE (I used garbage sacks)
SENSITIVE DOCUMENTS TO DESTROY (I used a card board box)


Meet Heinrich, our cat, this is his attempt at helping me sort.



More stuff....



and more...



I ran out of room so stuff spilled into other rooms... oopsies! I like to spread out, what can I say!


PHASE 2

After we pulled most of the stuff out of my studio it was time to go through some, shall I say time capsules.  In the past I would fill up shoe boxes, drawers etc. with "important" documents, trinkets and other miscellaneous objects. Well I'm proud to say that those days are over!  It took hours to go through these boxes and drawers of stuff that I never unpacked from last March when I moved in. I vow to never do that again!

I added some categories to my sorting system (see the picture below):

PAPERS TO FILE ( I used a shoe box)
SMALL PIECES OF PAPER TO GO THROUGH ( I used a clear shoe-box sized plastic bin )
SMALL ITEMS THAT NEED TO BE PUT AWAY  ( I used a clear shoe-box sized plastic bin)




We then took the items and boxes that were grouped into categories and figured out where to put them in the studio. On one shelving unit we put all my beads and jewelry tools. On the second we put my sewing tools and fabric and on the third we put my knitting, felting and general art supplies.  I soon discovered that I still have more stuff than then I have shelves......

Stay tuned for stay-cation stats and Phase 3!

Best,
Allison