Hello dollies…thanks for joining me for this month’s Where Bloggers Live 06.2021: How I Organize. I am writing this at the very last minute because I got very busy organizing today!! You know how I’m in the midst of spring – soon-to-be summer cleaning, right? Well, if you consult today’s to-do list, you would see that I was supposed to be finishing up the spring cleaning in the upstairs guest bedroom. Did the linens, dusting, baseboards, blinds and windows yesterday and cleaned out the closet last week. So today I was just going to run the vacuum then clean the carpet.
But…
I got distracted. Which is what usually prompts me to start organizing. Until mid-afternoon, I was still on track with today’s to-dos but then I spent an hour working on my bicycle collage with my sister. Valerie had to go have her hair cut so we stopped crafting. Then one thing led to another, and next thing I knew I was decluttering and organizing my craft space/loft.
I just finished about 30 minutes ago. And now I am going to give you the condensed version of how that looked. But first…
Where Bloggers Live
For any new friends, please allow me to explain about this series. Where Bloggers Live is kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…with bloggers! Each month I am always happy to see that my Where Bloggers Live posts are among my most popular. Probably because we are all a little curious about other people’s homes and lives. You can read my last Where Bloggers Live post, here, where we talked about something in our home that is past its life expectancy but for sentimental reasons we are unable to part with. That was a bittersweet post for me to write.
Now let’s get to the business at hand…how I organize!!
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WHERE BLOGGERS LIVE 06.2021
You remember that I am a retired school librarian. When you think of a librarian, what personality traits or characteristics do you associate with someone who’s chosen that career path? I think one that most everyone would attribute to a librarian is strong organizational skills. I loved my job for 25+ years. Partly for that reason. It was an opportunity to get paid to organize!! I loved the babies and the books even more, though…but that’s for another day.
So, it’s no surprise I organize around the house – almost for fun. Until this spring, at least, when I have gotten bogged down and can’t seem to get much done. Like I explained above, I had no intention of organizing my craft area but something flipped in me this afternoon. That old elementary librarian surfaced and got the job done!
How I Organize
I’ve read Marie Kondo’s first book, and employ her method of organizing and decluttering with my own spin on it. Kondo recommends removing everything from a space. The closet, your dresser. And then touching each piece to evaluate it before putting it back in its place. She also suggests we hold each item to determine whether it brings us joy. I talked a little about that in last month’s Where Bloggers Live post. The figurines I was ready to part with still brought me joy. And I wound up keeping them.
But it is a little different with crafting supplies. They all have the potential for helping me create things that will bring me joy. Joy in the creating process and joy once the piece is finished. So, rather than examining each piece of scrapbook paper and paint brush for potential joy, I just tried to clean things up. Gather like things in one place. Find new homes for things. Streamline my storage so that supplies are easier to find.
Pull It Out
When I decided to do this today, I pulled it all out. Pretty much everything. Into the middle of my loft floor. Which isn’t a very big space so you can imagine the mess. Something like this.
And then I sat down right in the middle of all the stuff and began sorting. So I guess that is the first step of my organizational process. Sorting. I loved teaching the kids how we sorted and arranged the books in the library. It was one of my favorite lessons.
Sort It
Rather than determining if something I was sorting brought me joy, I determined what kind of project I use it for. And I grouped like supplies together. Of course, I have decluttered and organized this space at least a zillion times. But when I am mid-project and being all creative, my supplies can get kind of jumbled together. So, this organizing is an ongoing and continual process.
Scrapbook Stuff
Last spring I purchased this cute red craft cart and have used it to organize many of my supplies.
I actually took this picture a few days ago for an iSpy ‘red’ photo prompt. Today I cleaned it up so that most everything on it is scrapbook related.
Went through all of my scrapbook paper, sorting it into 3 categories. Patterned paper, solid colors and scraps. The plastic 3-drawer cabinet under my craft desk in the middle of the photo below holds my intact sheets. There’s a box on top in which I put all of my scrap paper. Many times in collages, I use tiny bits of scrap paper. The bin to the left of the paper cabinet is full of embellishments for scrapbooking. Buttons, flowers, beads, chipboard die cuts. In the open plastic crate on the right I have larger die cuts, stickers and adhesive letters stored in sheet protectors by theme. Christmas, beach, snow day, Easter, hiking.
Still looks kind of messy but part of that is the octopus-like extension cord on the floor. Cords. I should have added them to my 10 on the 10th post about things I dislike. Cords are the worst.
Some of my themed scrapbook paper is stored in page protectors with stickers, embellishments on the same theme and photos that are ready to be mounted. In the photo below, you can see two packages of beach papers and supplies…ready for scrapping our upcoming trip to South Padre Island in July. These packages are in a drawer in my book shelf.
Here’s the top of my craft desk. I sort projects and keep only the current one on top of my table. Think I mentioned that I am currently working on a bicycle collage.
Cards and Letters
What do you do with special cards and letters you want to keep? Or do you keep cards and letters? Am I the only one? I have 3 notebooks into which I file these mementos.
Not sure why I am holding onto these things. I rarely go back to read them. Mostly because doing so makes me all mushy and sentimental and teary-eyed. And I don’t like feeling that way often. Maybe next year I can part with some of them. Or not.
Toss It
At 63 years old, I am beginning to be able to let go of things a little easier. Not cards or letters, though!!
Today, I also sorted my Bible journaling and drawing supplies. I created an art drawer in the upstairs guest room nightstand for art supplies for the grands. Treated myself to a jumbo box of colored pencils recently so donated my odds and ends to the girls’ supplies. All of my art supplies are in a drawer in my book shelf with my pads of art paper, calligraphy pens and books, my journals and completed Bible study workbooks.
Started to toss my devotional workbooks, old gratitude journals but decided to keep them. Maybe this 63 year-old isn’t as good about tossing things as she thought.
See the little boxes on the right side of the top drawer? Those are Cricut cartridges for my very old Cricut machine. I am learning to use it with more confidence to create die cuts for my scrapbooking pages. The Cricut machine is kind of cumbersome and takes up a lot of space on my craft table.
Here’s a closer look at that top drawer. Oh, dear. I just had an epiphany. Might have a better place for the cartridges and themed scrapbook packages. Might be back in my loft tomorrow organizing things again.
This probably looks like a terrible mess to you. But believe me, it is better than it was. Let’s review where we started back at the sorting step.
Yeah, PC wasn’t terribly impressed either. Compound that with the dollar signs Paul sees when he looks at all this stuff. I don’t invite him into my loft often.
In summary, here’s how things look in my loft tonight. You can see the rug!! And all the drawers close.
With all the money I am going to save because I can find my supplies more easily now, think I’ll buy myself a new office chair. My current chair won’t lock in place. So it spins the whole time I am sitting on it. Makes crafting quite the aerobic experience.
Final Thoughts
Maybe this librarian’s strong suit isn’t organization after all. Can you think of any other job skills associated with librarians that I might be successful at?
Nah, not good at shoosing people either. Maybe I am just better organizing books than crafting supplies? That’s probably it. Look how neat my books look!!
See them? They are there behind all that…clutter. Hmm. I think I might have to revisit my loft again tomorrow. Should have just shared my spice drawer in this post. It’s arranged in alphabetical order. Beginning with Adobo and ending with turmeric or thyme. But it’s too late to start this post over. Forgive me.
Your Turn
Hope you will run by to visit the blogs of my comadres for their Where Bloggers Live 06.2021 post. I can’t wait to visit. Maybe I will pick up some organizational tips. We can only hope.
Bettye at Fashion Schlub
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Em at Dust and Doghair
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After
Bedtime. I am exhausted!! All this organizing makes me tired and hungry. Going to eat something I shouldn’t for a bedtime snack and then get ready for bed. I have a busy day of organizing ahead of me tomorrow.
Thank you for putting up with me!! Happy Fri-Yay, friends.
Hugs and kisses,
My best organizing comes when I get distracted and realize I cannot find things. It really does save money when you find what you’re looking for. I always say that the best way to organize is to do it in a way that makes sense. Things need to be where you use them and where you’ll see them.
Great job!
xo,
Kellyann
I think I would have made a great librarian (I almost got to try it out too as I was hired to be our private school’s librarian the year we ended up shutting down). I love to organize and I definitely pull everything out, put like items together, and evaluate what I want to put back. Though I do find my crafting area seems to be the hardest to organize as I tend to want everything at my fingertips.
Yes!! I remember you were almost going to work in a library! And I agree, you would be a very good librarian. It is hard to have your craft area neat and tidy mid-project. But I take forever sometimes to finish a scrapbook page or a mosaic (ha, that was a 7 year project!!).
I need to organize my book shelves but the task overwhelms me!
Maybe just organize one shelf a month or a week??
I am SOOOO relieved, Leslie! I confess that I was afraid to read your post because I consider you an expert cleaner and time manager and I knew, just knew, that I would be completely humbled by your organization skills. AND I wasn’t wrong…BUT…it’s a little comforting to know that even an expert cleaner feels the challenge of knowing exactly what to do with all the things! So many works in progress, so many categories.
I can tell from your loft photo that you did indeed succeed, because you managed to make everything tidy and find a spot for it. When I try to do that (on the rarest of occasions when things get too out of hand) I tend to forget later what I have and what I did with things, haha. I’m someone who can’t find it if I’ve put it away. I can manage my chaos, it’s just tricky to ask other people to live with it.
Great job! Although I’m still humbled, I’m also inspired!!
Ha!! You are too sweet. I think the reason I have so much scrapbook paper – for example – is because I don’t want to look through all the paper I already have for the right piece. It is just easier to go to Hobby Lobby where the paper is nicely arranged and select what I need. If only I could have paper racks to display and organize my paper like they do!!
Ooh, the picture of you sitting on the floor in the midst of all the “pulled out” stuff…is making my heart hurt.
But book organizing? Now THAT I can get behind! Before I started moving every 6.3 months, my books were all beautifully organized by spine color, like a rainbow. It was lovely. People were always like, “but how do you find anything?” but really, after years of having my “friends” with me, their spine colors were as familiar to me as their titles or the picture of the girl braiding her horse’s mane on page 37 of Light Horsekeeping or the French pancake recipe on page 238 of the 1980 edition of The Joy of Cooking. I can barely remember my child’s name most days, but things like THAT stay with me forever. But after move move move and move, I have so downsized my book collection and it’s sort of spread among several different bookcases, that…the color organization doesn’t work as well.
And CRAFT SUPPLIES are a particular kind of organizational hell, so kudos to you for being as organized as you are!
Thanks for playing!
Bettye
https://fashionschlub.com
You make me laugh…craft supply organization is a kind of hell!! I was a librarian and I struggled sometimes to decide where to catalog and shelve a book. Was the book mostly about this or that? I like the idea of organizing my crafting stuff by craft…scrapbooking stuff together, collage stuff, painting materials, mosaic. But sometimes I paint on my scrapbook paper. I use paint for my collages. So it’s just a big spaghetti.
That’s exactly how I used to organize, and I’d spend all day having fun. For some reason it’s gone by the way side since retiring, LOL!!!
But I love your space and I agree that crafting can bring you joy!!
OXOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
My crafting is a delight to me. And best of all, I do much of it with my sister on Facetime. Win win. But I have found that since retiring, I am not as keen on housecleaning as I used to be.
Oh how I wish I could be more organised! Looks like you made a really good job of your tidying, did you get to a point half way through when you wondered why you had started? It looks great so all that hard work was worth doing. When I used to scrapbook I used to keep hold of the tiniest little scraps ‘just in case’ but in my heart I knew they would never be used (or found) again. Now, how long will it stay that way … 😉
Keeping things neat and tidy is the problem. I am working on my bicycle collage and want to also do some drawing tomorrow. So I will wind up having all kinds of supplies out all over my craft table. Just need to put them away when I finish and give my self grace until then. Wish you would come scrapbook again.
I really need to declutter my house. But if I took everything out in my craft room, or out of the two closets in my bedroom, it would be a LONG time before we could use those rooms again! lol
LOL, baby steps!! Maybe you could declutter one closet, then the other? I have stuff in a guest room closet, too. Along with the wrapping paper, gift cards, etc. Hate having my craft supplies in 2 places but my loft just isn’t big enough. Thanks for visiting.
How fun to see your creative space. Mine is very well organized yet I still can never find anything because I just have so much stuff it’s hard to remember where it all is. 🙂
I feel your pain. I moved my Bible journaling supplies into a drawer and then couldn’t find them today. Ugh.
Oh my, I love your loft! It’s really much more organized than my office/sewing area. But, isn’t it great to actually have a place to do all that stuff.
Iris
Thank you. I love my loft. It would be perfect if it had a small closet.
Loved this post!! I was actually cleaning out the guest room closet when I decided to take a break and waa laa, saw your post! I too keep cards. And Journals. I have 6 individual large metal file containers that hold my journals all the way back to elementary school. They are stored on the floor in my closet. I think I always feel scatterbrained because I do not have enough storage space in my home. There isn’t ‘a place for everything’ and therefore nothing is in it’s place! It drives me crazy sometimes. We’ve been in this house 20 years and haven’t remodeled yet so I think the only answer is to get rid of stuff. Why is it so hard to do?
I love your loft! It’s so cozy and all your craft things are in one place. Well, time to get back to the closet. 🙂
LOL, so glad you took a break from closet cleaning to be with me!! Love that you have all of your journals. I have a few of the very old ones, and most of my adult journals but it makes me sad, sometimes angry or frustrated to read back over everything. Probably should just pitch the whole lot of them!! Not sure my girls would ever want to wade through all of that emotional stuff.
We don’t have much storage either. We have extra bedrooms with closets but I don’t consider that storage. I don’t like using guest bedrooms to store stuff…that being said, though, a bunch of craft stuff is in one closet. Just wish I had a closet in my loft. Thanks for coming by!
Whenever I’m looking for something I end up going on an organizing frenzy. Your craft space is fabulous! Love how you have a spot for everything. I need to work on this!
Jill – Doused in Pink
Thank you, doll!! I love my craft area but just wish it had a little bitsy more room and maybe a tiny closet.
I was just reading Dani’s post and was saying to her (on her blog) that I am not a good librarian either. I totally stink at organizing things. I really, really want to be a good organizer. And I guess I am to some degree. Except when it comes to my own stuff. Craft supplies are the absolute worst to keep organized though!
Also, I routinely get rid of things and then wish I hadn’t (like my cricut. Now I want a cricut again). I’ve always been one to toss things out (whether that means to the trash or to the donation pile). But I do often think “I wish I’d kept’ that thing. Sigh. I always feel like there’s a lot of pressure to live this minimalist lifestyle. Toss things out! You don’t need it! But I think that doesn’t always fits everyone’s lifestyle. So there. I said it. Keep the stuff! Just be good at organizing it all. haha.
Oh, this comment says so much. I agree. Sometimes I toss things just because it feels like the right thing to do. My Cricut has almost gone bye-byes a couple of times. But I have become more comfortable using it and so it has been saved from the great craft room purge. It is hard to keep my crafts organized because I usually have 2 or 3 projects hanging fire and need the supplies and materials for each project out while I work. So scrapbook paper, embellishments, mixed with glass for my mosaic and paint for my collages. Organizing is an ongoing project. I always get my spring cleaning done just in time to start all over again.
I just organized all of my craft supplies! Although my scrapbook supplies are still downstairs. I need to pull those out. I shoved them all in a bin 3 years ago when we moved to declutter our office area in the basement before we tried to sell and haven’t touched them since. Oops!
Oh, get those scrapbook supplies out, girlfriend. If nothing else, for the girls to play with. I have donate some of my surplus to the Y and to our neighborhood school. Would like to take the next batch to the children’s hospital. Hard for me to part with any of my scrapbook and crafting supplies but I have so much stuff.
What a great space Leslie – I always enjoy reading your posts about your home – it gives me a little glimpse into your life. I’m not much of a crafter but I do enjoy colouring in and I’ve started teaching myself hand lettering. I have a similar little cart to yours with my colouring books – it’s a great storage option.
Thank you!! Oh, I love calligraphy. Haven’t done it much but really enjoyed my calligraphy class in college.
First of all, you’re too funny! Your last few paragraphs had me laughing out loud!!! I love your method of taking us through a space. I have an entire file folder downstairs of all the cards we’ve ever been sent. Why? I don’t know. I should probably go through it and throw at least some of them away I love pulling everything out to organize and sort it.
You are so sweet. Thank you for the kind comment. Organizing is kinda fun, huh?