Houston, we have achieved Organized Chaos, mission is a-go!

I am so so proud of myself. I wish I had some before pictures to share with you so you could truly appreciate the depth of what I've accomplished. I spent the last couple of days, probably a good 20 hours or so, cleaning out my craft room. I lost track of the number of garbage bags hubby hauled away! I admit, there was a lot more recycling and reusing that should have happened, but sometimes you just have to plow through it and get it done. Every time I've attempted in the past to clean it out, I get so hung up on trying to decide what to do with stuff that it never gets finished. I even threw out some stuff that I'm mildly regretting, I could have taken them to my LSS's swap later this month, but truthfully the joy had being able to use my craft room again outweighs all of that.

There is still work to be done, but for the most part the room is useable. Here is a view of my worktable:

To the left I'm using storage cubes that you assemble in the configuration you like. I added some little hooks so that instead of making extra cubes, I could hang shelves instead. Funnily enough, the clip/hooks that I have and bought at Ikea two years ago are almost exactly like the carousel clips Tim Holtz is releasing at CHA 2015! Not to be mean Tim, but the Ikea ones are cheaper, only $3 for 24, and you get a set of 24 hooks as well. They're meant to be used as shower curtain hooks, isn't that funny?! When I was doing craft fairs a couple of years ago, I made my own carousel out of a cut down tomato cage and these clip/hooks to display the stretchy crochet hairbands for girls that have been the thing the past few years. I guess I should have launched my own line huh? ;) In any case there's a thrifty idea for y'all frugal folks!

Moving on... next to the storage cubes is my ribbon holder, aka a shoe rack with a soft canvas bottom. There's nothing to stop the regular size rolls from falling off the edge, so I just made sure to put bigger rolls that would be wedged against the side. The one I have is a little bit different from the one I linked (mine has four tiers) but it's the same idea. It works really well, I can see my ribbon at a glance, and it's tidy and out of the way. You probably can't see it, but I have an Offray ribbon carousel that I got on clearance at Walmart because one of the spindles was missing. The box also had a soap dish in it, but that's another story. 8( When I'm using any particular ribbon, I just stick it on there temporarily.

To the right, ignoring the bins which still need to be dealt with, you'll see a mostly empty wooden shelf unit which also needs to be organized properly. There's a funny white thing in the middle. That's a popup light box for taking photos. I'm still in the process of setting it up, and I need to figure out how to get the wrinkles out of the side panels. I've only taken a couple of pictures so far, without the lights set up. It's a hand-me-down from my sister who is a kickass photographer and outgrew her need for it. There are other models as well, including the updated version by the same company, American Recorder. I was also reading a craft blogger the other day (so sorry I can't remember who!!!) and she had just bought the Foldio version. I think your best bet price-wise seems to be this one by Square Perfect for less than $45 including shipping. Mine doesn't have the colored backdrops either, but I guess I can just get 'crafty' about that, right? ;) And if you want to get really crafty, you can make your own, I'm sure there are tutorials out there! Moving along...

This is a very old desk that has lived in about six different houses with me. In its latest incarnation, hubby took the L piece off because it was on its last legs. He also removed the keyboard tray because I broke it. Eep. It is currently cluttered with a lot of stuff that doesn't have a home elsewhere, but the primary purpose is going to be for my Fiskars Fuse which he bought me for Christmas 2013. It is so heavyduty, although it does fold up nicely. You know how you see people holding on to their Cuttlebug as if there life depended on it in YouTube videos? This thing is so rock solid that it ain't gonna me moving anywhere! After all, it weighs 26 pounds! I have the adapter plates as well, since none of my dies are from Fiskars. Those suckers are just way too expensive, although they do have some nice ones. And my nifty chart is hanging above so I know which plates to use. To the right, I finally have dedicated space for my Fiskars 12" rotary trimmer! I was stuck using smaller ones for lack of space to use my big one. It has a big footprint, so there is no balancing it on the corner of the table. Next stop...

Messy McMess area which still needs work. For one thin, you can't see my office chair shoved into the closet. It is just too big and bulky for crafting. Nice and comfy if you want to kickback on the computer though. Also, more bins which need to be dealt with. Then you have the three towers of doom. They are about semi-organized, but I'll save that for another day, since it feels like I've been writing for hours already. They're all mismatched because I got them at different times for different purposes. Oh well, make do with what you've got, right? Last craft room view...

I was pretty happy that hubby suggested moving the file cabinet out from under the desk, and putting the printer on top of it (which was on the desk previously). It's wireless, so he prints from his mancave and picks it up here. This way he doesn't have to bump around me as I'm doing stuff. :) Also, he can easily access the file cabinet which he has stuff in, without having to move whatever happens to be in front of it, which is usually bins... you would have never guessed that though right, cuz there aren't that many bins in there, right? ;)

Lest you think I'm mostly done, don't be fooled. Here is the leftover mess from the dining area which I still need to clean up:

That colorful wheely tray thinger needs to find a home too, it has more craft stuff in it. I just adore it, it's sturdy enough that I can easily move it around but still pretty lightweight too. And each of the drawers easily come out, so I can grab a tray and take it to where I'm working if need be.

The biggest thing left to do, in my opinion, is truly get everything sorted in the right place. I imagine that will take time. I don't know about you, but so many times I've organized a drawer, just to realize it doesn't really work for me.

So. Now that I've cleaned my craft room, and semi-organized it, I guess my blog has re-earned it's of 'Organized Craft Chaos'. Because it's always chaos in my world, but I know where everything is in that chaos. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I'd love to hear your comments, especially if you have ideas for how I can set things up, or suggestions for making my blog posts shorter! ;)