Operation Organization, Take 3. More cleaning, more shelves, more craft area stuff.

This week I organized the “office area” (which is really just a corner in our family room since we gave the office to the kids for a play room).  It went from this 

to this.

So, quite an improvement I think, except that I have nothing fun to show you.  I didn’t do anything cute or unique here, I just cleaned it up, but the stuff that goes in the filing IN the filing cabinet - what? a novel concept I know - and organized the book shelf.  So, it’s not really crafty, but it makes me feel a lot better!  

AND mr put these up 

in our garage, too, so now that’s nice and organized!  Our stuff used to be heaped about in piles.  It looks much nicer this way - I feel much calmer as I drive into the garage to park now.  These are just basic builder’s grade shelves - something nicer would look great, I know, but who’s on a budget?  Well, all of us, I think...

I also worked on my craft space a bit.  

What is this???  

You guessed it!  I now have some nice soft carpeting!  Although I’m still freezing when I get into bed at night.  It’s just cold down there.  Period.

mr helped me with my table.  You remember the one:

Yep.  It's depressing to look at.  I was tired of getting slivers, so we measured and cut hardboard to fit, then mr screwed it down 

(oooo, smooth!)

and cut some holes in the end so I can drop some cups in to hold markers, brushes, etc.

I wish the holes were bigger, but the difference in price for the drill attachments were astronomical.  This hole here: 

cost us about 5 dollars to make.  The size I wanted (i.e. 5 inches in diameter) would have cost us 36 dollars to make.  Since I wasn’t really foreseeing a need for the attachment for much else - at least in the immediate future, we went cheaper.  Now I have to find some miniscule cups to drop in the holes and some teeny tiny brushes.  

My ribbon used to look like this.  

Now it looks like this.  (Ignore the fuse box.)  

I hung a dowel from a pipe in the ceiling using some cotton cord and slipped my ribbon on.  When I get more ribbon, I just slide one end of the dowel out of the cording, and pop the ribbon on.  Of course, my OCD-type tendencies require that it be color coordinated, so I can’t REALLY just pop the ribbon on.  I have to slide off all the ribbon that stands between me and perfect harmony of colors.  Then slide all the ribbon back on.  But it’s much easier to use this way!  And my dowel is almost completely full, so I can’t get more ribbon anyway.

And my thread looked like this.  

Yeah, I know, it’s a nightmare.  No wonder I can’t sew right?  Well, using some scrap wood and nails, (and a bit of spray paint) it now looks like this.  

Much better.  I know, I know.  Didn’t I learn my lesson about hammers and nails in this post?  Fortunately, this went much more smoothly - I wasn’t nailing things together, just putting nails in wood.   Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that mr had used most of my nails for the shelves he put up in our garage, so I ran out before really finishing.  Also, I wanted it white, so I took it outside and spray painted, then went back inside and proceeded to forget about it.  Then it rained.  So... it isn’t the prettiest thing ever.  BUT, it works. 

There is a large space on the wood where eventually I can put more nails, but for now my plastic bobbin box sits nicely.  It’s a little sad that I only needed like 8 nails to hold almost all of my thread, isn’t it?  Well, I’m just a novice, I have to build up over time.  I just couldn’t see myself spending money on a thread holder that attaches to the wall when a) I couldn’t attach it to my wall in the first place (they’re concrete, very hard to screw/nail into), b) I don’t have enough thread to fill it up and c) I could make something similar out of materials I already had.  I wish I could take credit, but I got the idea from Lee Meredith here, on Threadbanger .

See this sewing table?  

Yes, it is a real machine.  Whether it works or not remains to be seen.  This was given to me about 4 years ago and I never did use it.  I would need to get it cleaned and tuned - which is easy enough, I just haven’t gotten to it.  Anyway, I was thinking about listing it on Craig’s List when we cleaned out our basement, but I saved it, thinking it may come in handy... and then I saw THIS post on Make It and Love It, where she shows how she uses an old sewing table (minus the old machine) for her new machine.  Ah-ha!  So I had mr cut a small piece of hardboard which I put over the hole in the table where the machine comes up and now my new machine has a new home, giving me some more sewing machine-free space to work (you know, on that ugly desk I still have to fix).

And I rearranged things a bit too. 

I think that about covers the recent organizational projects.  Slowly, but surely, right?  

Sharing my space with the laundry doesn’t lend itself well to nice photos.  Either I will have to try to mask the laundry in my pictures, crop it out, or actually do it.  

Oh, here, lets gaze at my carpet some more... so soft.  My feet are very grateful.  


















Cripes.  It already needs to be vacuumed.