We moved houses right before Thanksgiving, but I haven't been there to enjoy it. I came home January 6th and my first priority was to organize my new craft space. This space is actually a hallway between the kitchen and dining room. It is full of kitchen cabinets and drawers. I didn't need the extra storage for kitchen stuff, so we decided this would be the perfect spot for my craft room. After some initial planning, I spent a ton of time (and a fair amount of money) at The Container Store. Putting my supplies just in the cabinets was not going to work. I bought a variety of silver mesh containers for my various products. You'll see those containers throughout the pictures.
The first two pictures are general overview pictures. The first one is is from the dining room, the second one is from the kitchen side. This is how my space looks when I'm not working on a project. The remaining pictures detail each cabinet, drawer, and work area.
I reserved the left section of my countertop for Project Life. Specifically I left enough room to have the album I'm working on open. This helps me remember what spread I am working on. I still have some real estate to work on stuff. Plus, I can always close the album. Arthur's album and the baby core kit are currently sitting there. Guess what I'm on...
The middle of the countertop holds many of my PL cards and some random accessories. I bought these Sterilite drawers from Target. They are perfect for all my partial PL kits. I even got fancy and labeled them with some post-it notes. On top are my mini kits and a holder for random cards. I also have my Stampin' Up PL sets stacks next to the drawers. You can also see part of the magnetic board that I want to hang on the wall. Obviously I haven't gotten to that yet.
The right hand side of the countertop has a hodge podge of items. I have my Recollections tool caddy (so worth the money!). Next to that is my collection of random bowls. I intend to use those for small embellishments that I want to use. I also have my standing letter holder for notes and such. Behind that I bought four letter trays to hold my current projects. Before I let current projects clutter up my work area. This way I can have my current projects on hand, but not in the way if I'm not actively working on them. On the far right side, I bought a decorative tray from Target (Christmas clearance) to keep things to send, things for classes, or newly acquired products.
And now on to the cabinets and drawers.
The top left cabinet above my open PL album is full of PL accessories and embellishments. The navy bin holds items to scrapbook for the twins. The pink and blue bins hold embellishments that still need to be sorted out. The cd bin on the right has my PL specific stamps. The bottom cd bins hold small alphas and PL embellishments. I also have two photo cases of tiny embellishments there to sort eventually. The large dvd bin holds large alphas and stickers.
The first drawer is my random office supply drawer. It's a mess I know... but I hardly get in here. And it's a good thing as this drawer is slightly broken.
The next drawer is my overflow office supply drawer. Not that exciting I know.
The bottom left cabinet holds a lot of stuff. I have large office products (pens, notebooks, folders) on the left side. The right top is full of my PL core kits. Those spill over to the right bottom while also including Christmas. All my Christmas paper, stamps, and embellishments are currently in a plastic container. I need to sort through these soon.
Moving to the middle we have a cabinet full of stamps. The green bin holds loose stamps. I need to sort through them but at least they are contained right now. My SU stamp cases are partially contained in an upright dvd bin. I need to pick up another one of those. On the right, I have all my SU ink pads. I don't have a great way to store these right now, but at least they have a cabinet. The small open bin holds my ribbon. While the mini bin holds my washi tape. Not the absolute best storage solution but they will work for right now. At least the washi and ribbon is more visible than it used to be.
The next drawer holds larger tools including masks, small SU notebooks, paper piercing tools, and my paper cutter. This is right below where i usually work so it has easy access.
The next drawer is all about my extra tools. Plus, I have a few small tins containing buttons and flowers.
Directly below I have a cabinet of finished products. Those boxes really need to be sorted, but at least they are together. The right side holds my Big Shot (accessible but out of the way), envelopes, grid paper, baby wipes, and SU business items.
The most far right cabinet is all about paper. My 12x12 is contained in two desktop letter files. I have SU DSP is one and random paper in the other. Five magazine files hold my 8.5 x 11 cardstock. I need to re-color coordinate those soon, but they are basically sorted. I also have a large dvd bin full of 6x6 paper pads and scraps. The orange bin has scraps yet to be sorted and white paper scraps. You'll notice I also have small tag labels on each of my magazine files. Amazingly I had these tags squirreled away and found them in the move.
This drawer holds most of my business supplies. I have business cards, address labels, and plastic sleeves. Randomly I also have my 2014 bucket list I made last summer. I kept this out to show at events.
The last drawer should hold my catalogs. It does, but the drawer also has bookmarks to give away and PL sets to sell. I hope to get these out of here soon. The catalogs are under there I swear.
Finally the bottom right cabinet holds the rest of my supplies. I have a mini bin for my embossing supplies. I have three cd bins for punches, framelits, and embossing folders. The bottom shelf has some random storage (need to decide what to do with these). The right side holds a ton of kid-related craft supplies. Mainly these are things I have bought for our preschool days.
And that is the tour of my new craft area. The dining room table is about five feet away making it perfect for easy access while hosting classes or crops. I need to continue sorting and destashing a bit, but I think it is a workable state. I've already made 9 cards for a swap, another card for a different swap, and finished 5 PL spreads in my new space. It will keep evolving as I use it, but I'm very happy with how everything is turning out.