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| Just a small part of our mess, er, craft. |
If you are like us, your work space is probably part organized chaos and part chaos. As we recently converted one of our rooms into a central work/craft/office station, we uncovered some challenges. How do you organize space to fit zombie sculptures, glass etchings, jewelry, belt buckles and supplies, like beads, machine parts, wire, and all of the other miscellaneous things we have accumulated?
After scrolling through Pinterest for ideas, rearranging things a few times, I mean a few hundred times, making adjustments to what we wanted to accomplish, and laughing along the way, we finally created a great work space for us.
After we completed our project we took a step back and wrote our own list of the Top DIY Ways to Clean Craft Clutter. We hope these tips will help you create the work space of your dreams.
9). Sell all of your projects. Have clearance sales on etsy, The Craftstar, weebly or wherever you sell your wares. Heck, you may even want to have a yard sale or sell some of your items at a flea market. Remember the goal here isn't to make money, it's to clean out your craft clutter.
8). Give away all of your handmade creations to friends, family, co-workers, strangers on the street- whatever it takes to clean out that clutter and regain some space. It's never to early to start handing out holiday presents! And this way, you won't panic when the holidays do roll around.
7). Donate all of your supplies to your local YMCA, a boys and girls club, pretty much any group that hosts a summer camp is in need of craft supplies. If you have a surplus of things besides glitter and beads (which I am not knocking, just referencing stuff from my private stash), consider donating items to organizations like Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse.
6). Stop buying, bartering, and trading stuff. Period. 5). If you are that person people call when they want to 'get rid' of things, stop answering your phone. Since we do a lot of repurposing, we are those people. And in our case, we had to temporarily stop checking our mail as customers have sent us items to fix, repurpose, and recreate.
4). Stop starting projects. This also includes starting new projects as well as finishing those projects that are halfway done, or even those that are half of an idea. Each time we find ourselves entertaining a new idea, we feel the need to get more stuff. Then at some point we realize we have more projects not started than we have completed. What! How did that happen? And where did that mess come from? See. Stop starting.
3). Stop coming up with new ideas. Just turn your brain off, at least the creative side.
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| Sweet Goodwill, how I miss you! |
2). Stay away from thrift stores, no matter how many times you find yourself singing along to Mackelmore. Even if it was only $.99, it will still clutter that craft room. In fact, avoid flea markets, craft stores, Construction Junction , or any other place where you feel the compelling need to buy things.
Now the moment you have been waiting for!
Introducing the Number 1 DIY way to clean your craft clutter. Yes, we know there are two number ones. Why? Because they are of equal importance and 'cause I said so.
1). Stop looking through Pinterest to find ways to organize and decrease clutter, instead, just start working on the clutter. You will be amazed with these results! If there is one thing you MUST DO, this is it.
1). Stop Crafting. This is really the easiest solution. But if you enjoy making things, it may be a little hard, if not impossible.
While organizing what some may consider the start of a hoard, we had to figure out how we could make our space work for us. We were able to accomplish that with a sense of humor, by trying new ideas, and staying open to the reality that maybe we would have to change some off our habits, not just our collections.
