I Heart Organizing - Work Area Makeover

I don't know why I'm still living in Indiana. Winters get me so down and make me extremely lazy. My work area is in the basement, and it gets way too cold down there in the winter to work on any of my projects. So what happens is I get what I need from the basement and bring it up to the livingroom. I do some work and then dump my stuff back down in the basement. Here is what happened:

See why the Etsy shop has been slow? What a mess!

For years I've been dreaming of a workspace that is organized and functional. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this week I created just that!

First, as a part of spring cleaning, I went through all of my supplies and put together bags of goodies for the teachers I know for their classrooms. Seriously, what am I going to do with 25 two pocket folders?! I’ve also been collecting wine bottles with the intention of making lamps for my shop. Well, I haven’t made any lamps and I’ve collected far too many bottles. I offered all but my favorites of the bottles up on Freecycle, and they were picked up the same day. Once I donated everything I don't need or won't use, I started organizing what was left. Matt was kind enough to donate a piece of his pegboard to my work area, and I put it in a pretty poster frame...you know...so it doesn't look like it belongs in a garage ; ) Now, I have my tools and supplies organized, in sight, and accessible. I was WAY excited about the framed pegboard. I just love how functional it is!

Next, I wanted to tackle my gift and packaging supplies. I always have a mess of tissue paper and ribbon in a pile somewhere. The tissue paper gets all wrinkly and creased and the ribbon gets all tangled. PVC pipe to the rescue! I sketched out my idea of a rack so that I knew how much to get and how many connections I needed. Then, all I had to do was cut, arrange, and put together my rack. PVC is extremely cheap - I think $0.78 per 5 foot piece. I used 6 pieces and a bunch of connectors that were $0.24 each. PVC is also easy to cut (I was able to do it myself!) and easy to put together. Here are some of the steps:

While it's easy to work with, PVC pipes are not the prettiest. Easy fix: spraypaint. Does it look like metal? hahaha I was going for the industrial look.

Here is the rack all filled up with goodness:

I got a whole bag full of baby food jars from Freecycle and used them to hold my odd pieces of ribbon and string. I new I would find a use for them. Aren’t they adorable?

At work we go through boxes and boxes of bond paper and envelopes. Instead of trashing those boxes, I use them for organizing (and sometimes shipping).

Here is my made-over work area:


Happy organizing!! : )