Organization is for the Organized.

[puppetmaker]

Today I try to figure out which cat took my car keys and put them somewhere. This will include looking at some unorganized parts of the living room, which will be more organized once I am done looking through them.

I have a list of things I want to organize better. Scary thing is that the list keeps getting longer.

It is not that I am disorganized since I know where things are after I place them, it is that my filing system only really works for me. And when you living in a household with other people, it is not a great idea to be the only person who knows where things are.

I read magazines and books and peruse pictures of studios that are so neat that you could find anything you want within about 30 seconds. I don’t have the space for that sort of thing. And I will admit to the “get to it later” syndrome. I put it somewhere promising that I will get to it later. When later comes, I can be overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have managed to put somewhere. Some day I would like a large space where I can set myself up to work and not have to tear it back down immediately.

We have a lot of stuff and we know we do. I have puppet making supplies and doll making stuff and costumes from previous competitions and the like. I have my eye ball boxes and my puppet parts graveyard (a large plastic container). And books, we have lots of paper of all kinds of forms in our house. All the toys are not the girls since Peter and I own toys too. You see the issue.

So I work my way through one list/room at a time and get things organized to where just about anyone can find their stuff in the house. Until I stop and the chaos starts to take over the order. Usually either pre or post travel it when it gets bad.

Today I am going to work on one corner of the living room which has become a pile of craft things in boxes and bags that need to be put away. That and the keys are my top priorities today.

Caroline will be home at noon from camping and I am sure will have adventures to tell us along with some items that will need cleaned and others that need to be put away.

So crafty people, tricks or tips on how to keep chaos at bay?

I am grateful for that which stays organized.

Comments

[jennieknits.livejournal.com]

I haven't finished yet (I'm kind of in the same place that you are), but my current organization model involves the stack-able customizable drawers from Sterlite (here (http://www.sterilite.com/ProductCategory.html?ProductCategory=19&section=1) (scroll down to the "modular drawers"). There are wide ones that work great for the bases (tall and regular height), medium ones that fit two across (tall and regular height), and then narrow ones that fit three across. You can totally stack them as you see fit.

What I did as I was going through my craft room was start noting what I had and what size of drawer I was going to need. When I had a few, I picked up a handful of the drawers to get started (and a label maker).

I need to get some more (I have a lot of yarn), but I currently have one tall stack of my crafting (knitting, sewing, needlepoint, cross stitch, etc) supplies, and one medium stack of my wrapping/gift supplies. They're kind of deep, so it would only work if you have the floor space for as many stacks as you need, and you can only stack them as tall as you can reach, but it's made a huge difference for me.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the suggestion. I will have to look into that.

They have something like it at my local Joann's fabric store. Kind of build your own craft cart.

[jennieknits.livejournal.com]

No problem. I forgot to mention, I get mine at Walmart, but I think you can buy them lots of places. :)

[readinggeek451]

Those look like the ones I got at Target some years ago. They are pretty handy.

[auroraceleste.livejournal.com]

Those are what I use a lot, too. I think the key is for everything to have a place, and for it to be logical for you. I work a few projects at a time, so I have a sterilite container for every project that it can go back in to clean up my room. Everything else has a drawer or a container somewhere, and its close to where I use that item. Here's the post I did when I massively redid my sewing room a few years ago: http://www.dramaticthreads.com/search/label/Organization

[wherdafux-d-cat.livejournal.com]

It is not that I am disorganized since I know where things are after I place them, it is that my filing system only really works for me. and And I will admit to the “get to it later” syndrome. I put it somewhere promising that I will get to it later. When later comes, I can be overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have managed to put somewhere.

Amen to that! Our coffee table was a ruddy nightmare-looking mess but I knew that there were actually sections to the chaos, 'look into this' and 'ready to be filed away' and 'figure out what to do' and so on. But it also crossed that point into 'Ergh, too much! Can't decide where to start!' quite often. And the time I forgot to put the 'Please leave as is' note on the table before the housekeeping service* arrived? The table looked fantastic when I got home but I never did fully recover from losing so much stuff. They didn't throw anything away but when you lose the key bit (location) that makes cryptic notes on the back of envelopes (for example) relevant, those notes might as well be tossed out.

* The service was a gift from my husband when he saw I was getting overwhelmed by Life in General. Saved my flipping sanity, I swear.