Getting Organized... Again!

After a long couple of weeks with too much time stuck indoors, I finally had a free day on Friday and made my way down to the nearest fabric and craft stores. I found some great organizers, like the turntable above, which is on the same table where I have my sewing machine and do most of my work. It now holds everything I might need close by: pencils, pens, markers, scissors, paintbrushes, wire cutters, presser feet, rotary cutters, and various glues! I wasn't sure it would work, but I'm liking it! The only problem is that it's a little heavy for the plastic stacking drawers I got last summer; I may have to replace those with wooden ones eventually. With that area looking neater, I also started to tackle the rest of the studio/play area.

I share my "studio" space with the girls' play and craft area. We bought open cubby shelving for the girls' toys and games when we first built the play area, so the girls could reach everything easily (and put things away easily!). But the contents of the cubbies look haphazard, even if all the games and things are stacked nicely. I went through everything and managed to make a decent pile of stuff to donate, throw out, or sell. More work needs to be done in this area, and I think I'll pick up some cardboard boxes next time I'm at Staples, to make the cubby contents look more uniform and less distracting.
Meanwhile, I organized a pile of UFOs and other stuff I didn't know what to do with, and put them in the flat basket, above. I know what i really should do is finish them or reuse them somehow, but I can't think about them yet. At least they don't look so discouraging now!

One way of evaluating if your storage works is if you can find everything you need. I usually can, and pretty quickly, but the way everything looked kind of bothered me. Now that it's looking a little better, I hope it will be conducive to greater productivity!