The Creative Space Lie

It is said that if you tell a lie, you have to 20 more in order to cover it up, then it just becomes a mess?

Well, my basement studio is in a similar boat.

In the last 8 + years it since we have been in our house the basement that I have claimed for my business has gone from clay bead production area to jewelry making supplies hoarding area with a side of holiday decoration storage.

And I've been moving and patching things up down there for years

and it was time that I finally said ENOUGH!

I cannot function even in a tunnel vision mentality to only look at my desk space

because there was just not enough room to do even the simplest things.

The lie has to stop!

And by lie, I really mean, those little patches of sorting and organizing.

It just was no longer working and my creativity is suffering greatly!

So it all got cleared.

ALL OF IT!

I have been snapping pictures of the clearing and rearranging as I remember.

Luckily with my small clean-ups and organizing through the years, most of my supplies are in smaller containers - or in areas where I can put them into a small container then sort later.

And I have a lot of shelving that I have purchased for storing so many things.

But is is all just patched into the space as it was bought.

What a lie to build upon!!!

Not only to myself, my space, but to anyone that has had to walk down there to find anything!

Just embarrassing.

All of the holiday supplies are now in the back and up high where we have quick access.

The shelves are put back in the back corners to function as shelves and not catch alls.

Good scrap carpet is put down where I will design and "work".

The planned torching area is in the clay studio space where there is no carpet.

With experience and frustration, everything is finding its place now.

Crafting items are no longer separated into small "one day I want to use them" spaces

but rather into "I need to use that and I know exactly where it is" spaces.

And yes - it looks horrible during the in-between stages - extra tables set up to catch all.

Shelves in weird spaces to act as a holding place.

But it is SO worth it.

And a huge benefit to this purging and rearranging?

We may actually get to use the designated 1/4 of the basement for our family wreck room area.

Since the older cat is no longer with us (and all that smelly stuff that goes with caring for older cats) we will be able to get that room finished.

I can have my foam floor pads for the studio again.

They are serving as temporary flooring in between ripping out the old cat used carpet and a new one.

And we can have bean bag chairs, a small couch, and the family games and kid toys can go in there.

We can put out the really nice gaming card table I got my husband years ago (functions for "poker" related games, table top games or for a beading night!).

So far it has been 4 very long and tiring days working on this move

and there are more days to go.

It feels great to have the space, and all the resources here with me. 

No extra money has been spent at all because it is all here.

And I appreciate my Aunt Julie coming down to the studio space on Christmas Day and taking a look at my area and giving me some insight about how to arrange it to get rid of the clutter.

And to my good friend Jenny Davies-Reazor who will be coming over and helping me with the layout and flow of the functioning areas for torches, enameling, jewelry bench, etc.

I was just so overwhelmed I could not even function.

It was creeping into my everything - slowly like a virus just taking over…

Are you organizing, cleaning or purging your studio space?

Would you be interested in a blog hop for sharing your progress?

I'm fiddling with ideas for a blog hop here through LMAJ…

And no worries about your space not looking like a magazine spread.

I know mine will never be at that point in this house where we are now and I am ok with that.

It's about functionality and flow for me.

Staying Creatively Organized....

It's no secret that I'm not the most organized person in the world, but as I prepare to exhibit at BeadFest, my first bead show, I've been researching different technologies and methods for helping reign in all of my creative ideas in one central place.

I've always kept sketchbooks and notebooks. Generally, I have 2-3 going on at any time for different purposes. Some are more art related, some are filled with all manner of lists and sub-lists, and still yet, I keep a calendar to help keep me on track with deadlines and dates. Being the extremely organized person I am, dragging around three separate little books to stay organized is overwhelming to say the least.

I've been using a smartphone for over 2 years and while I use it for keeping on top of my email, blog, and business, I've yet to jump on board and use it as a central place for idea-keeping. Something about the physical act of jotting or sketching things down helps activate them in my brain where typing them into a tiny screen does not.

Nevertheless, I've embarked on researching and planning for myself a central place to try to keep myself organized and thought I would share some great apps, tools, and even old fashioned things to keep you creatively organized.

1) Google. I increasingly rely on Google's variety of apps and tools to stay on top of my email and documents. It's calendar options can be set up with reminders to alert you when events and deadlines are approaching, the contacts and mail options make it easy to keep track of my address and email and sync them to my phone and categorize and file them by project. Google docs is also a great way to organize things like, proposals, submissions, and other important files so you have access to them remotely. You can share them with other email addresses or keep them private!

2) Evernote. Evernote is both a smartphone app as well as a web based program that is a virtual notebook. You can organize your ideas into different notebooks based on project and clip photos, notes, and even audio files into your notebooks to help keep you organized!

3) Pinterest. Pinterest is a great visual tool for keeping track of inspiring ideas you find around the internet. By installing their pin marklet in your web browser, you can pin ideas to different idea boards. This is a great way to remember ideas for displays, etc.

4) Dropbox. Dropbox is a great desktop app for sharing files. If you're collaborating long distance on a project, blog, or show, Dropbox helps everyone have central access to files without having to email large photos, documents, etc. to everyone in your project.

Not into the virtual stuff? Here are some other great creative ways to stay on top of things.

1) Moleskine. If you're a fan of the delicious sketchbooks and notebooks by Moleskine, then you're sure to love their planners. Combining the details that we all love about Moleskine with a planner? Genius. Pockets, large spaces for planning and the convenience of a calendar all in one place.

2) Make your own! I've recently decided the best way for me is to make my own planner, sketch/notebook, all in one place. It's still in the being built phase, but will combine all of my ideas in one place. Buy 3 ring binders or loose leaf rings, print calendars from the internet, or cut out from existing ones, use blank notebook and drawing paper, punch and insert! Voila! All your ideas in one place!

What ideas or apps keep you organized?