3/30/10

Spring Reorganization



It's spring and my fancy turns again to reorganizing my little home studio. It seems that things just seem to pile up during the winter and then we head into spring and I look around and realize it's time again to figure out if the way I have stuff organized still works for me.
Last week, I went through one of the bookshelves and sorted enough paper to throw about 5 lbs of it away...mostly just things like old notices of exhibits, old postcards, copies of articles I've read and won't need to reread...that sort of thing. It didn't make a real noticeable change in the look of the bookcase, but I felt a lot lighter, lol! (thank goodness our local garbage company also recycles!)
This week I took a look at a couple of large 39 drawer units that I had my "larger" beads in. Now, for me, anything much bigger than a seed bead is "larger" and since I'm not doing a lot of stringing (which is what I mainly bought the larger beads for), I had to ask myself if they needed to be so readily available and taking up so much room? I decided it would be a good time to sort through them and see what I wanted to keep and what I could let go of now. And I ended up putting the ones I wanted to keep in a much smaller lidded tote and the others are in a bag waiting to go to a local church rummage sale. The table they were on looks a lot less cluttered now and the things that I do use frequently are right at hand. (Can you tell which is before and which is the after photo?)
Today I'm going to get the fabric ready for the april bead journal and maybe a few more beads put on the primavera piece. I find that letting go of old stuff energizes me and sometimes clears blocks to inspiration.

7 comments:

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

Did I hear you say you threw POSTCARDS away?!!? Hopefully not the kind with pictures of places that people send when they go on vacation. But if it was like...a Joann Fabric sale notice, well, OK then!! ~lol~

I am here to announce I'll take any picture postcards you don't want. ~LOL~

Your room looks great. Mine is that size I think but add a puter desk and sewing machine and fabric stash and yarn stash. What a mess.

xx Carol

beadbabe49 said...

hi carol...I have some postcards I could send you, but they're announcements for art exhibits, so you can't write on them...would you still like some?
I have the computer desk on the other side of the room, but don't have a table for the sewing machine...I just have to set it up when I'm machine sewing.

Penny said...

I too am getting the 'spring cleaning fever' -- BUT I haven't been as industrious as you. Guess my 'fever' hasn't reached the right temperature yet. Its sure is a good feeling when its finished isn't it?!!

Pat said...

Wow! I am jealous. I just can't seem to get me started in that direction. You will be so much better organized! You see that is what attracts me to do it. But, whe I start, I just get hung up on finding so thing that I had been looking for that I don't get any further.
What discipline you have. Send me some?

beadbabe49 said...

hi penny...well, I had plans to do the whole closet and just got to one bookshelf and tabletop...so I'm not all that industrius either, lol!

hey, pat! I'd send you some but I'm a bit low myself (see above paragraph, lol)...I haven't gotten to the "hard" stuff yet either...the stuff you want to get to sometime but pretty much accept that you're not going to get to it in this lifetime! Now, that will be hard to let go of!

Pursuing Art... said...

I have just had such a lovely visit here this afternoon. Thank you for sharing yourself and all your beautiful beading...I never fail to leave in awe. Instead of doing you and your computer *in* with a million comments, I have taken notes and am going to send a note. ;-)

Your studio just looks so organized, Bobbi! I need/want to clean and reorganize mine too, but not allowing myself until I am done with this project. I seem to keep piling beads, etc., on my table and around the room when I'm done using them to get put away where they belong later. I've been beading more in the living room lately to be with Mark...so trays having been moving upstairs and down.

I love your drawer units. I did buy four small boxes that hold individual bead containers (they look like the ones that are in your wire rack, I think) and thought I would use them for the Swarovski's and get those out of baggies and organized soon. As for seed beads...yikes, I've got mine in shoe box size totes and either in zip lock baggies or the containers they came in and organized by size and type. Would love to have them even more organized one day. It sure does feel good to clean and get reorganized though and it does clear the mind! XO ~Lisa

Oh, the before on right and after on left? Your studio looks great! ;-)

beadbabe49 said...

hey lisa...so good to hear from you...I just finished emptying out two of the larger drawer units and put all my larger beads into baggies into a plastic tote a bit larger than a shoebox! I'm always changing things around to reflect what I'm doing at the moment. When I started doing a lot of bead embroidery and less bead weaving, I moved a bunch of beads around and when my japanese bead collection got large, I moved it into those small rectangular boxes that fit into the larger clear plastic boxes...I guess I just love to organize stuff!
and yes, you got the photos right, lol!