Craft Room Overhaul Begins!

So my craft room, as you will soon see, needs a major cleaning, organizing, repurposing, OVERHAUL.

We went from moving in, to wedding(crafts, getting dressed, gift storage) to halloween (costumes, storing stuff that was cluttering our other rooms) and only really stopped to clean (aka, push things in the corners) once.

Before I start with the Christmas crafts (and soon after that, have a baby) this must be fixed!

So brace yourself, here are the BEFORE pictures.

Scarey I know, but I do enjoy organizing, sometimes, so this will be fun, right?.

The 1st thing I did, was pack up all the sewing stuff. for 3 reasons: A. Rediculously sheddy faux fur from a wolf costume, and 2 I very rarely sew (last time was 3 years ago I think, for halloween) so the machine, fabric, and notions all go in 1 box, that doesnt have to be easily accessable, and D: It was the latest project, so everything from the box is near the top of piles.

I folded up all the leftover scrap fabric, it, the machine, cords, and any notions I found around the room, went into the box. The box got its lid and was moved out of the way.
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Next, I closed my eyes, and pointed randomly at the cluttered shelf, to pick something to get me started on my next project. The leftover goodie bags from the wedding and extra cheap toy/favor stuff I had placed next to them(when I was cleaning elsewhere in the house, like items together were at the end of my finger.

I dumped all the bags out, fit all the non-candy contents into a ziplock, moved the candy to the halloween bowl, and tossed the ties and crumpled bags. Then, along with the other favor items, they went back into the cute blue box (from when they sat out at the wedding) went onto a shelf.

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Now that I had a (mostly) cleared-off table again, I was ready to do one of my favorite organization techniques, start some SORTING boxes/bins/baskets.

With whatever misc boxes,bins, etc I had around, I started sorting things into them. I made quick labels for the boxes from scrap paper, tape, and a sharpie(since theyre temporary). I continued to fill the boxes up. eventually, the "OUT" box was full, I took out all the "KITCHEN" items out and started a new box for that. When it was full again, and I started a "BEDROOM" box. I had boxes for: "OFFICE" (supplies)"TO FILE", "KEEPSAKES"(paper-ish items to go in scrapbooks)"SBOOK SUPPLIES" "GLUE"(glue sticks, glue guns, craft glue, were all not where they belong) and a few others.

I had multiple "misc. stuff" boxes that had been created when I had cleared off surfaces on multiple occasions ever since I moved in. One by one, each box, bag, drawer, got sorted into the SORTING boxes.

Along with my trusty stack of scrap paper strips, I also labled boxes I had previously started for "CHRISTMAS GIFTS" "WEDDING" "DOWNSTAIRS". with each new box, I looked around the room to find items to add to the box.

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The next leg of my journed needed to be the corner next to the freezer, its higher purpose is to be a pantry wall, not a baby changing table covered in misc random"throw it in the corner" stuff. It needed to be next because takeing up precious space is an unassembled wire pantry shelf unit, and an unassembled food can organizer, both need new homes. On the wire shelf when anything "pantry" around the room, there were: 2 bags of sugar, almost empty large jug of vegitable oil, waffle iron, lunch bag, Big Top Cupcake pan, and some serving platters. In my living rooms was this: a table of wedding gifts (and some randomness) many gifts were pantry items.
they moved to the wire shelf, the gifts to return (or exchange, rather) went in a stack by the door, the random stuff, well, I wont lie, its still on that card table.

All the pantry items went to the wire shelf, then, I went shopping for Thanksgiving food, and added that to the shelves. I know this looks crazy full, but that is temporary, until my darling husband assembles this bad boy:
This will fit beautifully between the wire rack and the wall. (currently this is in 2 boxes, one in my office and one big one in the living room, but it requires lots of space to assemble the in-laws also have one in their garage). The food items on the wire shelf will move to the can spaces and empy shelves of the Shelf Reliance rack, and a few more kitchen items will then fit onto the wire shelves, clearing up another cupboard that would rather be used for other things. (basically were playing musical storage spaces)

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More transformations to come...