One Drawer at a Time

Okay, first off, my clever title got me sidetracked.  Once upon a time I took dance.  For like ten years of my life.  We did competitions and the like.  One of my competition pieces was a duo with another girl.  We had clown costumes.  Not like dance costumes that cutely looked like clowns.  Actual clown costumes.  I wish I had a picture.  It was hilarious.  So, for your entertainment, here's a little video with the song.  Unfortunately there is no video footage to prove we did this dance.  Just trust me.

You're welcome.

And now back to normal.  Ish.  I'm slowly chipping away at the office/craft room.  I'm still having problems figuring out what to do with everything, trying to come up with an organization system that will work well and will be easy to maintain.  Yesterday I was a Target buying a new iron (my old one had a small incident and um, it needed to be replaced).  So I stopped by the Dollar Spot and grabbed some storage bins.  Specifically four little buckets and five little bins.  I figured it would give me a good start.

So I went home and transferred all the supplies that had been in random containers - a coffee mug, plastic cups, and a decorative box - to my new matching buckets.

What do I store in my buckets?  From left to right:  pens and markers; paint brushes and crochet hooks; scissors; and hole punches and wire cutters.  Yes, I have multiple pairs of wire cutters.  Sheesh.  These may not stay lined up here on the desk, but at least it's a start.

And I've started organizing the drawers to go back into my drawer organizer.  I think the front of the drawers are eventually going to get covered in scrap book paper and made a little cuter.  But for now I'm happy to have at least one drawer organized.  So this is the paper supplies drawer.

In this drawer is my stash of cards.  Most of these are just blank cards.  There are also Christmas cards (that I do not remember buying), thank you cards, and a few party invitations.  A big box of invitation envelopes, I had two boxes that I combined.  These are leftover from wedding save the dates, and well, it's always good to have that size of envelope on hand.  Then there's the tub of sticky stuff - glue dots, scrapbooking squares, scotch tape, double sided tape, masking tape, and glue sticks.  It's so nice to have these all grouped together, that way they're not all rattling around the drawer and I can easily see what I have without having to dig.  There's also a stamp pad, a few stamps, and a couple of paper punches.  And it's totally easy to look in and see what I have.  Love it!

I mentioned before that I had organized my paint.  Well, with no overhead light in our office, it's next to impossible to take a good picture.  Especially since it's practically dark by the time I get home.  But, we'll just pretend this pictures looks fine, okay?

So, the paint on my lazy susan is organized by color.  The top shelf has tubes of paint (those are not organized by color), big bottles of paint, and all the blues, greens, and purples.  The bottom shelf is definitely organized by color.  Whites, yellows, reds, and black/grey.  Duplicate bottles (or bottles that are a very similar color) are behind the outside row.  I am so in love with this update.  The paint used to all be in a drawer in the closet.  It was so hard to see what I had and know if I had what I needed for a project or not.  Now it's all out at eye level and I can tell exactly what I have.

In the tall jar I'm storing all my curly ribbon.  Once again, it's great because I can see what I have.  It's also pretty and colorful.  And the best part is, neither of these projects cost me anything.  The lazy susan was a leftover from our kitchen.  The jar was a gift for Christmas.

The office is nowhere near being done, but I love seeing little areas starting to come together.  How are your winter projects coming along?