Saturday, December 17, 2011

Christmas Came Early This Year

In July 2010 I purchased a little hutch at a yard sale to house my sewing and crafting supplies that I used the most. It fit perfectly into the last little bit of wall space we had, right behind the kitchen table where I do my work.
I was thrilled with it. I still had to keep more seldom used supplies in plastic bins in closets and in our outbuilding, but at the time it was a really good solution to my craft overflow problems.


Here's what it looked like the day I moved it in.





See how neat and tidy everything is? Later I purchased an armoire/entertainment center off of Craigslist to accommodate some of the overflow and also some kitchen apparatus and other clutter.
Flash forward to December 2011. My business has grown and accordingly, I've acquired a lot more fabrics and supplies. A lot more. The Christmas shopping season arrived after a ho-hum summer and fall, and suddenly I had enough orders to keep me working 12-15 hours a day for weeks on end.
And here's what my work area looked like last week.





And this was in addition to the bins and boxes piled in closets and in the outbuilding. I started to have some serious storage/shelving lust, and last weekend I went to an estate sale in the neighborhood and ended up buying a huge Ikea Pax "wardrobe". Here's a picture of the area looking like it'd been hit by a hurricane as we moved it into the house:





After working all day, I finally have most of my supplies in it. I still have some fabric and yarn in a closet, but the bulk of it fits with room to spare. I could use a couple more shelves to get it to maximum efficiency. I am beyond thrilled. Being able to get to things without the constant threat of an avalanche of supplies falling on me is going to do wonders for my efficiency, not to mention my sense of well being.


I have no familiarity with what it must be like to go buy exactly what you want with no regards to cost. I also have no idea what it's like to have a roomful of furniture that "matches". I'm sure there's something out there that would have been closer to my personal taste, but for now this is just perfect.