May 23, 2015

My Dirty Little Secret

My family room a.k.a. my craft space.

At first glance, our "family room" looks like any other family room.  Not perfect, but not a huge mess.  I could have straightened out the pillows and folded up my blanket before I snapped the photo and it would be fine.  But underneath this calm exterior... I'm hiding a dirty little secret.  I have beading supplies stashed everywhere!  They're here under the TV:

Bead storage.

And here:

My end table.

And here:

My storage space a.k.a. furnace closet.

This is my craft storage.  It's really the furnace closet, but I needed somewhere to stash my stuff and the space wasn't being used for anything else.  It started off with just a big tub in there with my bags of beads all in together.  As my stash grew, it became a couple containers with little bags of beads sorted into bigger bags by color.  After I outgrew that system, my darling husband (who is a clean freak who probably wishes I shared even a little of that philosophy) built some shelves there on the left hand wall for me.

Beads and cord on shelves.

I sorted all the beads by color and I keep them in containers on my shelves.  As you can see, I've been switching over from the cheap and abundant ice cream buckets (dear husband is also an ice cream lover) to a slightly more sophisticated system of clear boxes.  My cord is on the top there, also sorted by color and size.  Sort of.  And this is all fine and dandy until I drag some things out for a challenge and a few more things for a custom order and then a few more things for another project.  Pretty soon, every horizontal surface is covered with beads and cord and partially finished projects.

Every once in a while we are expecting company (or dear husband just can't handle the mess any more) and I have to clean off the surfaces.  That mostly means sweeping everything off into the nearest box - usually the one in which my newest acquisitions arrived.  Then the box gets shoved into the closet on the floor.  Eventually there are several layers of boxes.  Interspersed with photography props, macrame boards and random lengths of cord I've saved from other projects (I'm going to use those up for earrings.  Probably.  Some day.).

A mess.  A big, fat mess.

Before I know it, I have a great big mess.  I was looking back through some photos the other day and came across this one from three years ago.

Back in the day.

Just look how much neater everything was!  (We won't mention how much less stuff I had.)  I always have good intentions.  Really, I do.  Every once in a while I get really motivated and sort through all the boxes (usually when I can't find something I want) and put everything back in its place.  And I start all over.  Until then... it's a closet and I can shut the door and pretend it's not a pile just waiting to come tumbling out in a gloriously shiny, stringy mess.

A closed door. Nothing to see here.

So there you have it.  My dirty little secret:  I am a closet slob.  Literally.



5 comments:

  1. You are not alone... and my partner is also the one with really low amount of stuff and a love for empty spaces ^^

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  2. I am lucky. I have a whole basement to expand through. But you don't want to look in my closets.

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  3. I need to show the pictures to my husband so that he could see I am not the only one who has loads of beads and other stuff for handicraft. He keeps complaining and grumbling on my endless putting them in order and still having a mess :/

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  4. I see no problem here. You have doors covering what others consider untidiness and a tiny area for current projects that can be cleared with the sweep of a hand. Isn't that why closets and storage areas exist? ;-D

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  5. We could be twins, except my husband is not a neat freak. At least you haven't graduated to an extra bedroom yet (hangs head in shame). I can still shut the door though :-)

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