I've been thinking that my craft area needs a little healthy redo. It's pretty disorganized and just a jumbly-bumbly mess. So if any of you are thinking of re-organizing, re-doing, or anything of the sort, maybe these photos will help you. I've really learned to not just "oooooh" and "ahhhh" over photos, but to really study them. Look at how they use like boxes of the same color, or pegboard to organize frequently used items and keep them close at hand. See how they use both new and old cannisters, cans, baskets, and bins to corral items. Take a good look at these photos and see what you see.
via Chez Larsson
via Country Living
via Country Living
via Country Home
via A Field Journal
via House to Home
via Amor Designs
Feeling inspired? You may not be able to do it all today, but if you do have the day, try these quick tips to "prettify" your craft space!
- Label EVERYTHING. Labeling is the easiest way to organize. No more guessing and you know exactly where it goes. Honestly, it seems like a no-brainer, but I just recently started to realize (duh!) the power of a label. Find some gorgeous (and free!) printable ones here, here, or here.
- Have a bunch of mis-matched shoe boxes? Try spray painting them all the same color. They may be different shapes/sizes, but a uniform color will help unite them. Or if you feel up to it, wrap them in a pretty wrapping paper or contact paper. When you're done, tag on a label or some metal label holders, which you can typically find in the scrapbooking section at your local craft store (as seen here)
- Get in the habit of corralling items in containers. I have found (yes, yet another duh moment) that it makes life so much simpler when everything is contained within a little box. And a plus-side to this: it instantly makes items mobile.
- Go shopping in your china cabinet. Apothecary jars, mason jars, tall/wide cylindrical vases, bowls, saucers - even gravy boats! - can make great containers for buttons, paintbrushes, colored pencils, etc.
- Recycle! Use old soup cans, coffee cans, pasta sauce jars, jam jars - whatever you have - to hold things. Just give them a fresh coat of paint and maybe wrap some pretty scrapbook paper around it.
- If you're a magazine
hoardlover like me, you probably need a place (make that a big place!) to store them. You can either: - Flip through your precious mags and tear out your favorite pages. Store them in a binder inside clear protective sheets. I usually sit down with some post-its and write down what I like about each particular page. Another good practice would be to keep a piece of paper with any websites/stores you would like to look up later or just have on file. Then, comes the hardest part which I still haven't done yet: throw away the rest :( or...
- Leave the aforementioned project for another day and make some DIY magazine files. Check out these holders which use cardboard boxes wrapped in paper from Apartment Therapy. Or what about these genius cereal box version?
The basic idea is to see what you have in a different light. Maybe you have an old dish drainer you're not using just stored away. Pull it out and spray paint it a nice happy color and use it to hold your mail an put pens in the silverware holder. "Use what you have" as my momma always tells me :) And if you think you need some new stuff, go garage saling! You can find so many neat dishes and caddies and it'll cost you next to nothing. Anyway, I hope some of those ideas got your creative juices flowing for some quick organization - in your creative space and the rest of your home.
Do you have any organization tips? Would you like to share your creative space with me? I'd love to hear from you :) Leave me a comment below :) and HAPPY FRIDAY!!
