Craft Room, Part 2

Yesterday I walked into my craft room to put something “away” and I couldn’t. The fact that I could not even get to the pile I was going to put this said something on meant only one thing, and it was one of my greatest fears… I had to clean this room.

I grabbed a Trader Joe’s paper bag for recycling and garbage bag for, er, garbage and took it one section at a time. I decided the first order of business was to make a path on the floor so I could walk without stepping on something, which was an excellent place to start. I quickly emptied out a basket filled with some Christmas hors d’oeuvre plates which should have been put in the garage with our Christmas stuff two Christmases ago when we got them, found my eight-inch square cake pan I’d been looking for, and threw the candy from that same year into the trash. I never knew how squishy old candy canes got! Success! An empty basket! Now I could put my Atomic Holocaust supply of chocolate chips somewhere other than a reusable grocery bag, so I did. I stock up on a lot of excess baking supplies in this room, keeping them just under the futon for easy access, especially when they go on sale. It’s kinda like my pantry, since we don’t have a pantry.

After finishing the floor, I decided my cake stuff all needed to be put away next, so I gathered all the pans, nested what could be and stacked the rest on top, and put them above my scrapbooking boxes. I also packed up all my cutters and formers into their designated bag and put my tool kit next to it. And it was at this point that I looked at the now nearly full recycling and garbage and wondered why the room still looked like a tornado disaster zone? It didn’t even look like a made a dent, which frustrated me… a lot. And after I calmed down, I realized, after a quick look at what was left, that I really was almost finished.

The entire futon was covered in puppet making materials, most of which could easily be boxed or bagged back up. So I bagged all the fleece, foam, felt and craft foam, boxed up the wires, hot glue gun, Sharpie and homemade patterns and just like that, the futon was magically cleared off! Well, not just like that. Everything that needed to go into the closet was still on there, as well as all of the Christmas wrapping paper, bows and boxes. So I moved the closet stuff in, deciding that when my sewing machine gets back from the shop I wanted to work on a couple of quilting projects I started a few years ago, and put the bags with those projects on top of the rest of my fabric for easier access.

Now, looking at my cleaned up craft room, I wondered why I let it get so out of hand. I mean, I already know that I am lazy, but seriously? So lazy that I make an entire room utterly useless by just tossing stuff in? I’ve got to come up with a better plan of action to keeping this room in order, because it is really only one project away from disaster again. I know how I am. Perhaps it is time to do a “behind the scenes” cleaning again. Take a look at what is on the back side of the futon and if I still need it. Open up the closet and check on the stuff I can’t even get to currently. To see if there is a reason for keeping an entire box of beads for jewelry I haven’t used since I was nineteen. Okay, so maybe I’m not that ambitious yet. But with a new nephew on the way, I really need to go through my fabric and pick some out to use for his baby blanket, and not go to the store and buy a bunch, use a little, and stuff the rest into the closet like I have with every other baby blanket I’ve made. Hey! I just made a plan!