Spring Cleaning

Pete had to fly out to Phoenix for a funeral last weekend, so I took some time to get a little more organized.  I spent a lot of my time on the beach during our too brief vacation in February figuring out how to make our house, and particularly my studio,  more efficient.  I cleaned out the living room cupboards (we got rid of almost all our old records and video tapes) and rearranged the furniture as soon as we got back, but I put off tackling the studio until now. 

I have multiple projects going at any one time, and I am always losing things.  I tried using baskets -- I love handmade baskets and have quite a collection of them -- but they are all different sizes and shapes and I don't want to stick labels to them.  So I found these great plastic bins by Sterlite (I know -- plastic is bad and not biodegradable, but these will last me forever) that are not only the perfect size for a lot of my partially made projects, but are stackable!

I used my trusty Brother P-Touch ( a Christmas gift from Pete a few years ago) to make labels for each basket.  I have them stacked neatly on a table in my studio.  No more fishing through multiple unmarked baskets.  And I love that if I want to take something upstairs to work on in front of the television at night, I can just grab a basket and everything is right where it should be.

I also spent time organizing my worms -- all those leftover strips of wool fabric from previous rug projects.  I had set up this system using an old TV cart and some  bins a couple of years ago, but I have been lax in putting the leftovers away.  I had bags of them all over the place.  When I'm finished using the wool, the cart rolls right under my work table, out of sight.

  Cleaning up all the clutter made a big difference in my work space.  So now it is back to work!