Cleaning my Craft Room // Part I

I am officially on summer break and one of the main things I want to do this summer is clean. By cleaning, I mean going through my stuff, letting go of what I can and organizing the rest.

I am starting with my craft room. I’m sure you’ll agree with me that it is a mess.

If I were to jump into cleaning today, I’d probably start with my craft storage. That’s just what’s been on my mind today.  Really, though, my craft storage in my IKEA shelving is probably what is most organized in this room. Over the next weeks, I’d likely get the storage done and get fatigued before I got to other areas of the room. For that reason, I am going to think and write before I clean.

Below are pictures of the IKEA shelving where things are more organized than the rest of the room.

There are tons of organization strategies I could use. The most famous I know of is Marie Kondo’s. However, I have been working on cleaning way before Kondo.

Ever since I came across Get Organized the Clear and Simple Way on CD–yes it’s only on CD–I have been using Marla Dee’s strategies.  It looks like she’s also got some materials online. Working with her See It, Map It, Do It plan has helped me clean out some rooms in the past.  

It looks like Marla Dee has copyrighted and trademarked a ton of things on her site, so I want to clearly state that I am not affiliated with Marla Dee. I am simply using some of her questions and ideas to help me get started on my cleaning.

First, I asked one of her questions and applied it to my craft room.

While filling out this table, I realized again how much writing helps me go deeper into the issue. For example, I knew the room was messy, but thinking about it being messy both because some things don’t have a permanent spot and because I don’t put things away helps me deal with those 2 problems separately.

The next step is to Map It.

I am super clear on my answers to the question Marla Dee asks under the “Map It” section about how I want the space to look, feel and function. I’m not as sure about where I want to put certain things, what I want to keep and toss and what I want where in the room. I mean, I want it to look nice and clean, but I’m not sure how everything will be organized and what tools I’ll use to organize things (for example, I’m not sure if I’ll use shelves, baskets, hooks or something else to organize my things).

I’ve got a start on mapping things out, but I think I have more work I want to do before I delve into the areas of the room where I’ll need to make lots of decisions. I’m going to mentally go through the room and list the various things I have stored in different areas. I may take photos as well. I may also just start to pick up my laundry and the few things on the floor I know I want to let go of. So I guess I am mixing the Map It and Do It stages. 

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Peace Out (and In),

Julie

If you’re interested in commenting, I’d love to know how you clean, what you get stalled by and how much you think about organizing before doing it.