Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Craft Zone Destruction Construction

My craft supplies have had many homes in the three short years we've lived in this house. Every single spot has had two things in common; lack of space and zero organization. A few weeks ago I promised myself that I would find/create/build a perma-home for my crafts, whether it killed me or not!

I started small. I found a little corner in the laundry room that was perfect, but it certainly needed some work. Because I'm a glutton for punishment, here's the space. Feel free to have a little laugh, I can handle it...


Disaster, right? Yeah, I'm well aware. Nonetheless, I jumped right in. Everything was going well. I was purging like mad and categorizing. It felt great. Things got even better when I found an old cabinet that used to live in our second bathroom. Though functional, it was hideous so it came down within minutes of moving in and eventually I forgot about. As ugly as it is, it would be perfect to hold my crafty things.

Here's what it looked like in it's old home just minutes after we moved in.




PS That stupid cabinet is so insanely heavy that I'm pretty sure I lost a good 5 lbs hanging it. Getting it to stay was difficult. But I did it! All by myself too! Needless to say, I was basking in my own accomplishment for days.

I filled it up immediately and I had purged so much crap that I actually had space leftover (for future crap). Ahh, still basking. Even slicing my finger with my rotary cutter couldn't slow me down. Public Service Announcement* Don't EVER grab your rotary cutter from the top. There is a distinct possibility that you carelessly left the guard down. Siiigh.


Once again, proving to you that I am genuinely lazy (or incredibly focused...it's a thin line) I didn't go upstairs to get a band-aid. Kleenex and raffia worked just fine! Ah, the hazards of organizing.

Still beaming with excitement, I finished what I could and patted myself on the back. My hope was to move a table from another part of the basement in as my workstation. But that wasn't all going to happen in one day. I settled for partial reorganization.


Not too shabby. Until today. I had a simple plan this morning: move the table from one side of the basement, to the other. Yup, that's it. Ten minutes tops, right? Sure if your cabinet doesn't FLY OFF THE WALL spewing it's contents EVERYWHERE! Holy cannoli! Granted, I was moving things around inside of it. And sure, I never really stabilize it into the studs, but geeeez!


My sweet little ten minute project turned into a lot more. After staring in awe for a while, I started to pick up all of my supplies and had a revelation. Take a hammer to the cabinet!


I can't lie, it felt great to smash that thing. I'll even admit to yelling "Tawanda" a few time while taking my whacks! But truthfully, it was with great purpose that I smashed it. I had a plan. I was going to use the pieces of the cabinet as shelves. Genius! I made a quick trip to Menard's and snagged six brackets at $.50 each. Look how fantastic it turned out. So much better than that silly cabinet. Now I'm actually thankful it collapsed on me.


You may be saying to yourself, 'is that a spice rack I see on your work station?' and to that I would say, 'definitely!' Last week I grew tired of that huge rack on my kitchen counter, even though I still used quite a few spices in it. I put the spices I use regularly into the spice cupboard and the empty spice rack went into the corner of my basement where all old decor pieces go to die. But she was reborn when I realized how perfect my craft paints would fit. This is magical. 


And in the end, this is what I have. Finally, a perma-home.

Before:

After:

Let this be a lesson for all of us. Even when organizing is physically harmful. When projects are failing so miserably that parts of your mind have literally been blown...just power through to the end. It just feels so good!

How many of you have created a disaster while trying to fix another?

<3 dani


*If you can dig it, follow JDitB. There's more where this came from...until I run out of fabulous ideas...which is, at least, another three or four days ;-)

8 comments:

  1. found your blog on the penny pinchers party:) Love your style of writing!

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  2. Big high five, Lindsey. Thanks for stopping by annnd the compliment.

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  3. I'm so sorry your cabinet fell apart, but it turned out so much better as shelves. The whole area looks great and I bet it's so nice to have a crafting place of your own. Thanks for linking to We're Organized Wednesday.

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  4. Your perseverance is inspiring, I have to say. The end result is cool and much better than before. Sorry about your injury, that just makes me wince.

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  5. Thanks for stopping by Ann. In this case, my determination came from necessity ;-) Nothing was gonna come between me and my very own craft station!

    -Dani

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  6. Always check that you're up to date on your tetanus shot if you cut yourself with a blade that has cut wood or paper (the lesser-known cousin of the rusty nail). Might add the price of one copay to your project, but much cheaper than lock-jaw!

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  7. Lock-jaw, eh? Hope the Hubs doesn't see this. He might start leaving the blade exposed on purpose, just to get me to shut up!

    good tip though. never miss a date with the ol' tetanus needle.

    <3

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