Studio Clean-up!

I am currently working on several life-changing issues at the same time...not always the best approach, but I'm either brave or stupid and decided to tackle it all.

First change: giving up daily coffee in favor of tea.  I am a truck driver's daughter with java for blood, so this is much more difficult than you might imagine.  The husband has considered running away from home.

Second change: stepping aside to let the husband manage his leather shop.  This is hard--both because of my control-freak tendencies, and because he works a full-time job so I feel I should do it, but it's his store.  He's taken more of an interest in it since he learned how to post a listing--recently working on new checkbook covers to list.  I still do the daily checking in stuff, (we won't tell him that I edit once in a while) but it's been good to share this part of the load.

Third change: I have been in training...learning how to put things up when I'm through using them.  Now, I'm almost 50 yrs old, and this is not a tough thing--in the rest of the house.  I've managed to run a household (I didn't say tidy household) for a number of years.

But my studio seems to be a different story.  Maybe I get caught up in the creative frenzy or something.  Many's the time the hub has found me working on a tray in my lap because the available workspace is taken up with this creative frenzy...bottles of paint, bits of clay, brushes, wire, tools, doweling, cloth, etc. etc. etc.  So my mission began after this last cleanup.  (Pictures of before and after below).

I've done pretty well so far, and the room is still essentially in good order.  But between the lack of coffee, the control issues w/ Phil's shop, and this effort to be a grownup in my playroom...it ain't been easy.  Whew! 
One day at a time has taken on a whole new meaning for me.

BEFORE: 

AFTER:

I realize as much stuff as I still have out it looks messy, but a lot of that is work-in-progress and has to be out.  The following pictures show some ways I've stored things I need to use/work with...this is an 11 x 12 room, and the huge white cabinets at the back are 20" x 47" x 6 ft and hold tons of fabric.  I make good use of plastic drawer sets found at the thrift shop. Labels help too, keeping shoe-boxes of antique lace and ribbon under control.  It'll never make the cover of "Where Women Create", but it works for me, and I'm enjoying the ability to walk in, sit down, and start working on something without wondering where I'll put my paint tray.

I'll always be messy during the creative process...but I am learning to pick up at the end of the day so I can get more done.