Studio Revamp

Saturday morning around 10:00 AM, approximately 3 hours before I'm due at my niece's birthday party, I decided to take everything out of my studio closet. why that particular moment I have no idea, but it's something I'd been wanting to do for quite some time.

I hated the shelving unit I had in there and wanted shallower shelves along the entire length of the back wall. I also wanted to add peg board to the side wall so I could get a bunch of stuff off the shelves and hanging the way it should be.

Before leaving for the party the closet had been emptied, but there were massive, truly massive, amounts of art stuff in my bedroom. That was a problem. Especially since I hadn't sent hubby to get the supplies needed for the new shelves and there was no way I was putting all that stuff back on the shelves until I did have the supplies.

I ended up moving enough stuff back into the studio so we could at least make it to the bed without tripping and breaking our necks. hubby did go get what was needed for the new shelves, but by the time he got back it was too late to start working. The poor guy was over-tired as it was so really didn't need to start a project at 9:00 at night.

Sunday one shelf was put in place before the drill broke. We have two cordless ones, but of course neither was charged. So, as one was charging I started to sort. Piles and piles of art supplies were divided up into yet more piles. One that's the Must Have items, one for donating to the local art guild and one to donate to the school. Another one for recycle or trash depending on what it was. By the time I was done (it took a full two days to sort through the majority of the stuff) I had a lot less than when I started, but still too much. Now I have a pile of supplies to sell. All of it items that cost too much to just give away.

Monday the shelves and pegboard were finally in place and the task of organizing the supplies began in earnest. I've been at it off and on for over 24 hours and things are looking just great! I love the new set up and I think this may help me find things I want much easier than the old way. The old way consisted of shifting piles of stuff until you found what you were looking for because the shelves were so deep and spaced so far apart that you had to do a lot of stacking. It was maddening!!!

There's nothing like a long overdo session of sorting and revamping to bring new life into a place. And new life into your art!

And, no, the stuff in the photos is definitely not all of my supplies and things! I have 2 shelve units, a rolling cart and a desk full of the stuff in the studio itself and there's also a big pile left in my bedroom. Also, in the photos you can't see the small shelf unit full of pound blocks of clay, the bottom of the peg board where my spools of wire hang or the bins of supplies kept beneath the bottom shelf. What 's in the closet is a heck of a lot more organized than it use to be and that will make my creative endeavors a heck of a lot easier!