Situation

This room needed to function as a laundry room, crafts and storage area as well as the production area for a home-based business. Although the home is beautiful, it is small craftsman built back when closets and all rooms were very small.

Challenge

My client has a popular line of gorgeous baby accessories including burp towels and bibs but does not have a lot of room to create and sew as the orders come in.

Solution

We divided and conquered this room by first determining which activities were most important within this space. After deciding that the home-based business needed as much space as possible, we re-contained and moved every unrelated item up and off the counter and into the side cabinets. We decided which shelves should hold which craft based on the frequency they were needed. The more frequent gift wrapping and card-making supplies were stored in the shelves at eye level.

Once the counter was clear, we were able to sort and organize all fabrics and place them within the sewing zone to the right and under the counter.

As you can see in the photo below, we still have an area for miscellaneous projects and tools in the side cabinet.

The one thing I love about craftsman cottages is that once you can organize and look beyond their small size, they often have exceptional built-in storage areas!

Many of my clients are stuck in the muck of their scrap booking projects. Scrapbook inertia is a common phenomenon. It often comes from wanting to make your pages perfect or simply not knowing where to begin.

Perhaps you can’t figure out how to sort your photos. Chronologically seems daunting. On top of that, once you build a page you might feel like there is no turning back, so you don’t even start. Sound familiar?

Well, a very smart client of mine asked me to pass on these tips to all of you who are stuck in the muck of your scrap-booking project.

If you are not sure where to begin, use these categories to begin to sort photos and make your pages.

1. People we love
2. Things we do
3. Places we go
4. Our Family

Sometimes coming up with the chronological timeline is just not fun and scrap booking after all, is supposed to be fun!

There is one more great technique that my client suggests. Instead of using the standard bound books, use three ring binder scrapbooks with clear drop in pages. This way she can make a page, drop it in and if there is another page that later makes sense to place before it, you can simply open the binder and insert the new page where appropriate.

She also likes the fact that she can do pages as they inspire her and not have to follow chronological order. How smart! I just had to pass this one on to you!

• PS: To all of you who feel guilty about not scrap booking or making photo albums for your kids, go easy on yourself. I hear about this guilt all of the time from my clients. Not all Supermoms are made alike. Some of us aren’t good at art projects. Never fear, we are all born with special and unique talents that can foster incredible memories for our children. Simply figure out the most fun and rewarding way for you to create special memories for your kids and go for it!

Ready to see more? Click here to see a scrap-booking area get transformed from crazy disorganized to ultra-organized!

Situation: Even with many storage containers, the crafts supplies were still out of control and taking over their designated space within the home office.

Challenge: The room was used as a crafts room and also a home office. When I was called in, there was not room to do crafts and barely any space to access  the desk.

Solution: I rearranged the crafts area and the furniture so that all cabinets and supplies were moved into the corner. We donated the extra rolling carts and stowed the useful remaining rolling carts under the table. This opened up the table area for actual crafting and made it easier to get motivated and actually create scrap book pages.

Situation
A crafts room that had a sign on the door that said KEEP OUT! because it was too crowded and a hazard to walk into. Not only that, it had become the dumping ground for all things not craft!

Challenge
Not knowing where to start or what the items were inside. Many things had landed into this room, from leftover Christmas, outgrown clothes, half finished projects, extra greeting cards and school supplies, to spare gifts and books. We wanted to create a fun and productive environment that mom (and only mom) could go to unwind and get creative. This was built as a room for mom to use, not a dumping ground for all things spare!

Solution
We decided to see what was really being stored in this space. We sorted through each box, bag and basket to determine what we needed to keep and what really belonged in this room.

Several bags were sent to charities that needed those items. Trash was tossed and the remaining items were categorized and contained into Sterilite plastic bins.

We created ‘floor to ceiling’ storage within the closet by removing the existing shelf and clothes rod and installing pre-fab shelves that fit perfectly into the space.

Zones were set up within this room to reflect the intended purpose. Zones developed included storage for: memories, photo album projects, spare gifts and wrapping supplies, books, volunteer projects, craft supplies, extra school supplies storage, toys and collectibles that made mom happy.

( Move mouse over picture for after )

Situation:
A room where no one could enter. Life happened and this extra room became a haven for spare furniture, crafts projects, gifts, bags and warehouse food overflow.

This client wanted to continue to renovate her home and also pursue her hobbies to unwind after work. She loved to make crafts and matte pictures but her ‘supposed crafts’ room had lost it’s purpose.

Challenge:

This busy client could barely walk into this room. The rest of the house had been repainted and renovated but this room stopped progress dead in it’s tracks. It was so overrun with items that she was at a loss as to where to begin. It also seemed overwhelming to do it on her own. Her successful business took all of her spare energy while at the same time, made it very important that she had an area in which to get creative and unwind.

Solution:

We began digging into the contents of the room and found that most of the items could be either moved to another area in the home or donated. We donated extra furniture and moved some to the garage. We created a gift center and storage for extra home decor in another bedroom closet.

The remaining crafts, books and office supplies that needed to stay in this room were categorized, containerized and labeled. We installed two bookshelves inside the closet to work as a storage haven for supplies, books and photo albums.

Another client was getting rid of a great crafts table that she no longer had the space for but didn’t want to give it to a stranger because it was such a nice piece of furniture. When I suggested that we re purpose it for one of my new clients, it was a win-win. Now this client has a beautiful and inspiring place to pursue her hobbies.

Now this room has everything! A library, home office, crafts studio and even a treadmill for exercise.

*Note: These photos do not represent the actual finished project. After the room became completely functional, my client decided to donate her old desk and install a custom L desk to add more horizontal work area and file drawers. It turned out quite well and this room is now optimized to it’s fullest potential!

What Our Client Said:

“Clutter has prevented me from getting my home improvements done. I was stopped from redecorating and painting because I couldn’t get into the rooms and the workers couldn’t either until the piles were gone. Now I can walk around without falling over things and it is much more peaceful. I am also really motivated to get started on the projects that until now have been on hold.”

M. Stewart San Marcos