TOWER REDO COMPLETE!

Nothing like before and after photos to tell the story! As you can see by the first photo, I had very little clean work space. I wasted more time looking for things than I did for stamping. How frustrating is that!






To achieve this dramatic improvement, I followed my own advice of three piles: one to give away, one to throw away and one to put away (the hardest of all!) The throw-away pile went into a few plastic garbage bags, the give-away pile is in the hallway to bring downstairs and actually give to fellow stampers and, for the rest of the story, I did a marathon rearranging of everything left. In fact, it took all week.

First, the overstuffed closet. Notice that now you can actually see the floor! There are no longer any obstacles to reaching things. The white cubicle holds odd items that have nothing to do directly with stamping but are out of the way. On top is a stack of stamping books and magazines I will go through later today with the same 3 piles in mind. The 5 containers are clearly labeled, 2 with Christmas stamps, 1 for Halloween and Easter/Spring and the bottom 2 for travel memorabilia. I still have 1 more empty one to use later, probably for Mothers Class items. To the right is a metal duct (looks gray here) that I placed all my magnets on from the fridge, which also looks neater now, too. Can you tell I was on a roll???

Meanwhile, back at the table, I moved my Cuttlebug station over to a more accessible spot next to my desk blotter. It used to sit on top of the file drawers which now fits underneath the table. The top drawer holds all my embossing folders and dies. The second drawer is for specialty 12 x 12 paper and the bottom drawer...well that's another whole story.

The biggest change is how I store my cardstock. A few years ago I bought a huge paper rack for $25 from a craft store that went out of business. I set it up in the closet, arranged my cs in color families on 36 slots and kept it behind closed doors away from the sunlight. Unfortunately, I had a hard time seeing the variety of shades in such a dark area. That rack is now in the hallway to be given away and the cs is in file folders in the bottom drawer under the CB. It's still protected from fading sunlight, but now I can see what I have. In fact, I discovered whole unopened packs of delicious SU cardstock that had been hidden. I won't need to buy any more cs for years!

Several of the items that were taking up space on the table have been moved to the second cubicle that I took out of the closet. It now holds a basket of Stickles; a basket of distress inks, pads and sponges; and a box of embellishments--all easily reached from my chair. Notice the absence of clutter on the floor!

Finally, a view of my table and desk from the door. It took hours of sorting, purging and rearranging to get things back under control; but it was all worth it!