Organizing Your Workspace

This is a post I dread to make as my workspace is horrendous. By horrendous I don't mean it's a bad space. It's a fabulous space. It's my basement. I have a fully heated and air conditioned, walk-out basement with sliding doors on one side a two windows and double doors on the other.  It's warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Goodies from One Estate Sale

The horrendous part is all my fault. A dear friend one gave me the nickname "Messy Marvin". That says a great deal about the problem with my workspace. However, I set a goal this year to clean and reorganize my workspace.

When you buy vintage and antique items for resell you have to purchase them when you find them. I'm always hitting the estate sales and often buying Christmas items in June and dressers when I already have five ahead to paint. It's all about stocking up when you find a good deal. However, that takes storage. Lots of storage.

Luckily. I have a full basement of about 1800 square feet. One half is for storage and the other is playroom/workspace. That's not working real well. My basement, like most basements, gets the leftovers. Mine and everyone else's in the family. So my 900 feet of workspace was (note the was) filled with a big TV stand and a big old TV. There were (note the were)  also two couches. Add to that mix an old china cabinet, end tables, a freezer, a train table, shelves and a vintage trunk. Not to mention a vintage farm table I work on, built in cabinets and a cabinet top with shelves all along one wall.

All that has potential for a fabulous workspace. I mean you have a counter top and a table to work on. You have shelves and cabinet storage. Right...in dreamland. I've lived in this home for over 40 years. We have a lot of stuff. It overflows into the basement.

So I have been slowly working on cleaning and reorganizing my space. I started last summer by having a huge yard sale. What I didn't sell was packed up and donated. There were years of craft supplies (and yes I have wished for some of it back), furniture, toys and lots more. This made room to begin on the other half of the basement. Next I purchased some nice metal shelving. I reorganized my Christmas items for sell on them moving them from workroom side to storage side. Then a friend gave me about 12 pieces of vintage furniture. That pretty much put a stop to organizing the storage side. But did I say FREE?

Before Workspace side of the Basement

For the last two weeks I've been organizing the workshop side of my basement. And here I will share the horrendous part of Messy Marvin's workspace. Remember....It no longer looks like this.

After Paint Storage

I started with one area at a time. I added a steel shelf unit over by the hutch where I put projects I'm working on or items I just purchased until I have time to move them to the storage shelving on the other side of the basement. I organized the button and sewing notion shelves first.

Work Table After

Then I went for the paint area. Then the cabinets. Hubby (Have I mentioned him today?) and I carried out the sofa, the TV and the old TV stand. That went to the dump. Then we took 5

Stencil Storage

boxes of things to Goodwill. By tackling one area at a time I've managed to clean and organize the whole space.

So I found you are about to tackle your work space remember  these things. Think about alternative ways to store things you use the most. I use stencils quite a bit to make signs. We came up with this area to store them on an adjustable rod. So easy to access now.

My work table is clean and has a new cheap tablecloth. My paint storage area is now all organized. My crafting work area and storage is all neat and clean.

After Craft Storage

I still need to do a bit more but my workroom area is so much better now. I left the train table as the grand daughter loves playing there with her vintage metal doll house and wooden barn. I moved a large screen TV to the spot where the old TV was and set it on a great old black bench we found.  

Remember to buy what you love and have space in mind to store that treasure. When a project seems to big to do, break it down into smaller bites. Organize one area at a time. Throw things out or donate them when you just have no more room. Finally, think of alternative ways to store those things you love, treasure or use often.

Now if I can just talk Hubby into building me my own barn.