I know there are a lot of us out there who dream of having a special room just for art and craft stuff (a studio, if you will); I feel your pain! I no longer eat off the dining table (mainly because I can’t see it), and oh how I miss those heady days of having a sofa.
(look at my little man going ‘What are you doing Mummy? Is it walk time?’) My flat is lovely – if you can see past the horrendous mess you might notice the lovely wooden floors and the French doors into the (tiny) garden, the striking stone fireplace and the soft neutral walls.
What a beautiful blank canvas it was. And then in came Tara and BAM. Art and craft paraphernalia, papers, magazines, bubble wrap, boxes of stock and quite a lot of general crap and the place was transformed into, well, not somewhere that’ll be gracing the pages of Homes and Gardens any time soon.
This would be my ‘office’. I suppose I ought to be a bit ashamed that I run a business from this fiasco of a corner, but I’m actually beyond shame now. Jaspy looks a bit embarrassed though.
My idea is that by publicly shaming myself in this way I will be forced to do something about it (and then I can show some nice ‘after’ pictures). The main problem is lack of space AND storage. I’m renting so can’t go mad with alterations, and I do actually own about 397 times more furniture than this, which is in storage, so I’m quite loath to start buying more. I can’t afford to anyway. I live alone (unless you count Jaspy, which I don’t because tidying is not his forte) so I have no real reason to be arsed to clear up, and really, if you’re doing art every day, are you actually going to get it all out and put it all away each time?
But I miss surfaces that are empty just for the hell of it. I miss being able to close the door on the mess, rather than being confronted with it every morning when I stumble over boxes of stock and literally have to climb over the dog bed to get to my ‘desk’ (ha).
So this is it now. I have reached the end of my rope. It’s time to Do Something About It. I imagine this will involve trips to the charity shop, binbags for the dustmen and quite a bit of angsting over throwing away that piece of paper that has the info about that thing I was maybe going to look into. I would also MASSIVELY appreciate any advice, encouragement and ideas about how to get round the lack of storage/space/money conundrum.
Better get started then. Just got to do a couple of things first.
Gosh your flat really is lovely! (and your dog is ADORABLE). But you don't want praise, you want practical advice, so…
It looks like on either side of the gorgeous fireplace you have shallow alcoves set back into the wall. Get tall, open shelving units (you can get cheapish neutral ones from Argos: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6109527/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CHome+and+furniture%7C14417894/c_2/2%7Ccat_14417894%7CStorage+and+shelving%7C14417975/c_3/3%7Ccat_14417975%7CBookcases+and+shelving%7C14417982.htm)put them together and stick them in there.
You be able to fit loads of crafty stuff in and still be able to get at it easily. They're fairly inoffensive and if and when you move you can deconstruct them and take them with you.
We've used these and – whilst not the prettiest – they're a godsend space and money-wise. The key is building as high as poss to ge everything off the floor and out of the way :).
How about making a fantabulous screen so that you can shove all your crafty stuff behind it – it's there when you needs it but you don't have to look at it all the time?
Ooh that makes me feel so much better about my own living chaos (sorry – that wasn't much help was it??)
By jove, it's a jumble. A set of strong white steel brackets, white-painted lengths of strong wood, and cover an entire wall with deep shelves. Quick and easy to undo when you move out. Maybe even make a lovely wall-width floor-length curtain to draw across it so you can just shut out the supplies when you need serenity without having to mess with pesky cupboard doors?
My flat is actually worse than this – at least you can see the floor. My problem is clothes, and paper. I have a great filing system, it just takes a while for things to make it there…I am trying to find a textile recycling place so I can get rid of my old clothes (which aren't even in good enough shape for the charity shop.) It almost has me in tears because I am a tidy person fighting to get out – I want all my books in alphabetical order.
I think the key is to take a little bit at a time. For example just tidy up the table in one day. What stresses me is that I try to tidy everything in one day and make it worse!
I'm looking out for a plan chest which I think will help me organise everything. But it looks like you need shelves. I've recently bought some magazine files and that's helped a lot too.
I would love to see your progess!
ps my other top tip is MUJI!
Oh, one final suggestion. I recently bought an old bookcase. Then I bought these metal container things from IKEA and put them on the shelves – http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/50105976. Honestly, they are brilliant, I just chuck everything in there (mainly shoes) – and I hope to paint little labels on them. I have a picture on my blog somewhere but can't find it.
Sorry sorry but – I can see a floor. If you have a floor what's the problem?! 😉 I don't have a floor in my flat, it's covered. In the kitchen, the living room and the spare room which is supposed to be my craft room. And the workshop which is at the shop – no floor there either! Honestly, no need to do anything about it! 😉 Thanks for the comment on my blog! Glad you like the new look. The header is from shabbyblogs.com 🙂 xx
PS- Your flat is gorgeous!! Love those shelves on the wall next to the french doors, so pretty!
Thank you all SO MUCH! I feel really supported and sort of warm inside! (No pun intended.)
Thank you Lynne and Serena for the shelf links – I think there really is no way to solve this one without spending some actual money, but at least it doesn't have to be much!
Also Mise and Nifty – love the screen/curtain ideas! REALLY love them! I've just remembered I have some spare linen curtains lying about too…
And Karen, no, not in the least bit helpful, but I feel your support all the same!
Yay for all you lovely supportive people! Will keep you posted as to progress. xxx
I feel your pain!! My house is heading the same way and there's always more interesting things to do than tidy up – until someone like a fastidiously neat neighbour calls in unexpectedly and you just want to hide! Good luck 🙂