Staying Organized

Hello everyone!  I’ve been missing for a few days, you know how it goes… life gets busy, blogging slows down.  The weather hasn’t been the best around here so painting has been difficult.  During my down time, I wanted to do something that would make it easier for me to work once the weather got a little better.

I don’t have an office or a work room other than the garage where I paint.  I use my dining room as a “showroom” but lately it has been more of a storage room. My supplies and tools were somewhat scattered around the house.  Sometimes while working on a project, I had to go find supplies from several different places.  I really needed to consolidate my junk!!

I started with this beautiful armoire… please pay no attention to the fact that it is not painted, his turn is coming!  Some of the drawers were being used to store my daughter’s scarfs and knitted hats.  (she likes to wear scarfs even if it is 100 degrees). 

This piece is in my living room as it also houses jackets and the blankets we use at night to snuggle up to watch TV.  I emptied all of the drawers and I assigned each one to a specific “task”. 

Ribbon, Buttons, Trim and small stuff…

Sewing….

Painting…

Glue, Sticky stuff and cutting devices…

And Spare Hardware…

I used to have most of this items tucked away in storage boxes and in a linen closet upstairs… kind of a pain every time I needed something.  The spare hardware was outside in the garage getting dusty and impossible to find.

I use a lot of tools out in the garage but I also need some of them inside which is where I give my pieces the finishing touches.  I had some white tubs full of miscellaneous tools, screws, drill bits, staples, etc.  Overtime all these supplies got all mixed and it was very difficult and time consuming to find the specific tool I was looking for (no before photo, it was embarrassing).  I put all of the items in a pile and started sorting.  Also, I separated the tools I need in the garage from the tools I need inside.  Some of them have to pull double duty so they went into one of the storage tubs so they can be easily transported.

This is what the newly organized tubs look like now and they live in the pantry (right of my dining room) for easy access

If I need any of these items out in the garage, I grab the entire tub and bring it with me, I put everything right back in the tub and back in the pantry… everything is staying organized!

I needed a new home for my Dremmel, staple gun and brad nailer, I didn’t want them in the garage getting dusty and possibly messed up with all the paint dust.  The dresser I keep by my entry was the perfect solution, one of the drawers was not being used.

I had a pegboard with hooks behind my closet door holding my “fancy” necklaces.  Since I only wear one “fancy” necklace every six months, I decided that the pegboard would be much more useful out in the garage.  Now I have all the tools I need in the garage in plain sight and at my finger tips.  My rolling cart stores all my paint and the box at the top houses my paint guns.

I had this huge whiteboard for my kids to play, I brought it out to the garage and created a calendar.  Now I can keep all my projects straight and see what’s coming up!

I used some foamy stickers Lola and Summer didn’t want anymore and I cut index cards to add holidays, baseball and basketball games and any other reminders to the calendar.  I know I can have this in my computer but it works so much better for me if I can “see” it.

It is amazing how something so little can make things so much easier.  I still need to do a little more tweaking but that will happen as I work and see what needs to change.  For now this is a great start.  I have only been enjoying the changes for a few days but it has saved me quite a bit of time already.

What do you do to organize your work and supplies to make your life easier?… do share!!

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