This first post is a little wordy, but I want you guys to really get a feel for what my space was like before and help hold me accountable for organizing my new space! It's going to be a process that may take a while but I hope you guys will stick with me and join in the redecorating and organizing fun!
To start off, I'm going to share a few (rather shameful) pictures of my work space at our old place. It's bad. Really bad. Here we go.....
This is the part that doesn't look super embarrassing: my sewing corner, which doubled as an office space. Last fall when I added AlchemyHomeDecor to my plate, I was forced to take over our dining room.
So, out went our only table, and in went my little desk and crate shelf for storing fabrics. For the remainder of our time living in this condo, we were condemned to eating off of tv trays or outside on the balcony table if the weather was cooperating. It's not shown in the picture, but I also had a secretary desk with my printer, silhouette Cameo, and various other accessories so I used this desk as my shipping/packing station as well.
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| "Sewing Corner" before aka our dining room |
Here's where things get rough. Where did our dining table go, you might ask? Into our second bedroom, which really hasn't been a bedroom since 2012, but instead has been my workspace where I did all of the furniture restoration, painting, and wooden signs.
Yep. For the past 3 years, I've worked out of a tiny 8'x6' bedroom jumbled full of everything. I do have a storage unit where I keep projects that are finished and waiting to sell, as well as pieces that are unfinished, but it still got very crowded!
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| Workroom before (left side) |
That was one half of my workspace in it's normal state. Plastic everywhere (because remember I'm in a rental bedroom with carpet!), stencils hanging on the wall, and tools strewn about. The below picture shows the other half of the room. As you can see, there was barely any space left to move once you put a piece of furniture in there to paint.
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| Workroom before (right side) |
It wasn't always this messy; but the past year and a half when I got really busy I just kind of let things go and pretty much surrendered to the mess, working around it.
Somewhere along the way in the process of cleaning out this space, packing up what I needed, and letting go of things that I didn't, I really began to realize how bad it had gotten. Thus has begun my mission to organize and inspire!
Part of my difficulty comes with the fact that we were, and still are, renting (the other bigger part of my problem simply comes from my un-organized nature). I didn't take the proper measures to really protect the walls and carpet from paint splatters and to maximize the small space I was in.
Here's where we'll begin the new journey to an inspiring studio. We've still moved into another rental condo, but it is a little bit bigger, and *hopefully* I'll be able to fit my entire workspace and office all in the second "bedroom".
What's different:
- The room is bigger than I had before, it's about 10' x 12' vs. the old 8' x 6' and very small dining room.
- A pretty sizable closet that I can utilize
- It has a much bigger window, providing tons of natural light!
I didn't get a picture of the space when it was actually empty, but this is what it looks like now. Cluttered, of course. That's all going to change over the coming weeks!
I'll be updating again soon with lots of pictures along the way; but in the mean time, I'd love to know....What are some of best your tips and tricks for organizing and maximizing small spaces?!?
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