Housekeeping

Organizing the Craft Room + Office = "Croffice"

I finally started organizing my "croffice"...I have much to do, there always seems to be quite a mess before everything comes together. And it doesn't help to have a 2 year old who likes to "help" by undoing everything you just finished!

Pics coming soon, so stay tuned!...its still a work in progress.

I have combined my office with a craft room...I live in a 3 bedroom condo right now..so not much of a choice. The room used to be my youngest son's bedroom, but when my daughter and granddaughter moved out, he switched rooms. So now I am free to finally unpack my boxes, spread out my projects, and set up my desk.

There is not much storage space in this condo, even though it is quite modern, I still have no linen closet. When it came to purchasing a new bedroom set, I found a bed with drawers for under the bed storage where I now store all my sheets and towels.

I love the bookcases from IKEA http://www.ikea.com/us/en/  and since they are cheap enough, I bought two...one medium sized I use for all my crafts/magazines/supplies and one for my living room. (I kind of wish I had purchased another large, but the room for the office is so small, I didn't want to over power it with a lot of large pieces of furniture).

The IKEA bookcase also has a desk attachment that I plan on making into my sewing table. A folding table for my scrap booking and card making sits along another wall.

I also purchased a detached desk from IKEA. One large enough to place for both my monitor and printer to share. I get to work from home at least once a week, so I like to try to keep things neat and orderly.

This project is giving me the opportunity not only to become more organized, but to have space to imagine and create new ideas. And if I'm not quite finished with a project, I can just shut the door...reminds me, I may need to change the doorknob to one with a key to keep the grand kids locked out of the room when I have things in progress.

Below are some items you may want to purchase or keep in mind when setting up a craft room or office space:

1. How much square footage and wall space is available for what you want: a desk, lamps, bookcases, stack-able plastic organizers, shelves, and don't forget to leave enough clearance space on the floor for office chairs or stools.

2. What is your passion when it comes to crafting? Is it sewing? scrap-booking,  crochet or knitting? photography? blogging? wood working? painting? If you are anything like me, you have a little or a lot of everything! Consider where you will be doing these things? Do you need a separate table or work station? Keep your supplies nearest to your designated work station. You will be glad you don't have to grab your paints/brushes that are sitting next to your sewing machine or your fabric that is on the self next to your easel. Keep less frequently used items/supplies elsewhere. And remember to label your storage bins/baskets/boxes if they are in a storage room/garage or basement.

3. How do you want to access your craft supplies? Do you want them contained or displayed out in the open? Do you have supplies you need to keep out of reach of little ones? like scissors or craft knives, paint supplies or crochet hooks or knitting needles? threads and buttons? All these things you will want to consider.

4. When it comes to a small room, floor space is limited, think "vertically"! A magnetic or cork board, rods with baskets to store pens/markers/brushes, wall mounted magazine racks are also great for patterns and swatches.

5. I love IKEA for storage solutions. Bookcases are sturdy, lots of fun storage bins and baskets, magazine files, and jars and even spice jars you can use on their magnetic board, fill the spice jars with embellishments, brads, buttons, pins, paperclips, etc and add some style to your room.

6. Is there closet space: what do you use it for? Why not hang one of those sweater organizers from the closet rod for yarn, fabric or scrap book paper? Hang your gift wrapping supplies on the inside of the door. (I found those ideas on Pinterest and plan to put them to good use).