Work Room Makeover (part 2)

The work room makeover is complete or as complete as it is going to be for now. I did a small purge getting rid of two large boxes of assorted "stuff" that I believe I will never want again. Most of this went to the curb but 3 things went to MarketPlace and have sold. Things have been rearranged a bit and drawers labeled to make locating everything somewhat easier. I've cleared off my main horizontal work surface as much as is practical and can now spread fabric and paper out to make it easier to work with. As described in my earlier post, my fabric stash is completely reorganized onto comic book boards and in 6 mid-sized bins to protect the fabric from light and dust. Bins labeled to make locating fabric easier. I even found myself with several empty drawers; don't worry, they will find a purpose sooner than later.

Photos

I've come to the conclusion, after watching numerous YouTube videos on organizing craft rooms, that displaying supplies and tools is not really for me. I want a place for everything and everything in its place and I don't like visual clutter no matter how well organized it may be. I have drawers and bins with a few things "out" and visible to the room. Labels everywhere done with my Brother labeler. I do have most things organized such that if I need something in that category, glue for example, then it is easy to find, and I can even take all glues to my workstation by bringing the entire drawer. Silicon brushes that I use with glue are stored with the glue. The organization makes sense to me at least.

Looking South. The door is to the exterior.

Facing west from the main entrance to the room. The door on the right is to the bathroom and laundry room. The door on the left is a closet.

Looking East. The door is to another room.

Looking North. Behind the door is a hot water heater.

Inside the closet (1).

Inside the closet (2).

6 boxes of fabric.

Closeup of fabric box.

Inside box of fabric.

A Few Finishing Touches

There are just a few more things I'd like to do that are waiting for my Amazon budget to increase a bit. First, a new larger cutting mat. The one I have now is a 18x24 inch and is just a bit too small. I'm looking at a 24x36 inch mat to replace it. This will allow me to work easily with a fat quarter without cutting off the mat and onto my table.

Second is a clamp-on desk hutch. This will give me 2 shelves above the surface of the table without occupying any square footage on the table top itself. I could then keep a few commonly used tools out while still not cluttering up my work surface.

Third, I would like to remove the closet doors. These doors make it difficult to access the contents of the closet. If I do this, I will need to remove some more clutter from the closet, however. That top shelf has already become a catch-all for things to deal with later.

Finally, I need to finish de-cluttering Mom's collections from that room. This will be the most difficult and time consuming, but I am working on it. The bonus from this will be that the shelves currently occupied by the collections will become available for me to use as storage space.

What I Would Like To Change

COLOR. I love color and with few exceptions my storage solutions are black and gray. Black and gray have their places as accents but as dominate colors, I hate them. I have 5 of those cloth drawer dressers that you can buy in many configurations from Amazon. They are great; inexpensive, easy to assemble, light weight, sturdy, functional. But they are also boring even depressing -- gray, white, black. I have 2 that have abstract greenish floral designs on the drawer fronts but the other 3 ... 2 are in the closet and the third is right there trying to be.

Credenza. Years ago, before storage became a real issue, I purchased a beautiful piece of furniture from Wayfair -- a green multi-drawer credenza where each drawer is a different shape and color. I love it; it's beautiful. I hate it; it is not at all practical. It's ok for small items and I do use it but even the larger drawers are not roomy; the largest will hold a single ream of 8.5x11 inch paper. And they don't pull all the way out as the cloth drawers will. It really needs to go. But what would I replace it with? I have a rolling shelf unit in storage ....

Footprint. In a perfect world, the room would not have so many doors (5 total) and windows (one complete wall) thereby making it easier to place furniture and take advantage of vertical space offered by the 9-foot ceilings. But then it would be a different room entirely.

dks, 13 Nov 2025