Cottage Magpie

It’s actually kind of amazing to me how long it takes to clean stuff. I mean, not regular cleaning, although that is weirdly time consuming as well. I mean going through stuff. Boxes and boxes and (@#?*$(*^!@ boxes of STUFF. So. Much. Stuff.

All in the name of trying to actually fit in my workshop. Books have been thinned, projects have been finished in the simplest, fastest way, magazines have been recycled, fabric has been donated, shelves have been added. I don’t mind or anything, it’s kind of fun and it’s quite liberating to get rid of the excess. It’s just a much longer process than I had realized!!

The good news is that the more I keep working on it, the better it gets. I still have several boxes of stuff in here to deal with, but overall the room is not bad, not bad at all!! You remember that when I showed it to you the other day it was completely swamped with boxes, right?

Well, here’s what it looks like now:

Can you hear the Hallelujah Chorus? It’s so much better!

Here’s the other angle from last week:

And from today:

There’s still piles hiding in both corners at the bases of the bookshelves, and I still have many projects, but I am so happy with how far I’ve come.

I feel like I can finally see and appreciate the things in here, like my little yellow cabinet.

The fabric on the shelves really inspires me:

I’m pretending I don’t remember about the other 20-30 boxes of stuff in the someday-mudroom. So let’s not mention those, shall we?

The garden is calling me and I’ve been *mostly* successful at staying focused, although I’ve done a couple of things out there. I’ll tell you about those next.

Whew! Now, to stop patting myself on the back and get back to work.

What about you? Are you working inside or outside these days?

In case you were wondering, I did get the two main walls of my workshop painted a couple of weeks ago. (You remember my agonizing process on the color.) I ended up choosing white like so many of you recommended (especially after seeing pictures from my favorite decorating book). I love it. LOVE love love.

BUT. I’m never going to enjoy being in here unless I actually *fit* in here, which means that there’s room on all the shelves, and that what is on those shelves is inspiring, beautiful, usable materials that I am in love with. Nothing else.

Which, you know, meant I had to empty out all the shelves and all the junk piled in the corners and everything so I could go through it.

Which, you know, means that my workshop, at the moment, looks like this:

(GASP.)

Lest you think that is not so bad, here’s another angle.

I’m sorry. I know you can’t unsee that. I can’t either, unfortunately. I have to look at it all day, since I work from home and this is also my office.

BUT, there is hope. I am going through everything and I’m getting rid of a TON of stuff.

I’m also sewing a ton of stuff, because (and this should come as no surprise to anyone, ever) I have about 52x more stuff than will actually fit in here. But I don’t want to give *all* of it away, so I’m sewing a bunch of stuff up so that it can go on and live the useful life it was meant to and leave more space on my shelves.

One way or the other, though, this space will be clean and organized and bright and beautiful and inspiring, even if it means getting rid of 80% of it.

I’ll keep you posted.

What about you? Do you have more stuff than will fit in your workshop, craft space or office? Or are you one of those rare individuals who doesn’t bring home more than their house will hold (in which case, how do you do that?)