Combating the creeping disaster

Perhaps some can relate to this tale …

Being two people who work full time and have three animals, Jeff and I have an ongoing battle with the Mess. We do try to clean things pretty regularly, it’s not that. It’s the ongoing mess of life, the junk that collects, the stuff that’s hard to put away, the errant crashes when you know the kitten has done something again. I think sometimes … well, maybe I’ll see to that stack of papers that’s putting down roots in the dining table. Corral some of those cat toys? Put away one of the crochet projects lurking about the couch in the living room? The dishes and laundry are another story - they are the Mess That Never Ends. Of course, there’s also the bag sitting somewhere in my living space full of stuff I don’t know what to do with, stuff that has no place and sits there mocking me week after week (at least in my head).

Sometimes the Mess gets to me. It should never be a surprise when I start making things to fix disaster areas.

One.

Trash bags for the car. Two of them. Actually, I made two of each “just in case” (of what, I ask you? I don’t know), but mostly because I like making bags and I like the fabric I picked. We do have some car-trash issues. We accumulate cups, water bottles, useless receipts and, strangely enough, labels from skeins of yarn. Who would do that, I ask you?

They’re inspired by car litter bag design that Allyson Hill mentioned on her blog. I saw it and thought maybe if I made something for the car we’d have some success in overcoming our apparently overwhelming urge to put things on the floor of the backseat. My designs differ from hers in that (1) they’re not the same sizes, they’re made for my car, (2) I got nuts with the red cloth details and (3) the smaller one actually has a removable, washable oilcloth interior.

The left, larger bag is for hanging over the back of a headrest and is sized for bottles and cups. It’s lined, but I can also put a grocery bag in it and just toss when it’s full.

The one on the right is for smaller items, to be strung about the oddly-placed gear shift. It is washable due to the oilcloth. Washable because whatever you have in your car in the Texas summer is bound to melt. I don’t care what it is, it will melt. You will melt.

There’s quite a bit of detail in these - what you can see and what you can’t. I was sort of in a meditative mood, making these, so they got a lot more attention than one might normally pay to what are essentially pretty trash bags.

Two.

So let’s be honest: THE CAT IS A MESS. That would be Callie the Demon Kitty. I’m just not going to tell you her other nicknames, because then the rest of this post would be profanity. She is the cat that gets repeated time-outs in the office after becoming a fuzzy little vortex of destruction at least twice a day. And one of her favorite targets is the toilet paper. So I’ve done something about it with the help of an idea from Just Tutes: the Toilet Paper Cozy.

Jeff laughed when I first suggested this and vetoed the idea. No, he said, that’s silly. That was several shredded rolls of toilet paper ago. Now he thinks I’m brilliant.

My mom, while staying with us, said, “what ridiculous bag do you have hanging here?” and removed the TP and set it on the bathroom counter. She’d have none of that!! The next day she remarked, “well, I put it back in the bag. Last night she ran off with and shredded about half of the toilet paper I left on the counter. I spent 15 minutes cleaning it up. I’m a convert.”

Moral of the Story: I may not be able to make the laundry self-washing, but I do have some powers of neatness in my sewing machine.

The latest organizational effort

So like I said yesterday, I made some changes to ye olde craft space recently in hopes that I can get my projects wrangled a little better and have more workspace. You can see from a previous organization effort that I have a small space, an oddly shaped loft with an inconvenient floor vent and a balcony over the stairs. It has to be both workspace and storage, and there’s no closet. I could really use a smaller ironing board. It could be prettier.

So I went to Ikea in hopes that a large collection of stuff would inspire me.  I returned with what I call the project tower. It’s actually a closet organizer with drawers, designed to hang on a closet rod. I hung it on two shelf brackets bolted together and bolted to the wall (precariously, I might add, tho’ it hasn’t fallen).

Each drawer represents a project. It’s hard to remember when I return to languishing projects after weeks away what I originally intended . So each drawer contains all the materials, tools and plans necessary for a project. I hope this way I won’t lose a notion, forget what size hook I need or what color thread I was using, or wonder what I did with the pattern. They’re also portable. The drawers can come with me to the desk for working. When I’m done for the night I pile it all back in and put it away, so the CAT can’t mess with it.

On the outside are places to hang tools and stick notebooks and current magazines. Theoretically, I can’t start a new project until one of these is empty. Theoretically.

I also got a new desk/table that I love. It’s tiny. And portable.  And bright green. And it expands.

The idea is that (1) it’s a place to work on/store my computer (this clears off my workspace), (2) I can use it for sketching and stuff, (3) it takes the load off the poor power switch at my desk and (4) at need it can be an extra workspace, particularly when I expand the top. Plus I can keep an eye on downstairs while I work. I’m there right now.

I like my new additions to my space. Very few projects won’t fit in the drawers. Those are usually the large art project, and they don’t count.  Having extra workspace is great. And it all fit into the tiny little space I have for crafting without too much fuss. You can tell I love organization, can’t you?

The CAT hasn’t been able to steal any bells and yarn lately, either.

Storage and Crafting

Ran across a piece of furniture for crafting on the Unclutterer blog today.  They didn’t know what to make of this piece of furniture.  It’s called the Original Scrapbox (warning: the site has videos.  With music.).  What do you think?

First of all, I was a bit irritated at the commenters.  If you don’t have a craft, you might not get why junk piles up, or why lots of compartments might be nice.  One person said “Having so much craft crap that you need one of these is awful.”  Yeah, doesn’t get it.  Another person said “these people with their crafts need places to put stuff” - which is understanding, but … “these people?”

So anyway, the lovely video at the site tells me this is for scrapbooking, but you can see that it would be good for any sort of craft that involves lots of small bits of things.  Sewing, for example.  I’m kind of divided on what I think.  I think the outside could use help.  I think that table is too small.  I think the size is overwhelming (though they do have a smaller version now called the minibox).   I think it’s pretty darn expensive at $1,295.

But on the other hand, I admit I struggle battle to keep my junk organized and put away.  I keep adding to my organization.  I have a lot of small bits I don’t know what to do with.  I can’t manage to keep anything safe from The Cat.  Plus I admit the problem will only grow -  I can’t throw perfectly good supplies out just because they’re cluttery.   Yet I can’t say I’m ready to put money like this toward a piece of furniture - nor am I quite willing to give up my miscellaneous organization things but …  I gotta say, the idea of having one compact, centralized, labeled place for everything that I can close up is NICE.

Tomorrow I’ll show you what I just did with my workspace, which is working out beautifully…