Cleaning,... my work area and a small haul

Cleaning,. my work area & a haul

I've spent the last couple of days cleaning my work area - it had been needing a good clean up for a long time! I'm very messy when it comes to crafting, and I can easily make my desk look like a warzone after only sitting there for a few hours. Usually I just put the stuff back into the different drawers, even if it doesn't really belong there, but this time there were no mercy! I've been going through all the drawers and every corner, throwing away a bunch of scrap clay/materials and some unfinished projects. As much as it hurts throwing so much stuff away, it feels really, really good! You suddenly feel a lot more creative and ready to make new things, when you have a clean desk with everything in its place - And it's so much easier to sit down, relax and immerse yourself in new projects, when your tools are not spread all over the place. 

I'll do my very best to keep everything nice and organized from now on, maybe have a weekly day for cleaning? One thing is for sure; I won't allow it becoming as bad ever again!

So here's my little corner where I do all my crafting. *Cough*, when I'm not sitting on the couch or at the dining table.. Nothing special really, but I like it. Of course I want to one day be able to have an etire room dedicated to crafts. But for now, this is what I have.

On my desk I keep my blades, knives, brushes and other often used tools + my box of scrap clay, pasta machine and a few random items. The 2 black units with many drawers are where I keep my polymer clay and miscellaneous bits and pieces. On top of the unit to the left of my desk I keep all my glazes, glues and liquid cays etc. The small units with 3 drawers in each hold all my ceramic plates, trays, cups and so forth.

Now, for the drawers in the larger storage units, I try to keep it as organized as I can - eg. there's 1 drawer for jewelry supplies, 1 for doll making supplies, 1 for doll hair, 1 for paint, 1 for ribbon, one for sof pastels and some for fabrics - you get  the picture, right? :)
The toolbox below the desk holds most of my paper and cardstock and the pink box on top of the toolbox holds my flower making supplies.

The three larger storage units I have (with drawers) are all from the same supermarket, but I bet many office supply stores carry them. Most of my smaller storage units are from the supermarket I work at, and the small containers are from a bunch of different stores, websites and ebay. I'm always on the hunt for new storage units because I never seem to have enough, and not buying new materials is not an option I'd consider.

It's ironic how the hobby "miniatures" can take up this much space..

I've also received a couple of packages; As you can tell by some of my previous posts I'm really loving the Efcolor enamel, and I decided to buy the Efcolor "oven/stove" set - again from metalclay.co.uk. It comes with the stove, 3 tea lights and a variety of stands/tools. I bought it for a few reasons; 1 - I can enamel anywhere at any time, 2 - I won't have to walk back and forth from my craft area to the kitchen oven, 3 - it's cheaper since the oven is powered by the tea lights.
I'll do some more experimenting before reviewing it :)

I also bought some more fabric - from a different website (though still danish). This time I mainly ordered fabric for miniature shoes and purses, but I also found some cute kids patterns and a few striped and checkered ones.
I love the 2 in the top right corner - it's a snake skin looking pattern (black and dark purple), of course it won't look exactly like snake skin in miniature but I'm sure the pattern will look awesome for a handbag!