Studio Organizing Kick Start

I did get the latest gratitude journal sewn together last week but got delayed in adding finishing touches because I had this coupon from my landlord for a free rug cleaning and it was due to expire by the end of the month. I'd opted not to use it in December (who wants the uproar of a rug cleaning during the holidays, except I understand many companies are swamped with requests as people ready for company and parties - not me), then our weather took that deep dive temperature wise this month, and I knew the cleaners would have to leave the front door partially open while they worked. So last week we finally started rising above zero and I figured I'd better call and get my rug cleaning scheduled. Honestly, I thought they might not have an opening before my coupon expired. Instead, they could come the next day (NO!) or the following day (Okay!) and the rush was on to get things up off the floor and a few pieces of furniture moved throughout the house. Finishing the gratitude journal would have to wait.

I nearly opted for them not to clean in my studio; it doesn't get the same amount of foot traffic as the rest of the house and as I've mentioned before, so many things end up piled on the floor for various reasons. My worktable was already covered, so where was I going to put all those things that needed picking up? I started by clearing things from the door back to where I have small tables for printer and laptop. Here's how it looked after removing bags and boxes from either side of this space.

Thank goodness this room has the adjoining bathroom where these things could be moved to, along with chairs and the laptop table.

Then there was the small stack of fat quarter handdyes and Stonehedge fabric I didn't want to fold so laid on the floor between worktable and storage cabinets along the outer wall. Also another stack of projects I'd laid out in the space behind where I sit at my main sewing machine with the idea that they would be handy to work on - I remember my logic in a past organizing scheme, but they just sat and started getting covered up by things from my bookmaking projects and other small bins I'd worked from and not returned to their place in the closet. Honestly, as I started picking through them, some seemed like ancient history and maybe not applicable anymore, plus I also found more hand-dyed fat quarters with no idea why they had ended up on the bottom of this stack. Where to quickly put all this to clear that space seen above for cleaning?

Here's where - on my ironing board. It already had things on it and I had no intention of folding it down. I decided they could work around it.

Well, kinda work around it. The cleaner immediately recognized that this room was a studio (his girlfriend makes upcycled art for sale) and said he'd be very careful going around all that was still under the worktable as well as this pile in front of the closet doors. I have two long skinny baskets of fat quarters that always sit there and I just piled the other bags and stacks on top of them. Turns out he decided to move the ironing board but did so without a thing out of place.

I have to say, all that lifting, pulling, shoving and bending over picking up things left me with sore arm muscles, stiff back of legs and a general achyness all over which took several days to recover from but to my surprise, absolutely no back pain! I guess I've arrived at a new level of post surgery healing and it is great to know. The rest of the house is put back in order, a few organizing things attended to along the way, but I'm not looking forward to figuring out how to organize the mess of my studio, although a few things have been sorted. After all, it got in this state due to my inability to make decisions and procrastination about putting things back where they belong. But I will have to if I plan on getting any work done in there. I did finish up the gratitude journal yesterday, but my next project may be a baby quilt, and you can see I can't work on that or "create any other pretty things" until real progress is made on this unexpected kick start to getting things organized.