Tuesday, April 12, 2011

some awkward closet solutions...

In my art room, there is a small awkward closet.


It wouldn't be so bad, except for one little problem...


The clearance needed for the crawl space access takes up a lot of floor space.

Prior to now, this closet has basically been a haphazard mess and I needed to make more efficient use of the storage in our home.  Here's what I've come up with so far...

I wanted to keep gift wrapping supplies accessible, rather than shoving them all in a bin in the crawl space.  (Too big of a pain to dig around down there everytime I want to give a someone a present.)  So I used two different belt/tie hangers to wrangle all of the gift bags and curling ribbon.


One of the big gift bags also holds all of our folded up gift boxes.

Down below, you can see all of our gift wrap rolls tucked in the corner, as well as a bin of gift bows and tags.  Tissue paper is located in the top drawer of this flat storage container.


The rest of the drawers contain large art papers, examples of projects for art lessons, and mats/flat mailers for sending out artwork (if I ever actually have anything listed in my art shop. Ha.)  And my college artwork/portfolios barely fit along that angled wall to the right. Phew.

Up top, we have bins full of all kinds of goodness that I need access to regularly.  I like them because they are small enough to stack two-high, but big enough to fit a bunch of stuff without being too heavy.  I can get them down without risking death.  


Oh--and the lids are attached to the bin and flip open and closed.  No pulling off the lid when I try to pick them up!

In our home, we've had a hard time organizing mailing and office supplies for some reason.  And since I ship things for my Etsy shop regularly, it was annoying running all over the house to find all of the supplies I needed.  So I created this AWESOME mailing station!


It has separate drawers for my kaceface labels & packaging, stamps & envelopes, bubble mailers, office supplies, note cards, and computer paper...with bubble wrap up top.  It is SOOO nice having it all in one place!  Plus, the drawer stack fit perfectly in that little spot, with enough room to store my little oil-filled radiator.  This room tends to get cold.  (I blame the crawl space access.)  But it also has the biggest window...so it had to be my art/sewing/craft room.  We artists need natural light!

I'm also thinking about getting an over-the-door ironing board to attach to the closet door so it doesn't take up so much space in my little studio...but I'm still undecided.  (Don't want to bust up the door...)

Any other awkward closet storage solutions you would recommend?  

How do you organize your creative space?

2 comments:

  1. So jealous of your mailing station!!
    I use a shoe organizer (you know those plastic or fabric pockets for closet doors) as a storage solution. I hang it on the door going out to thegarage, to store my most used tools, nails, screws, inserts etc. The clear pockets allow me to see what's there and the tools stay in the garage (and I don't have to store them in the rest of the house).
    You could totally use one for other types of storage in your little closet :) Maybe ribbons, paint brushes, ... the options are endless!

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  2. Like your problem solving! I think we all have those trouble spots... mine would be the cave under my basement stairs that's crammed with bins full of my kids' artwork. That would be a summertime endeavor!

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