Before and After

So one of the things that I really wanted to work on this year was streamlining my business.  I'm taking another class this spring semester, and may be headed to graduate school in the fall, so being organized is really a necessity.  As you can see from the photographs, this was NOT happening.

The first thing I did was replace that white drawer set with something on wheels.  This is right next to some built in cabinets, and with those drawers there, we were not able to get into that cabinet whenever we wanted, without dragging those drawers out, which was a pain.

Then, I had to go through all of the old drawers, and figure out what to keep or toss, and then organize.  They had kind of become a catch-all for various other craft projects that needed a home too.

In this first drawer, I have most of my shipping and packaging supplies in the front basket, and some miscellaneous craft supplies in the back basket.

In the next drawer, I have stringing materials, and wire - fiber products and ribbon in the front, and beading wire and regular wire and tools in the back basket.

In the bottom drawer, I have all of my completed products.  I have five storage boxes for all of my jewelry, and I have everything separated out by seasonal, earrings/rings, bracelets, and necklaces.

I also cleaned off the desktop, as you can tell.  I sorted beads, findings, etc, and tossed some trash.  I was able to move all of my tools in to that built in drawer on the desk, and was able to get rid of the green drawer unit that I had in the "before" pictures.  All of the stuff that is sitting out on top of the desk is stuff that either needs to be photographed, listed, or remade completely.

I'm using that mug to hold my paintbrushes that I use for my clay stuff - that's not all of them, certainly.  Part of the reason I have them there, instead of with my clay stuff is because they often just fall to the bottom of my clay supply bin.  I'll dig out the rest here shortly.  That mug was given to me when I graduated college (the University of Arizona - hence the big A), but the handle has a big crack in it, so it's not suitable for holding drinks anymore.  The little bowls in the corner there are good for holding beads while I'm working.

So, there you go!  It took me about a week, but I got it done, and I'm really happy with it.  Maybe someday we'll live somewhere where I'll have a little more space, and I can organize my beads better, but for now, I'm happy with this work space.