Picture-Perfect Craft Room. NOT!!!!!

Screen Shot 2014-09-04 at 1.10.33 AMHere’s the situation.

I do NOT like clutter, and clutter makes me very anxious, but also taking the time to find places for all the clutter gives me more anxiety, so I end up with a craft room like this most of the time. (Also this is just one wall, but this is probably the worst of it.) I hate the look of paper bags and cardboard boxes, but I think I’m running out of shelf space. Where does everyone else keep their button-maker!? Don’t say “the garage,” because that’s another place I don’t want to talk about.

Anyway, when I get contacted by a magazine or blog to send photos of my work space (like now), I FREAK OUT!!!! FFFFFREEEAAK OUTTTT!!!!

It’s an excellent opportunity to make myself get rid of boxes and cull out the yarn I don’t use and etc etc etc but it just makes my heart race and my blood pressure go up. I am not one of those people/bloggers who lives in a picture-perfect home everyday. I don’t know if those people really exist in reality, but they seem to exist that way in their blogs, and I have extreme envy of that, but will probably never reach that level of refinement!

So this is what I’m doing today. Trying to make this hole picture-perfect! And trying really hard not to take a short-cut and just shove everything into aforementioned garage…which is what I have done before….!!! I think I really want a rolling panel of baskets that I can put more yarn in (the yarn that’s in those cardboard boxes, among other things), and just wheel it in and out of the way. Is that dangerous thinking, rather than getting rid of stuff?

35 Comments on “Picture-Perfect Craft Room. NOT!!!!!”

  • Hannah

    says:

    I feel you! I am in the middle of what I’ve titled ‘the great purge.’ I have just too much yarn, too many supplies, etc. Some of it I’m giving away and others I will be trying to sell. I’m also going through all my clothes. I love reading those blogs where everyone’s space is neat and tidy and minimalist or at least clean… I know it will never look like that 100% of the time, but maybe just 10%? 50%? I could live with 50%!

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      I feel like I am missing a beat somewhere in the smart-storage arena. I know people have stuff. WHERE TO PUT ALL THE STUFF?!? hehe Like clothes. Do I really have that much clothing? Maybe I do? I don’t think so? But it’s exploding everywhere!

  • byneedleandthread

    says:

    Mine is also terrifying. I say do what you think will work for how you work. I love the idea of everything being away but I tend to forget about things I can’t see. My struggle is finding the balance between cleaned up and usable. Plus I have too many crafty interests which means a lot of stuff.

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      Yes, I feel you. Way too much stuff!!!! I just need to get on a more regular schedule with the purging.

  • Natasja

    says:

    Hiya Twinkie Chan, I believe there’s a correlation between a creative mind and a messy desk ^_^. I’m not sure how crochet yarn is usually organized, but maybe you could arrange them by colours? Than it might be easier to see which yarn you could get rid off (or stuff in the garage ;)). I’ve got a large white box that contains my hobby tools/paint. Good luck decluttering, you can do it πŸ˜€

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      THanks, Natasja!! For me, it’s just a matter of having space to actually put the things that I need. The yarn itself takes up sooooo much space, but I find myself needing all of it eventually!

  • Abi Cortez

    says:

    Haha! Yea I believe you’re right…I don’t think any of us have that picture perfect look every single day. Though it would be nice…anyways, I actually envy your craft room! It would be do fun to have you at a yarn swap party!

  • Julie Hawkins

    says:

    I feel your pain!!! I am a yarnaholic, but I can’t stand clutter. I think I need another house for my yarn…. Don’t sweat it! Not everyone is a Martha Stewart and she has assistants! You will find a solution and your floor! Thank you for sharing your frustration. No one likes to clean, but sometimes you’ve got to roll up your sleeves and jump in! If we don’t hear from you in a day or so, we’ll send help!

  • Totally acceptable for your craft room to be messily imperfect. Mess is where real work happens!

    And while it’s great to strive to look our best on our blogs, it’s also great to just be real.

    Besides, I look at that picture and don’t think “mess” … I think “stash envy”!!!

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      Im just really afraid to reach Hoarder Status!!!

  • Alice

    says:

    You work very hard at many different things as well as filling orders. It is okay to put things where anxiety will be reduced and then tackle tiny bits of clutter at a time. You are amazing!

  • Laurie

    says:

    I have craft room envy. We have been gutting our house room by room as and the las room to get finished will be a craft room. Right now it’s the bedroom that we use. So my crafts are all over the house and when we did a last deep clean my husband said I had a problem from my stash lol. I want that wall though that looks like an awesome way to stash and see πŸ™‚

  • Maria

    says:

    I moved into a very small space and my craft studio is packed into approximately a 6’x7.5′ space. For a while I stored my extra yarn in a closet in hanging clothes and hanging shoe organizers. It was a great solution for yarn storage. I also work on multiple projects and flip back and forth between them so I stacked some sturdy cardboard boxes in imitation of shelves and put one tray in each slot (I work at a burger restaurant so I was able to snag burger serving trays that were put out of commission) and that lets me store unfinished items out of the way so I can do something different. I love seeing your craft space, and seeing it messy makes me feel better about life in general πŸ˜‰ Keep crafting awesomeness!!

  • Angela

    says:

    I have all these feels also! I just closed down my brick and mortar storefront, to lower some stress in my life… but little did I know, what i had been craft hoarding in the basement in the 5+ years I had been in said storefront… would look like waaaaaaaaay more in one single family home finished attic. So. Much. Stuff.

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      5 years!!!! Did you have a stash supersale!?

      • Angela

        says:

        I wish I had… instead it is piled ever so high in my craft room at home. It’s insane! πŸ˜€

  • Grace

    says:

    Agreed…my craft room looks wayyyyy worse than that! As others have said, when I look at this picture, I think: “I would explode into a pile of fiber if I had that much yarn to work with!!! (That’s a good thing πŸ˜‰ )

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      When I see piles of stuff on the floor, I think: BABY SPIDERS!!!!

  • Sherry

    says:

    You by far, have the biggest yarn stash I have ever seen. I don’t see a mess. I see projects in the very beginning stage.

  • Jenilee

    says:

    I think the wheely thing is a good idea. I also get anxiety if there is mess in my workspace. But I feel like I have to see all of it to work too. What I do is tell myself it can get messy all week, but on Sunday I will pick it up. That way you’re “clean” atleast once a week, but you don’t get overwhelmed doing it.

  • holly

    says:

    What you should do is take it all out of the shelves.. and make a giant bed out of it and lay on top like a hoarding dragon! Yarn Smaug! That’s what I would do.
    I LOVE the realness of this picture. You are absolutely right that it *seems* like bloggers live in a clutter free home all the time. What the internet needs is more pictures like this!

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      HAHAHAHHHA You have the best idea πŸ™‚

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      My mom is probably dying over pictures like this! HAhahhaa j/k

  • Emi Gurumi

    says:

    I honestly don’t know how people work neatly. To me, if you haven’t made a mess you’re not being creative enough! xD If you’re in the zone you don’t have time to be tidying up. So since your craft room is so messy it just proves how very creative you are. πŸ˜‰ I can totally relate to the dilemma that is clutter though. Like: why did I bring this in here?! I’ve got nowhere to put it!!

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      I also get into trouble when someone is like, “I’m gonna send you some free stuff!!!”

  • Haleigh

    says:

    I am, like most other posters, totally in love with the vast amount of yarn you have!!! Mess is fine just so long as it doesn’t take over πŸ™‚ !!!

  • Bex

    says:

    Oh my, I want to dive into all of that lovely wool! πŸ™‚
    To be honest, I have yet to hear of a crafter that has a tidy space. I only have a table tucked away in the living room and it’s still chaotic! But I always find looking up storage ideas on Pinterest helps. Some people have some super clever ideas for keeping the clutter disguised πŸ™‚

  • Julie

    says:

    I think you have to do it when you’re not in a hurry, but I am systematically went through all my yarn, photographed in and put it in my ravelry stash. I bought a shit ton of stacking, clear Tupperware type thingies and labeled them A-Z and then into double letters. It was a good time to cull, so I posted pics on ravelry of the good stuff and sold it, and I goodwilled the less awesome stuff. It took a long time, but now everything is catalogued and when I buy new yarn that I so don’t need, I photo it and put it in ravelry (which has a spot to write in the bin # too).
    In my opinion, you could take some artful photos with the mess mooshed out of the way and then start buying up bins or whatever and go through the yarn little by little. All the other stuff like notions, I keep in a rolling plastic cart thingy with lots of drawers. Good luck! All those other blogger peeps w/perfect pictures are just shoving shit in another room πŸ˜‰

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      Just cleaning up and re-organizing for 3 days has put me off my work schedule. I just need an elf to catalog the yarn πŸ˜›

  • My craft corner is in the bedroom and it tends to get really messy sometimes so I can totally relate with the anxiety over clutter. I don’t have as much yarn as you (jealous of your stash!) and yet I still manage to find a mess of half used balls of yarn, tangled and falling apart all over the place. And my desk is never tidy, always has all sorts of crochet stuff going on. Anyway, I think your post has inspired/encouraged me to start thinking of organizing my space a little more hehe.

  • Lynne

    says:

    I’m picturing that commercial where only the background behind the photo is clean. I’m thinking I need that in my craftroom.

  • jody

    says:

    Can you pile up all the yarn you own and take a photo of you laying on top of it crocheting……weird headphones and blowing bubblegum bubbles would be a bonus!

  • Katie

    says:

    You should provide pictures of your pretend drowning in yarn with little crochet shark fins circling you. Possibly not great for marketing but hilarious nonetheless.

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      I wanted to fill a tub with pink yarn and have a pink yarn bubble bath!

  • liz

    says:

    I wish I could show you my craft area! Started as a corner and has taken over most of the dining room! I try on a regular basis to get it under control and I get close but never quite there. I have to agree with earlier comments, creative minds tend to have the most cluttered work space.

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