A Clean Studio is a Happy Studio!

After putting everything away from my show on Saturday, I decided it was time for some re-organization in my studio. The impetus for the reorganization was a new printer that had a larger footprint than the old one. Here’s a pic of what my desk wall looked like last Spring: With my old printer, I could fold up the tray and use the space on the desk in front of the printer, because often when I’m using that cutting table I need a place to stack things: This whole left hand corner in front of the bookcase usually gets filled with spools of thread and quilt test sandwiches – with the thread bin where it is it’s not very accessible: With a larger printer, I was really begrudging my desktop to the electronics! So I decided to move that huge CPU to the knee hole under the desk (I rarely use the desk without the keyboard tray pulled out, so I really don’t use that space for me knees), and relocate the printer to the left cubby that gets blocked in! Ah!!!! I relocated an entire shelf of magazines to the garage, and moved the books up. On the left is all the paper and labels and other printer stuff, and there’s now a spot to safely store my camera, hooray! Look at this extra desk space! (It’s going to take me awhile to get used to the 2nd monitor being on the left…but I really wanted to free up the right side of the desk as much as possible – not only is it the side close to the cutting table, but it’s where the window opens and closes – this makes everybody in the family happier!) Now, when I’m using the cutting board, and the ironing board, the desk is my landing zone! And the most awesome thing of all – I’ve got some space in these right hand shelves! I’m going to wait and work in the space for awhile before I decide what I’m going to do here, but I anticipate that this may be a good place to stack piles of pieces when I’m doing some assembly line sewing! The main thing is that I’ve got this extra space to use as I figure out how I’ll be working with this new configuration. Space organization is a process, there really is never an “end”. I find myself using a space for awhile, and then figuring out what thing is located in a prime location that I haven’t actually used in awhile – and then target it for removal or relocation! I spent the last month mulling this change over, so when the time came to move everything around, it didn’t take THAT long…

It feels grand to walk in there now!