Progress is slow, but there is progress.
I'm under the weather and can only do short bursts of activity. Upstairs is chaotic, as I've been removing everything from the Guest Bedroom/Sewing room to test some reorganisation ideas.
First, I had to get everything out from under the bed. It was completely packed under there.
Second, I raised the bed, high enough to slide 2 Kallax units under there.
Third, I emptied two Kallax units (currently in a stack of 4 against the wall) of their fabric, and got DH to unscrew them from the wall, so that I could put them under the bed. I had 8 Drona boxes of fabric, plus another 8 achive boxes of fabric, which had been sitting on the top of the pile of Kallaxes.
At this point I was in a complete logjam. I couldn't move for stuff, and I couldn't move stuff, because I had stuff everywhere.
I spilled out into our bedroom, the landing, and the box room. I stacked all the Drona boxes of fabric in our bedroom..
I started a massive bag of fabrics to donate to my DGD.
I started a pile of empty storage boxes. I organised the boxes of fabric into piles. I started box for "other".
I removed the two packaging roll cutters (which held my tailors cardboard, and my dot/cross paper) and stood them in our bedroom for now.
I identified some stuff that I could donate, and that went downstairs to be photographed.
By this stage, upstairs had started to look like one of those hoarder houses, even though there was some logic to the confusion.
(Paragraph deleted because it was mind boggingly detailed, explaining how I'd moved this out of there, and that out of here, and got DH to remove those shelves so I could insert some of the Drona....... and t and no use at all unless I put up pictures )
As I stood surveying it all (and wondering whether to justgive up craft hobbies),, I realised that there was a Potential Solution to all of this (apart from getting rid of it all), I assessed all the stuff I had, and came up with The Grand Plan.
The Grand Plan involves:
- a complete and utter reorganisation of the storage.
- a complete and utter review of everything that I am storing
- extending the fitted wardrobes across the whole of one wall, so that almost everything goes beghind those sliding doors
- turning the bed 180 degrees and putting it against theopposite wall, where the fabric is currently srored
- a different bed. The bed raising worked, and I need a new-to-me bed, which is high enough to get Kallax or similar under, and, most importantly, which does not have an end (so we can squeeze through the gap between the end of the bed and the sliding wardrobe doors).
I started to reorganise what I could, to test whether the Grand Plan would work, before committing to buying the new doors. As I reviewed, sorted, and moved stuff, I realised that I could make the left hand side into the haberdashery/craft storage, and the new right hand side into the fabric storage (plus get my mannequin in there, plus the various rolls of sewing related bits like vellum, tracing paper, etc_).
Once I'd freed up some space in the Haberdashery side, I was able to start breaking down my Really Usfel storage towers into smaller blocks, and stacking them in there, organising stuff by frequency of need of access.
More stuff spilled out on to the landing, as I moved empty storage boxes and bags out there, rubbish out there, stuff to donate out there...
My embroidery thread tower went in, and then I decided to put the sewing cones in there. As I looked at them, an idea about how to store them formed in my head.. and I went off piste while I investigated this in detail. In the end, it seemed like a go-er, but I don't want to implement it yet. At the moment, it was just about locatig things, I decided I'd worry about the correct type of storage later. I made very detailed notes, and went back to reorganising.
I slid some of the non-craft/sewing stuff under the bed.
I looked at sewing table, and how much of the storage from below it I'd managed to put in the wardrobe. And then it occurred to me: I may be able to free up even more space than I previously thought. I may be able to free up enough so that I can move the A0 printer from the kitchen up to the sewing room! How amazing would that be?! Even Grander Plan.
And then I was unwell for a couple of days.
I'm getting better now, soi I'm going to try and evaluate the Even Grander Plan today and tomorrow.
Grand Plan
- All my dressmaking fabrics will go in Kallax units/boxes in the extended wardrobe.
- The existing fitted wardrobe side will have (almost) all my haberdashery in, and any craft stuff
- Underbed will be mainly be non hobby stuff - things like the spare duvets,, pillows, bedding, games etc.
- One Kallax unit, under the bed, may be used for hobby stuff, if I can't avoid it, but maybe I could limit this to my hobby books/self bound collections. Maybe,
- Ease of access is key. There is no point putting stuff away if it's a faff to get to.
- I may not need a bed quite as high as I previously thought, and I might be able to get DH to make me something like a Kallax but smaller, which will give me more options when it comes to getting a new bed.
Even Grander Plan
- The craft stuff stashed under my desk, behind the storage, gets rehomed into the Haberdashery wardrobe
- I reduce what I need "out front" so that it will fit into a 1x4 Kallax
- I put the 1x4 Kallax on big castors (so it will fit over the desk legs
- I put the A0 printer on, and associated stuff in, said Kallax
- 1 or both counter roll holders stand on end, under the desk, at the back
It's snowballing a bit.
