Cleaning Day

I had a bad case of the fumbles today, so I decided to do a little cleaning instead of the endless cycle of "make thing, drop thing, lose thing, clean until you find thing."

It was time, anyway.

I emptied all of the drawers and shelves, putting everything that actually gets used for tack making on top of the desk as I sorted. The chaos distilled to this:

Yup, aside from leather & dye, those are all of the things that get used at some point in the making of a saddle or things that go with saddles (like trees).

Maybe it's boring, but I always love seeing how other artists organize their studio so you're getting a quick (VERY quick) tour of mine!

It was already dirty again by the time I decided I should show it off. Sigh. The Grinch holds my skiving scraps, and back behind the magnifier on the far right is a lidded cup with a slit cut in the top. I put used blades in this so that no one accidentally encounters one in the trash.

I finally figured out that anything that lives on a shelf or in a drawer but ends up spending most of it's time on the desktop really ought to just have a place there. The wire is sitting on unfolded paperclips that have been tucked into the lining of the bookshelf. The pliers are supported by stiff alligator clips.

Anything else that falls under "Most Used" hangs out in the storage area of my smaller Ottlite. Various knives, files, brushes for dye, clothespins, etc. The rectangular black thing near the front are the snap-blades I use for skiving, and the blue topped container at the bottom holds x-acto blades.

I ordered a scrap bag of suede last week and once it came in, I realized that I had outgrown my previous leather storage solution. I picked the containers up at Target (incidentally, this is where I found the OLD storage, too!), and they're perfect for my needs.

Things sit cozily in my new boxes, and they fit wonderfully three to a shelf. The long skinny containers came from Office Depot (or Office Max; same difference). I'll use them to help organize the lace & cording I have, plus the black and white that I ordered recently.

3 of the 5 drawers in the unit at the far left of my work area holds are dedicated to hobby. The top drawer with the only-slightly-less-used, the middle drawer...

with extras and  rarely used items (and a box of ancient tack)

And the bottom drawer is the body box.

Now it's back to work!