Hello. My name is Jessika and I’m a mess-o-holic. I can’t go 2 days without emptying my closet across at least two rooms and if my life depended on it, I prob’ly still wouldn’t throw away the piles of expired catalogs I’ve accumulated. I leave cabinet doors hanging wide open and forget about my three cups of water scattered through out the house and pour myself a fourth one. I admit whole heartedly that I have a problem. But put that in the context of my art studio, it’s not a problem, it’s a disaster. So, here are the very tiny tricks I use to save myself from stumbling over a pile of paints, falling into a pile of boxes, rolling off them into a pile of very expensive paper and tipping over all my brushes and pencils that bend and snap as I try to struggle back to my feet.
1 Clear plastic everything! I have so many materials to sort through, I find is best to be able to glance at a wall of see-through drawers than to bother labeling boxes left over and unpacked from my various moves. I love the heck outta’ cardboard, but these plastic drawers are just as portable with a roll of tape in hand and far less mysterious.
2 Can you put wheels on it? I love putting wheels on stuff, I slapped wheels on a large plank of wood and now store half my 30x22 reams of paper on it so I don’t need to cut it down or roll it up. Instead, I just roll it under the work table. PS The wheels lift everything off the ground in case of flooding, which never hurts, even in attic studios.
3 Keep it Green. I like clear plastic, but I love recycled glass. Every jam and salsa jar I empty makes some kind of great container. I line them up flush to the wall single file, keeping it easy to reference what is where, no shuffling through this or that. These jars also make great solvent containers (painters, you know what I’m talkin’ about). I also use the cardboard cores from wrapping paper and toilet paper as cord caddies. I have a lot of extension cords to trip on, so in a moment of rare brilliance I grabbed a roll of card board and wrapped it with 30 feet of extraneous electrical cord.
Why do I have a 30 foot extension cord in my snug little studio? Well, lawn mowers in Bremerhaven were electric in the 80s. Why do I know that? Stop stalling and go clean your studio!
In Summery:
Clear containers are great for ‘at a glance’ storage use and even better if it’s clear repurposed/recycled containers and even betterer if you can stick wheels on them.
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