The Craft Room Makeover Project or Organizing our Hoard

I should be in the craftroom working but instead I'm at my computer blogging. Well, I was Facebooking but that was not accomplishing anything except chatting with people that grew up in the same area that I grew up. I don't know them but enjoy talking about our shared history. So after looking back for awhile, it's time to be constructive and move forward.

Years ago, (I must get you caught up first) when the kids were little and we thought the house was too small (it was) we enclosed our little dining room into a 4th bedroom so the children could each have their own room. To have a place to eat, we expanded our house from the kitchen out and made a new dining room and den. It was very large and served us well, until . . . our family grew. My daughter's fiance moved in and we made him a makeshift bedroom in my den, then they got married and moved into their own house (for a while). Then my second daughter's boyfriend needed a place to stay and he moved into . . . you guessed it, my den. So then they got married and moved out. So far, so good. Nope, my son never left. He had a couple of years here and there in the Army but I sometimes think he'll never change the address on his license. As luck would have it, Autumn and Kevin came back with 1 1/2 kids and now they have doubled that to three girls.

So, Autumn and I turned the large den/dining room also into a craft room and were enjoying the monstrous hoard of craft supplies we have somehow managed to create when . . . my mom had to move in because she really can't live by herself any longer.

Guess where.  Yep, my dining room/den/craftroom is now also a bedroom for Mom, cutting our craftroom by 50%. We gave up on a dining room/den. Now it's just a bedroom/craftroom.

This week we sold our pool table that came with Autumn and Kevin. It was taking up half of the room. Sad day for us but happy day for the new owners. (And happy for us crafters, but still sad.) If that makes sense to you then you understand a hoarder's mind. I have a very hard time letting go of anything that might still be good. It's true, I admit it. I watch the show Hoarders and I am disgusted and understanding at the same time. So many of their words have come out of my own mouth. I know how they feel but I still yell at them through the TV to throw it away. (Something I have trouble doing.) The nasty trash, that's disgusting and I really don't get it. But the good stuff, that's hard. The shopaholics, I feel their pain. I watch the show just for the therapeutic value. It helps me let go . . . some.

So we made a breakthrough and actually got rid of a large piece of furniture that was not being used for it's intended purpose and freed up some space which was immediately filled with another table but one that is used for it's intended purpose. I call that progress.

We are now overhauling the craft room but it's taking some time. Cutting a room in half but not cutting the hoard in half makes it really hard to work in and around. Watch for the before pics and I will keep you updated on the progress.  We will, fingers crossed, have some really awesome after pics. I have already taken out a huge desk and put in a smaller table from IKEA and the wire drawers are from IKEA. Once we discovered this store the other day, we can't wait to go back. Very therapeutic. Some of the money we made from selling the pool table will be spent there for better table for Autumn's sewing machines.

Please pray for us, this isn't easy. But it is necessary. God wants us to free our space so we can free our minds. Clutter is not of God. A cluttered space creates a cluttered mind. If that's not in the bible, it should be.