After sharing my Tuscan Dinner Party with you, you might think I’m a regular Martha Stewart.  (I would be complimented, by the way.)  A look at my desk might support that concept.  It’s fairly neat.

 But one turn of the head and this is what you get:

And an aerial view:

Piles, piles, piles.  Projects in progress, new ideas, some of Annie’s projects, …., and a big basket under the counter filled with works in the queue.

The room is not huge, but I am grateful to have it.  For most of the 21 years that I’ve lived here, my sewing room was the dining room table.  The dining room table was our kitchen table.  So my sewing machine was dragged up and down off that table numerous times….until we garbage-picked an old Singer Treadle Machine table.  My husband put a new top on it and we moved it into our bedroom.  (Annie uses that now.)  So when we remodeled, we chose to create a family office/craft room instead of a walk-in closet or master bath.  (Who needs another bathroom to clean?)   The room has wrap-around counters, desk space for my husband and I, a computer often shared with the kids, and some storage units.  There is also a mobile table that can slide under the counter if needed or be raised to cutting table height.  Some of the file cabinets are also mobile to provide extra seating for the kids.

The large cabinets are filled with miscellaneous craft items.  They could use a good overhaul…actually the entire room can use a good spring cleaning.  But that’s a job for many hands and I wasn’t ready to tackle that.

 But the piles were distracting me and hampering my creativity.  I struck upon the idea that I could put those reusable grocery bags to use!  I have finally collected enough bags to handle my once weekly trip to the grocery store and have some to spare.

I created categories for my sewing projects and printed photos to coordinate with them.  Then I took the piles and put them in the bags.  I stapled the photo labels to the bags and placed them under the counter.

Now the view from my desk chair is this.  Ahhhhhh…..serenity…..(OK, it looked like that the day I took the photo.  I won’t show you what it looks like now.)

The basket that was mounded over is intended to keep my immediate works in progress.

How about you?  Do you need organization or does that stifle your creativity?  Any tips for me?

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