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Video Blog #10: A Problem With Putting Things Away

I assure you, no craft tables were cleaned up in the making of this video. :-/

(Sorry about the minor focus issues here – I had a camera setting slightly out of whack.)

UPDATE: Inspired by this video, Linda shared her own crafty mess.

Then, Fuzzydragons shared her messy desk.

And so did Alice.

Wanna share yours?

The Messy Craft Table

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48 comments to Video Blog #10: A Problem With Putting Things Away

  • Anonymous

    oh can i relate to this! only my table is much bigger (I’m impressed you fit all that on one table!) and extends to the floor…and my living room. I was just going to post pics of how messy it was, too–after listening to your podcast.

  • Haha…although you want us to shame you into action…unfortunately, we probably have the same problem and thus no authority to shame anyone :( I used to always think if I had more space, then there would be less mess, but I’ve learned that doesn’t help at all. More space = more mess.

  • Anonymous

    HAHAHA! Sadly, it’s still all over the table AND floor, in slightly different piles. Katin was laughing at me this morning.

  • Anonymous

    I should get one of those rolling baker’s rack things with all the stacked-up trays! I could fill that puppy with stuff in minutes! :-)

  • Anonymous

    I don’t have nearly the space that you and linda have, but I do a bang-up job of cluttering the space I *do* have. Maybe I’ll join the crazy-pile documenting bandwagon. :)

  • Anonymous

    Heh! Well, now at least I can show K. that it’s not just me, either. :-)

  • Anonymous

    I adore this whole outlook. It just feels creative and comforting!

  • Anonymous

    Yes! Craft mess is like untended bamboo plants. :-)

  • Mary

    This is so funny! And of course, you are not alone. I don’t have a dedicated office or craft room, so my stuff gets spread all over my apartment. My boyfriend is constantly having to move piles of felt, scissors, etc. just to find a place to sit. I’ve even stopped getting embarrassed about it when people come over. Art and crafting is a sickness; what are you gonna do?

  • My desk and various work areas, crafty and otherwise all get pretty cluttered by the end of the day. I can’t stand it though so I always clean up my crap before I start really working the next day or so. It took me a while to get into this habit but I like having a big open table to work on knowing where my stuff is so I stick with it.

    • Anonymous

      You are awesome. Any chance you want to have some kind of boot camp for people like me? I think I need to be scared into organization. :-)

  • Anonymous

    Heh! Solidarity, Mate! :-)

  • Anonymous

    Aw, thanks, Stephanie! I do that too – I’ll get into a fit of cleanliness and put everything away, and then I’ll forget all about it, I just ran across some Lily Pulitzer fabric scraps I had tucked away for a quilting project. Yeah, never happened. Yet. :-)

  • Oh snap, looks a whole lot like the table in my studio. I periodically clear it off but it seems to get cluttered up again pretty quickly.

  • geek+nerd

    Umm…this is the story of my entire existence. And it is not confined to my craft space – sad to say!!!

  • Kate

    Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am glad to know I’m not alone. And … off to my craft room!

  • I’m with you, Sister! My desk mostly looks unusable as well.. That should be OK with me ‘coz I always NEED all the stuff that’s on it (just like you do). But the problem is that I share this large desk with my boyfriend who is also trying to work on it. And I don’t know why, but he sometimes gets frustrated and starts throwing stuff to my side of the desk.. What’s wrong with having creativity going on, right? :)
    Reading other comments, it looks like you didn’t get enough laugh about the mess and not getting ashamed enough for cleaning it up.. So good luck on trying to find a place for some new projects on your desk! :)

    • Anonymous

      HAHA! Thanks for the shame! :-)

      I share an office with my partner too, and he’s a Very. Patient. Man. His desk is always so neat and clean. No idea how he manages it.

  • I love the logic of why everything you picked up was there, makes sense to me! haha!

  • julie k @ kundhi.com

    Last night my husband went to bed early. I had Saturday night all to myself. What did I do? Cleaned off my desk! and sewing table! and the piles on the floor! I stayed up way too late, but I’m loving it this morning. Thanks for the kick in the pants. We’ll see how long it stays this way.

  • Oh, I think my studio is worse. Thank you for your post. I think i will go clean my mess now.

  • Anonymous

    LOL That’s hilarious! My kitchen table doubles as a cutting table for me and after last weeks cleaning session, the table remained clean for…7.5 minutes.

  • Dianemblcak

    I’ll do you one better…my craft table is hidden away in my walk in closet, so I can add stuff to the “must put away pile” on it, mound it up and shut the door and never look at it! Then I can work on another table in the house and take the “put aways” right back to the craft table, adding them to the pile….that way, I never have to put away anything! LOL

  • KoolAidaniel

    So when I saw this, I had the brief, miraculous moment of “Praise Jesus! It’s not just me!” I had this “wonderful” idea of putting my project stuff in a box, but it’s really now just a mess of eclectic; a Shaun Cassidy album for turning into jewelry, old CDs for the same reason, yards of electrical wire that I poke myself with continually, half-crocheted pot-scrubbers, and an arsonal of other crap. Props to you for inspiring me to clean! (that’s not such an easy thing to do. :) )

    • Anonymous

      HAHAHA! We do that here, too! When company’s coming, all the in-progress junk often ends up in a miscellaneous mixed box, which then sits around and bewilders us later when we finally go through it.

      …For the record, I would hang onto a Shaun Cassidy album cover, too. :-)

      • Kool_Aidaniel

        yeah then when you finally get to sorting it it’s like “Holy Crap! I’ve been looking for this ______ forever!” Still looking for my little crochet hook…

  • Michelle

    Here are those freakin’ water soluble pens I’ve been looking for!
    Yep. I just did that a couple of nights ago.
    I just moved and most of my crafty stuff is in a storage locker, five floors below me. So, amazingly, my craft work space (which is my VERY FIRST ONE that is all MINE) is impossibly neat.
    Sad to say though, I still find crafty stuff everywhere else. Just today I found two vintage sheets at the bottom of my closet in my work cubby. Not to mention the drawer full of kimono scraps in my cubby too. I’m beginning to feel like a squirrel!

  • Pam

    51 comments!?! Wow! I have a feeling you must have a lot of sympathetic readers!

    Remember your mother’s brilliant idea of keeping ongoing projects in flats. Maybe not so good – I can never remember which flat I put the ruler or the rotary cutter or the embroidery scissors into! ACK! There is no hope for any of us, is there?

  • Pam

    51 comments!?! Wow! I have a feeling you must have a lot of sympathetic readers!

    Remember your mother’s brilliant idea of keeping ongoing projects in flats. Maybe not so good – I can never remember which flat I put the ruler or the rotary cutter or the embroidery scissors into! ACK! There is no hope for any of us, is there?

  • Chris

    wow. I wish I had been home when this was posted… I would have sent a photo of my craft tables. It’s horrifying! I have a BED in the craft room, for back therapy when I can’t sleep in my usual bed. So all straightening and putting-away must be put on hold. UGH.

    • Anonymous

      Wow – if I had a whole bed in my craft space, I’d never be able to sleep in it – what a splendid flat surface to spread things out on! :-)

  • Anonymous

    Heh! If you take a picture and post it on your blog, send me a link and I’ll link to it on this post! One thing I learned making this video is that there are so many messy craft tables in the world, it’s actually okay. :-)

  • Anonymous and Proud

    JUST found your blog/site. Oh man, I’ve documented the ‘pulsating pile’ many a time. The stuff multiplies like bacteria… I do have a pile about 4′ high just off the end of the ‘current project’ 3×5 table that I swear sprouts tentacles and pulls more things in when I’m not looking. Oh well, I just wish I could put up more shelves but I already have shelves on all four walls including one OVER The door and the closet door… Now if I could just use the vacuum cleaner to at least remove all the protective flocking from everything and not mess up the pile any more….

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