Organizing Your Workspace for Maximum Crafty Capacity!

I am going to make a sweeping statement here. As a creative entrepreneur and artist, the thought of organizing your workspace makes you feel either:

1. Excited
2. A little bit sick

Yes, it can be both.

You are a business owner, and with that comes the need for a dedicated workspace.

Disclosure: some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

If you are like most of us, you are working from some space within your home (and if you have an outside studio, kudos to you!). 

For many years, I lived in a very small one bedroom condo. Since it was just me, the area that would normally be my dining area (it wasn’t even a room, just a corner of the big main room I had) served as my workspace. 

You know what? That little corner worked just fine. It’s not about the amount of space, it’s about what you do with it.

Now I’m not suggesting that you go all “Marie Kondo” on your space, but I will say that it is imperative that you have a dedicated space that is organized and ready for work.

Read more about organizing your home office here:

3 Tips for Organizing your Home Office

What “organizing your workspace” means is up to you.

I am a “visual” organizer, meaning I prefer to have my things visible to me as opposed to put away in a drawer or behind doors. 

Some people prefer to have everything put away, out of sight and neatly stored (I am NOT one of these people). 

No matter what your preferences are, I highly recommend starting with a clean slate. What does that mean?

1. Pull out all of your work stuff (yup…all of it. I just did it in my own work room. It was tedious and overwhelming.)
2. Weed out all of the stuff that you aren’t using. Separate those things into three boxes:
   1. Stuff you can donate, sell, or gift to another artist
   2. Stuff you might use
   3. Stuff you can toss
3. Put the things that you are using back into your space, organized however you prefer (I’m a clear bin person)
4. Take those 3 boxes and:
   1. Put the toss stuff right in the garbage
   2. Give yourself a week to distribute the donate/sell/give box
   3. Put the “might use” in a place where you can access it. Set a calendar reminder in 4-6 months to check the box: if you haven’t pulled anything from it, it becomes a donate/sell/gift box.

This is where your Clutterbug Style will come into play: it’s a fun little quiz to take and get some tips on organizing! I suggest taking the quiz and then watching the videos that come with your “Bug Style” for some tips on organizing your space.

An Example of Organizing Your Workspace

My personal workspace is very small, and it’s organized as follows:

1. Open wire shelving that holds clear plastic bins
2. Clear plastic bins hold:
   • Vintage costume jewelry (my mainstay supply), sorted by type and then by color
   • “Blanks”: my settings for bracelets and necklaces
   • Findings: headpins, eyepins, earwires, wire spools, etc
   • Finished jewelry, sorted by type and then color
3. A pegboard with two rails holds my beads, sorted by color in rainbow order
4. Another pegboard with hooks and wire baskets holds my shipping supplies
5. My work table has a spinning parts container that holds findings and tools that I use most regularly

 

This week/weekend, I challenge you to get your workspace organized!

Clear out allll of that stuff that you aren’t using, get a good idea of what you have (make notes along the way if you need to order anything, because you’ll save a lot of time AND money by being well-stocked), and get things put back in order so that you have a space that is ready for productivity.

If you don’t have time to do a complete overhaul, start with a small area and work through it. Clear a space, empty a bin, straighten a shelf…every step counts. 

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