When your horizontal space is limited, go vertical!

Since my post revealing my crazy work area, I've been giving it alot of thought. A friend said she had a bookshelf she was going to yardsale. I was interested. Then I started thinking more. Maybe a shelf unit wasn't really what I needed, but an armoire! Something to not only organize the mess, but conceal it. I searched craigslist. I found a few candidates, but decided to hit Goodwill first. We loaded up the kids and hit two Goodwill stores. At the second one we found it; a reasonably priced, solid enough, decent looking piece. Honestly I'm not sure what it was supposed to be used for originally, but it must have been some sort of dislplay like purpose because it had a short shelf with a light behind it. Now this didn't really suit my purpose, but I have vision. For $40, I didn't mind bringing it home and doing a little "work". So here's a picture of what it looked like when we got it home.

There's open storage for stuff I don't mind people seeing, and closed storage down low to hide clutter and better yet, keep tiny fingers out of my stuff. We removed the light unit, altered the shelf it was on so that my scrapbooks will slide more fully supported all the way to the back, and took off the trim work at the top. I don't like scrolly stuff like that, and it wouldn't allow my scrapbooks to fit anyway. It had to go. I went through my storage closet in the den and purged some items, cassette tapes anyone? It was time to load up the shelf. Here's a pic of my new storage solution doing it's job.

Remember what it looked like before...

And now with the shelving unit

Here's a closer view. Pay no attention to the duct tape on the top, it's just there until the glue dries. Minor casualty from the alterations.



After the office rummage sale, I will get rid of some of the stuff stored under the table and neaten that up a bit. I'm thinking of covering the diaper boxes with contact paper, you know, to elevate them a bit. :-p I also repurposed a hanging unit to hold my current works like the tutu and bags. Having this stuff organized, as well as the storage closet, I was able to neaten up the computer area.

Before

After

There's not a huge difference in the computer area other than it is neater and some of the junk is gone. That's ok, because there is a huge difference in the sewing area and I'm thrilled to have real storage that looks less ghetto and isn't going to fall off the wall and dump all my stuff. All in all, I'd say it was a productive day. :)