Organizing in the studio

My one 2011 goal (and resolution) is to make my house a home again and not let it get this way ever again.  Fewer new year goals and resolutions mean a greater rate of success don't ya think?  Ok, the holidays are over and it's time to get back to accomplishing my goal.  I start back to work quilting today so the cleaning and organizing will go at a slower pace the rest of the year. 

I talked about "no junk drawers" a few days ago.  So how about a whole tower of junk drawers?  That's 10 junk drawers all together in one unit.  This thing has been bugging me for the longest time.  It's handy to have stuff close at hand but this thing is always in my way when walking to the backside of my machine.  AND, it's absolutely not organized.  Stuff gets lost in there.  It's time for me to clean it out. 

I won't bore you with 10 photos of 10 junk drawers.  I'll just show you a couple of them so you understand what I'm talking about.  This is the top drawer.  It doesn't look too awfully bad seeing it like this.

Now look at it all dumped out onto the table.  That's a lot of disorganized stuff in one junk drawer!  Hmm... maybe I need to finally learn how to use my MP3 player?  I've only had it two or three years without ever using it.  I can't figure out how to get books put onto it.

Ok, back to what I was type-talking about.  Here's the second junk drawer.  Not too bad looking either.

Look at it all dumped out on the table.  No, it's not both drawers dumped out together.  It's just one drawer.

All the drawers are out of the tower and this is what I find.  Look at all the dust and cob webs. 

I told you I had lots of spiders living in my house?  Eeeeewwww!  Here's where... uh... some of them died.  I found more in other drawers too.

I take the drawer tower completely apart to wash it really good. 

When cleaning out the drawers I found a box I've been looking for since 2007.  It contained spare parts for my quilting machine.  I knew I had these.   I simply couldn't figure out where I had stashed them.   Well cleaning out the drawer tower has saved me some money this year.  I don't have to buy these when I do a yearly tune up on my machine.

When I was cleaning and organizing the drawers; I stopped long enough to make this bobbin organizer out of cardboard and chopsticks.  Now my quilting machine bobbins are ready for me to start working.  If you want to see how I made it, look here on my cardboard blog.  It's simple, easy, and free.

Well, that's what I did yesterday.  The tower will not be going back into the corner.  I divided it in half and it will now fit under my quilting machine table along with the other 10 drawer units already there.  One down and about eleventy million more of those plastic things to go.  I have a lot of plastic drawer units around my house.