tool chest for sewing supplies

I spent a good chunk of today stealing, emptying and then re-filling girl child's (former) craft caddy with my own things.  Girl child and I decided to swap - she gets my utility shelf for her things and I get her Mastercraft tool box. 

I think it's going to work well for sewing supplies. 

This is the monster in my living room, snugged between the couch and my sewing table. 

Another benefit will be that little fingers will be less tempted to filch my scissors if they are tucked away.  For now I'm ignoring the uglier than an armadillo's bottom and trying to think industrial chic.  Perhaps, some sort of cozy is needed, yes?

battling the tidy monster

I have a confession to make.

My last post was about the constant organizing and reorganizing that goes on at my house to try to accommodate our crafts, play, and basic living.  I began writing the post from a place of frustration, feeling like I was in a war with our usual household state of semi-chaos. 

But, by the end of the post, after talking about Smootch's craft area and all the creative acts she performs hundreds of times a day, I was almost feeling sentimental about the mess.  Still, I have persisted in trying to lower the frustration while still allowing as much access to creative materials as possible for the kids and have settled into a domestic schedule where I can take care of what needs to be done one thing at at time and let the rest all go hang.

Here's the thing: calling something a mess doesn't necessarily make it bad.

Perhaps not all would agree.  We live in the time of professional closet sorters and life coaches and most people would prefer to have their tea in a tidy room rather than one that recently had three poorly supervised toddlers and a wet dog visit with a bucket of paints.  But is a tidy room really better than a messy one?

I guess it depends on your perspective.  And energy level.

Messiness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

I once read a book that detailed the benefits of a mess and the downsides of tidy organization.  The basic message was that order looks fine and dandy, but takes a whole lot more energy to maintain (you can pick up the toys eights times in a day or just once - your pick) and lacks the serendipitous inspirations that come from having a bunch of seemingly unrelated stuff all squished up together. 

This thought keeps me feeling good about my one labelled box of craft supplies and ten boxes of 'random' things that the kids actually go through and build their fantastic creations with.  For anyone who has gone through introduction psychology or was playing attention during the '80s and '90s while everyone fretted about children having an 'enriched' environment for optimum brain growth, having more stuff lying about IS an environment more enriched.  More to explore, more stimulus, more connections between the synapses.  A mess develops the powers of observation as you search through the pile looking for the missing sock.  Plus, navigating a room where the actual floor only appears every three to four feet is good physical exercise.

Another great thing about a mess is that the worst, so to speak, has already happened.  Okay, much worse can happen (my Sharpie markers and utility knives are locked away, thanks), but when I've just scrubbed the floor I'm much more prone to say 'no' to almost any activity the kids can dream up in fear of undoing my hard work.  When the floor is already confettied with sequins and toast crumbs, well, there's really no harm in throwing in a bit of sand from collages and dirt from planting some kitchen sill basil.  Where would you rather be?  In the 'no' house or the 'yes' house? 

I know where Smootch wants to be.

When I see the children playing away, felt pens running off the paper onto the table, pulling clean clothes out of the drawers in order to play pirate while ignoring the dress up trunk, the cushions from the couch dragged into the kitchen where they've made a wild animal den, I can't help but be impressed with their minds and energy, and know that as long as they can continue to engage creatively with the world I am doing o.k. as a parent.

Plus, there are few things more beautiful than a child covered with paint.

My most poignant thought is that this disordered, cluttered time is only temporary.  The children will grow, they will become more tidy, their pursuits will take them out of the house and away from me.  One day I will be able to clean up the kitchen and no one will track mud across the floor, leave the cupboard door open and the tap dripping.  It will be still, unchanged.  Lonely.

So, I will try not to go overboard, to organize my home into suffocation.  I know I will err, but let it be on the side of too much - stuff, activity, attention, love - instead of not enough.

Besides, after so much chaos, so stimulus, noise and movement, getting it all clean and ordered is just that much sweeter.  When the house is usually in shambles, even a quick tidy can bring a deeper satisfaction than deep cleaning a house that is always HGTV worthy. 

Clean has its place.  It's after the party ends.

battling the crafty debris

I am reorganizing my home at the moment to be more congruent with our lifestyle. I am not entirely sure what I mean by this activity, but I have noticed that all the things I think kids should have they don't anything to do with and all that they actually want to do drives me mad.

I'm looking for a middle ground.

Every few months I try something different with the craft and art supplies to make it both accessible and self contained.  My last go was at putting all of the supplies in clear jars on the a hutch desk in our kitchen.  Beautiful accessibility, terrible failure at mess control.

Creative kids are amazing. And crazy making. Smootch was overtired a few weeks back and, as usual in such a state, began to lose emotional control. Instead of crying in anger or frustration, Smootch began crying with happiness. Whiny happiness, but still happy, saying, 'I love my crafts, mom! I just love my crafts!'

And she does. She loves them all over the craft area, down to the floor, and spread around the surrounding rooms of the house. There is not a surface here that does not simultaneously hold a couple little bits of cut paper, a sequin, a string tied to a pipecleaner and then stuck to a bit of tape (these are everywhere, I don't know what they are) and an actual finished project on display.  Robots made from waterbottles and felt markers, pictures framed in taped together coloured pencils, trees made from fuzz balls, cinnamon sticks and cardboard. 

Smootch loves her paper, scissors and tape much more than any toy I could possibly provide. When she 'needs' a particular item for play she will always make one from pipe cleaners, paper and anything she can pull out of our three or four boxes of random craft things, like scrap fabric and empty fast food containers, all the while ignoring the actual realistic figure or playset modelled out of plastic or wood that was created exactly to supplement the play she is doing sitting right there beside her.

Why use the glamour dolls for dress up when you can draw your own on cardboard and then tape actual fabric on for clothes?

Why use the dollhouse and figurines when you can draw rooms in a box and use clothes pegs holding up paper heads as the people?

Why use the road set and metal cars when paper and strapped together Lincoln Logs will do?

And she is taking her brother right along with her.

I am not complaining. Really. I'm just amazed I find myself trying to find ways to slow down the children's creativity rather than encourage them. In a nutshell, I can't keep up with the mess. The scraps of paper, bits of wire, beads everywhere.  With homeschooling, the colder weather, and the recent onslaught on crafty materials in the house as our friends and family continue to downsize their own collections of clutter, I am swamped.

Time for another reorganization.  It helps me maintain my illusion of control.

I am going to keep the accessibility to crafty supplies high, since, as has been noted, Smootch loves her crafts and frankly I don't think she'd be very well with out them.  Perhaps I'm enabling here, but she doesn't notice when I 'store' all her toys in the basement but she can't go an hour without a pair of scissors and a role of scotch tape.

As for the detritus of the creative work, well, I think it's time to start enlisting the children's help a bit more.  Smootch is pretty good about putting her things away, but Birdie is still fairly random with his placement and will dump a jar of beads or box of crayons if he becomes frustrated.  I am thinking separate crafting zones, where they each have their own materials to be held responsible for, and a couple of child size brooms nearby so they can sweep up by themselves. 

Since there is no definitive activity that can be finished and then put away, Smootch and Birdie have integrated drawing and constructing with their whole day, I am instigating several moments during our day where tidying up is expected, such as before snacks or a bath (they love the bath, a good currency to hold them to doing something they are more reluctant to do).

My best defense right against the mess while still satisfying the children's need to create is bundling up and getting outside.  Smootch is never happier than when she is outdoors, climbing trees, and jumping death defying heights (I think sometimes she does these Evel Knievel leaps only to hear me scream because she always precedes a great jump from the top of shed with a 'Look at me mom!').  Plus, nature is the most accessible 'craft area' I can think of.  Everything needed to build fantastic fairy houses, beautiful figurines, vehicles and miniature landscapes capable of hosting any events is right there at their feet.  And when the play is done, it all stays where it is.

I can't think of a better organizational system. 

organizing patterns

One of my chronic organizational challenges used to be what to do with my pattern pieces after I've gone and used them.  Never mind the impossible task of folding tissue papers into neat little envelopes (nearly hopeless for me), but the Ottobre issues with not only large pattern sheets of un-moored from the magazine plus the traced tissue copies in multiple sizes as my kids grow and my own drafted pattern pieces which are large and unwieldy bits of paper architecture laugh in the face of filing cabinets.  What to do to store these so that they not only stay neat but also can be easily found?

Enter industrial paper clips and hangers.  My sewing storage at one point found itself a home in a clothes closet, where a system of hanging up my groups of pattern pieces evolved.  I find it especially helpful to organize my ongoing pattern revisions and master copies of my own pattern drafts.  It's also quite handy to hang up bits of intended fabric and matching thread in plastic bags for when I plan out a project and gather supplies but have to put it aside for a bit.



Currently my pattern pieces are sharing a closet with my husband's clothes.  I have only a few patterns right now, having just moved here, but I imagine by the time summer rolls around I shall have taken over a significant amount of storage real estate.  When it's time to move again, I will pull all the paper clips off the hangers and lay them flat between a couple of protective sheets of cardboard.  Ready for a new closet.



How do you store your patterns?