The Full Reveal

As most of you know, I have never been shy about showing my crafting area to the Blogosphere. Nope. If I can be an example of how bad things can get, then my work here is done. I live in 5-pound space and I have 10 pounds of crap, so I have been stepping over piles of crafting supplies for about 7 years now. The Ladies who come over here know there are paths to where they need to be, and they seem to have accepted my lot in life.

Anyway, every once in a while, in one of my worlds, we get into a "my mess is worse than your mess" contest. It just needs to be done, and any stampers out there know of which I speak. Pictures are tweeted, there's a lot of "Well, look at THIS!", and well, I needed to settle things. Actually, my Tweep Dana might have won with her stuff taking up 2/3 of her formal Dining Room, but I might still give her a run for her money.

Back in February I revealed the fact that I was down to so little available space on The Captain's Table I could not fit a folded card on it. See:

1 = avalanche of stuff that fell off the lamp base where it had been precariously balanced.
2 = card hanging off the edge of the table
3 = piles of works in progress

THIS IS NOT UNUSUAL. Well, okay, I usually have a 6x6 space in which to work, but I can generally fit the whole card on the table. Most of the time.

Today's "my mess is worse than your mess" discussion drove me to document once again the dire situation of my crafty space. Plus, I had no card to show you this evening, and I needed some blog fodder. Messes I have, so here we go!

This is my Dining Room table right now:

No, this is not my crafting space... it is a staging area for my June Stamp Camp projects. Let's do the numbers:

1 = My stack of Stamp Camp supplies. Tools, adhesives, stamp mats, etc. This pile lives here ALL THE TIME.
2 = My staged projects ... card samples + all the supplies (minus the card stock, which isn't cut yet) for 4 projects.
3 = My photo studio. (stop laughing)

Let's move into The Captain's Quarters now. First, we have the current state of The Captain's Table:

You will notice this is a much-improved version of that first photo. Let's do those numbers:

1 = Avalanche. It never leaves.
2 = A box of miscellaneous crafting supplies that never found a home in the reorg. They have been reorg'd to this corner of my table.
3 = Everything I've touched in the past 6 months and not yet put away.
4 = My adhesives, cutting tools, etc.
5 = My available crafting space (pretty big right now) with a set of 5 in-progress note cards.

Let's look at this stuff from the perspective of the Captain's Chair, which is broken, and is adjusted down to the lowest setting, permanently, so I am about nose-high to the table. Here is the right side:

... and the left side:

Not too bad, actually, now that I look more closely. Hmph. But as any good crafter knows, this table top is not the end of our story. Actually, any flat surface is fair game, and the floor is flat, so let's have a look. This is the floor to the left of my chair:

... and by the numbers:

1 = My trash container for ONLY card stock and paper. I am a maniac about recycling.
2 = A bazillion foam-mounted stamps that I've indexed, but not yet put away. I want to order some storage cases from SU next week, so this stuff will sit here at least until then.
3 = A pile of stamp sets I've used and cleaned, but not yet put away.
4 = A pad of grid paper that lives under my table, on top of ...
5 = A box of who-knows-what, fallout from the conversion of The Other Room into The Captain's Quarters back in October.

The floor on the right looks like this:

... and by the numbers:

1 = A bag of punches and other things from Mike's that I haven't used yet, and therefore, I can't put away.
2 = My paper trimmer that fell over.
3 = A pack of wet wipes - standard equipment in most stampy rooms.
4 = A cut-up Scrapin' Kit from many years ago that I thought I might use for Easter cards, but didn't. Now I think I might use the stuff for Spring cards. Well, I could...
5 = My ATG. (Adhesive Transfer Gun)
6 = My trash trash - non-recyclable stuff.

Just beyond that pile of stuff on the floor is this pile of stuff on the floor:

... and by the numbers:

1 = Non-recyclable trash, redux
2 = All my SU markers
3 = A box of the last 3 or 4 purchases, not yet touched.

Turning the corner to the side of the table, we have:

... and by the numbers:

1 = That box of stuff. It's got 2 bags of shipping supplies from Staples, a pile of SU 6x6 patterned paper pads, and stuff from several online orders that I, um, haven't gotten to use yet.
2 = Bags of purchases from the LSS that I, um, haven't gotten to use yet.
3 = The official Scrap Heap. All my card stock scraps, organized by color group (blue, green, neutral), and yes, I use these a lot.

Moving on ... This is what the tops of these cabinets looked like as I was first assembling them back in October:

I had JUST placed (from L to R) my Big Shot, my Carl paper trimmer, my smaller paper trimmer, and my Scor-Pal. That box on the right eventually went away, and the Scor-Pal and smaller trimmer moved over so I had a place for the cut pieces from the Carl cutter to land. BIG mistake. This is what that space looks like now:

Meet: The Heaplet. I can't even FIND that small paper trimmer, and on top of all of that stuff is my binder that holds all my Nesties. It belongs in one of the cabinets, but I've been BUSY, people.

And lest you think that is all, nuh-uh. Here is a smaller pile of stuff:

These are left-overs from my die-cutting efforts. I try my best to place the dies on the card stock in the most efficient manner, but if there is a small spot left where I might get another layer for a sentiment, I can't bring myself to throw it away (even in the recycle bin), so I collect them here.

So there you have it. Now it is bed time, and I must get some shut-eye. I really, really do have stampy plans for this week, so hopefully I'll have something to share tomorrow or the next day.

Thanks for stopping by!