From Creative Chaos to Creative Sanctuary

Posted by Laura Kuhlmann on 8/29/10   |   Categorized as Blog Feature,Craft Ideas,Craft Projects,Creative Spark,DIY Home Renovations,Inside The Artist's Studio

Share |

Every so often I come across pictures of beautifully organized craft studios and home offices that take my breath away. These creative spaces are packed with supplies, yes – actual creating is done in them, but they are organized and beautifully decorated. Creative sanctuaries.

bits and barly

My office does not look like that. Creative chaos is more like it. My office is a strong candidate for just about any makeover show. But it goes beyond just sprucing up the decor, it needs top-to-bottom organization. For a long time I have enjoyed saying that I work in a space best described as creative chaos. I don’t enjoy saying that anymore. This is quite possibly due to the amount of floor space that I have is fast dwindling, so that it looks like I am playing a game of Hopscotch or Twister. (And keep in mind that I broke my foot in two places last summer by just missing one step on the stairs – while holding the banister – so I definitely need an open floor space!)

Whether your office is your full-time haven where you create, or it is where you escape after your job to work on your crafts and hobbies, does your creative space feed your creativity?

I want to change my space from Creative Chaos to Creative Sanctuary, and you are going to go on this journey with me. The ideas that I’m writing about may or may not be successful, but at least we can find out together – remember there is strength in numbers! This transformation will be accomplished in many baby steps, and I’ll be sharing new steps in future posts.

First baby step: Magazines.

I have a ton (figuratively) of magazines in my office. Sadly, new piles have begun to form downstairs in our living room too. There are industry magazines that I like to read to stay on top of issues and trends, and there are general interest magazines that I like to read to….stay on top of issues and trends. You see, whether I’m reading the latest issue of Pet Product News, or I’m reading the latest issue of Country Living, the goals are the same. Creating is never far from my mind, and I am always interested in trends, ideas, designs, and colors.

What I’ve been doing:

New magazines arrive and they get added to the pile. There are many magazine stacks in my office right now. In fact, I’ll count them for you. Hold on . . . There are 9 stacks of magazines. That’s not including the new pile forming downstairs, which has already divided itself into 3 piles. When I do go through a magazine, I rip out the pages that I want to keep for ideas. And those pages end up on – say it with me – a new pile. As I type this to you, there is a 3-inch stack of magazine pages (yes, I just measured!) to the left of my computer keyboard just waiting for me to take action.

I love reading through magazines, despite what the above-described stacks and piles indicate. One of my favorites already mentioned, Country Living, usually has products by fellow Etsy artists in at least a few spreads each month. I love seeing what everyone creates, and quite often when I’m finished with a magazine I feel very motivated and inspired. The problem is that I just don’t do this regularly, but rather in fits and spurts.

What I want to try:

I will begin adding “magazines” to my daily To Do List, allowing 30 minutes during the morning to begin tackling the stacks. I will use a kitchen timer to limit myself to 30 minutes. The first 20 minutes will be for reading a magazine. The last 10 minutes will be to begin tackling the stack of pages that I’ve ripped out. For example, if I have ripped out a page mentioning a website I might be interested in, then I need to take that page, look up the website, decide if I am interested in it, and bookmark it to read later. (Yes, tackling ongoing website and blog reading is a future topic.) Then I’ll toss that ripped out page into the recycle bin, and pick up the next one. I’m unsure how this will work long-term, but for now I think this approach will help me to get caught up on the magazine reading that I do enjoy, plus help to eliminate some of the clutter (chaos!) from my space.

How about you? Do you have magazine stacks, or are you diligent with your reading? Do you have any tips on controlling the loose pages you’ve ripped out to save for later? And when is “later” anyway?

~ Laura Kuhlmann

Tagged as: , , , ,
  • http://KbOriginalsetc.etsy.com Kim

    I too have stacks, but I think I only have 2 right now.(have we actually determined how tall or how many equals a true stack?) I love to read them, get ideas from them and escape through them. Problem is time. When I get home from work its all about dinner, mail, another load of laundry., returning phone calls etc. Then after dinner it's all about dishes, drying the laundry and hopefully getting in an hour or so of etsy time on the computor. After this day starting at 6 am who has time to read a magazine…so the pile grows with the magazine that arrived that day!
    Having said all that, most of my reading is done months behind and is taken on trips, dr appts etc. I do occasionally get to one the day it arrives, so long as the stars have lined up and its a full moon. I feel very good about getting it read in one night and ripping out all the pages with all the ideas I will do one day…now have we discussed piles of ripped out pages recently???????

  • http://www.newcreationz.etsy.com NewCreatioNZ

    Oh I love it. we are all in the same boat! My stacks happen all over the place. As long as my keyboard and chair are free, I'll keep going! Thanks for making me feel like I'm 'normal'.

  • http://www.anoudesign.etsy.com Anne

    I have too stacks, but I am not ripping any pages, I scan them and keep all copies into organised folders in my computer (eg. ideas for sewing, a good website,…) and keep all my magazines in a nice pile somewhere in my house. So I can still come back to my magazines whenever I feel like and not having any pages missing. I also write the name, page and number of the magazine in case I need to come back to the magazine. I usually wait until I have few magazines and spend one hour or so to do it. Et voila!

  • http://jonscreations.etsy.com Colleen`

    Unfortunately I too have stacks of magazines…my kids keep telling me to throw them out but I just can't bear to part with them….I too LOVE Country Living!

  • http://sleeplessimagination.blogspot.com Laura_P

    Wow! Scanning pages and organizing them on your computer is a great idea!

  • homespunlife

    My process (if you can call it that) is to let the stacks grow, gathering dust and cat hair, until I can't possibly process them all. Then I justify that there is ALWAYS an ongoing stream of information to feed creativity and, rather than paddling back upstream, I feed the recycle bin with my mountain of magazines.

    I know…sacrilege for magazine lovers. :-)

  • http://sleeplessimagination.blogspot.com Laura_P

    I have my magazines stored in a couple of boxes in my craft room. I need to go through them because I could really use that space for other things. Sometimes, I go through phases where I can't stand having all the magazines, so I go through and recycle as many as I can. I quit getting any magazine subscriptions because I can never keep up with them. I miss having magazines in the mail, but I don't miss the leaning stacks of unread magazines.

  • http://janetkemp88.etsy.com Janet Kemp

    I have tons of mags! I cannot bear to part with them. I may have missed something in them. So, I arranged them by date (multiple times after putting them back out of order) and put them in 6 plastic mag boxes that allow the mags to stand on end next to one another. The wide spines of the mag boxes have labels according to dates. Well, I ran out of them and I now have taken to making stacks all over my studio, everywhere! On shelves, in boxes, in closets, Then, I bought a metal mag rack!! It's just another surface to make stacks on.

  • shoponalark

    Magazines are a great source of inspiration. I usually read through them once, and then they become part of the pile. One of my favorite things to do is to gather that pile on a gloomy Sunday morning and go through each magazine tearing out pages. They are separated into these new "piles" that are filed away according to these catagories: Websites, Holiday, Decorating, Projects, Designs and Pattern, Color Ways, Travel and finally, Food.
    As time goes by, I edit these files and sometimes ask myself, "Why in the heck did I tear this page out?". lol I am looking forward to taking this task on with you. Good luck!!!

  • canneryrow

    I like the idea of scanning the pages into the computer but I rarely get around to it. Unfortunately I never remember to label my folders very well so I cant find what I want often when I go l looking for it. I have a few little hanging file units which I label with certain subjects. A few little ones works better than one big one-One has designs, and little illustrations in progress, another has business stuff, another for the family papers, etc. I have a corkboard I put up no more than five things I want to look at per week, and I change that often. I also have a file for "current projects"
    I dont go for magazines much anymore, they get out of control to fast and you end up reading about other people creating more than doing it yourself. I try to limit myself to one every once in awhile. Its a constant battle, I have come to believe that clutter can really kill the muse and I've been really trying hard to get out from under it. [its really difficult]
    Good luck, I am happy to discover I am not the only one struggling with creative chaos!

  • http://www.handmadespark.com/blog/the-etsy-artisan-gallery-team-expose-themselves-and-their-studios/ The Etsy Artisan Gallery Team Expose Themselves and Their Studios | Handmade Spark

    [...] who read my recent post on changing my home office from creative chaos to a creative sanctuary will understand exactly why I was so taken with a recent feature on Etsy’s The Storque blog. [...]

blog comments powered by Disqus