I got so much done yesterday on the studio storage closet! My goal was to have the closet cleared out enough by the end of the day so that I could roll the tall shelving unit into the closet. It seemed like a lofty goal, but I actually managed to get it done!
Here’s a reminder of what the storage closet looked like at the beginning of the day…
It was piled full of boxes and things that I hadn’t gone through in years.
But I needed to get it cleared out because these things have been in my way in the studio, and they all need to go into the closet. I can’t move forward and finish the trim on that wall until those things are out of my way.
And I actually did it! At the end of the day, all of that stuff had been cleared out, and this is what the closet looked like…
I still have that other shelving unit that I need to put together. It will go on this wall.
Nothing is actually organized on those shelves yet. In fact, I have a feeling that there are a lot of things on those shelves that will actually end up in the cabinets in the studio. But for now, I’m just glad to get those shelves out of my way.
I haven’t moved the door yet. That is a very heavy MDF and glass door, and I only want to move it once. So I’ll just leave it there until the storage closet floor, walls, and ceiling is painted, and the other things that need to be done are finished. Then I’ll move it in there where it will stay until it’s needed for our future bedroom. When I remodeled the bathroom, I wanted to purchase both bathroom doors together to be sure they’d match, so for now, I just have to store it. But just getting that shelving unit out of here made such a huge difference!
Now don’t get me wrong. Not everything that I pulled out of that closet has been dealt with. I still have a big box of random papers that I’ll have to go through. I also consolidated a ton of Matt’s gaming stuff into one huge box, so now I have to figure out what to do with that. And then there are two box of random tools and products spanning every category from building to sewing to crafting. I’ll need to go through those items one at a time and figure out where to put them, but that’s part of the larger studio organization project that I will soon have to tackle.
One thing I need to decide is where I’m going to put my tools and building supplies. I generally keep these things in the sunroom, which is where I have my big tool chest. But I actually need to be working on moving things out of that room, not storing things in there. So I need to find a new home for my big tool chest and all of the supplies I use on a regular basis, like sandpaper, wood filler, nails, screws, etc.
It’s likely that the item that are currently on that shelving unit that is now in the storage closet will actually end up in the studio cabinets, so that means that all of the stuff that I generally store in the sunroom (which I started gathering up and putting on my desk as I was sorting things yesterday) will probably find a home on those shelves in the storage closet. I hate to take all of this stuff into the sunroom just to turn around and bring it right back.
Anyway, it was actually kind of fun going through those boxes and seeing things I hadn’t seen in quite a while. For some of it, it had been years. I actually found my wedding dress wrapped in that blue plastic from the dry cleaners and stuffed into a box inside another much bigger box. I haven’t seen this in over 20 years! I loved this dress so much. It was such a simple two-piece design with lots of beads and sequins.
The skirt is also very simple with this bead and sequin border around the bottom and the train.
I shared this in my Instagram stories yesterday, and I had a few requests for a picture of me wearing the dress. This is the only one I could find on my computer. (Remember how I lost all of my pictures last year?) I do have an actual wedding album with a ton of pictures in it, but I didn’t have time to scan any more. So this will have to do for now. 🙂
I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with the dress. People had several good suggestions, like making a pillow out of the sequined and beaded top, or making a handbag out of it. Others suggested framing the top. And then my bonus sister Cathi told me about this program that uses wedding dresses to make custom gowns for families who lose babies. That is an amazing and beautiful service.
So I don’t know what I’m going to do with mine. For now, it’ stuffed back in its little box for safe keeping.
Another thing that I found buried in that closet was this oak cross.
This is very special to me because my maternal grandfather made this for me over three decades ago. He was an amazing woodworker, and he had quite an influence on me. When I was little, I would go into his workshop and look around in awe at all of his tools and projects. I was amazed that he could actually take pieces of plain wood and turn them into beautiful things using all of those tools. He was definitely a huge part of planting that love of tools and woodworking in me. So I’ve held onto this cross that he made me all of these years because if I ever do get to have my own workshop, this is going on one of the walls in there so that his memory and the memory of his workshop and his amazing talent can always be with me as I work.
And finally, there was this funny find.
I wonder how much of a late fee we owe on this. 😀 I guess they won’t be needing that back now.
So I made some great progress in a day, and things are feeling “lighter” in the studio this morning. It’s amazing how getting rid of clutter can change the whole feel of a room. I can’t wait to start getting things organized and put away in here. I’m going to use a “mapping” system that someone told me about in a comment a few posts back. I’m so excited about getting started on that, and I’ll share the process as I make progress.
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Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.