And the purge continues…

Hi friends! I know I am in good company when it comes to an overflowing craft space. I know this because of the wonderful comments and stories you share with me each time I post a “Konmari craft room” video. Yesterday I decided to tackle one of my craft room overflow areas: The framing department. I was too overwhelmed by the contents of my craft room when I did my original Konmari craft room declutter to venture into much of the overflow. Also I was really stymied but my framing supplies. About 20 years ago my mom and I bought a ton of mat board from a frame shop that was going about of business. I had learned how to cut my own beveled mats to save money on framing my art for shows and then students asked me to frame their work too. Before long I had a nice custom picture framing side business. Occasionally I had to order in custom colors that I did not have but honestly I was really well stocked with mat board! This stash allowed me to make a nice living from home with low overhead. Everything was bought and paid for so it was all profit after just a couple of jobs. Over the years though I enjoyed framing less and less and I began to see new jobs as “chores” instead of blessings. It is a nice safety net though if times got tough I can always do framing.  I realized that it wasn’t the mat board I was attached to but the security that owning the framing supplies provided me and it occurred to me the reason I didn’t want to deal with that supply was because Even though I didn’t love framing I was not ready to let go of that potential. I was ready to clean out the area I had all of the boxes of mat board in though so I went through the large 32″x40″ sheets of mat board one by one to decide what I could reasonably use in my personal art and odd framing jobs I may with to take in the future. My Hubby actually would like to learn how to cut mats so he might take over that endevor for me! I limited myself to no more than 4 sheets of each color with the exception of white and black because those I have to order in frequently. I got rid of half! What I kept is stored by color families in their original shipping boxes (25 sheets fit in a box and it keeps them flat and clean) and they are under the purple cloth in the corner.

Since I work in a basement I am aware of moisture so previously I had the boxes of mat boards standing in plastic under the bed boxes with the lids removes and I put a sheet of plexiglass between the boxes and the wall and it kept the mat boards perfect. The corner of my craft room I moved them too had a random mish-mash of junk from old frames to old portfolios of art and plywood panels I planned to paint. I had a heavy-duty wire riser (I think it was a  paneling sample display for a hardware store) and it was perfect for holding my boxes of mat boards up off the floor. I did put the risers in a plastic tub as an extra precaution against moisture too. You might remember for my first konmari post that I had a set of shelves in this area but I moved them because they were the reason of the junk corner because I could not reach anything with the shelves there. I took my yarn totes from another corner and swapped them out with the shelves and put my dress form on top and had a bit of fun making a knitting display lest I forget there are 2 honkin’ big totes of yarn there. I don’t often need yarn but I can take down the dress form and display in about 30 seconds if I need too. Also the yarn totes are light enough to pull out of there if I need to get to the mats. This set up is fine since these items are not accessed often. Here is the corner with my shelf where my yarn totes were. I had a couple of kitchen size trash bins holding wrapping paper and strecher bars behind the totes that I had not yet been through (whoops! Missed that on the first round 🙂 LOL) so I put the wrapping paper with my other wrapping supplies and nested the bins together and left the stretcher bar bin as is, you can see the bins next to my white shelf. Ordinarily there is a toaster oven for clay on the bottom shelf but it was in use when I took the photo.

Well that was quite the long intro to today’s video huh? The reason I shared that declutter was because so many people commented on my Konmari One Month Later one of my konmari follow up videos that they had “past business supplies” that they did not want but could not part with and I realized that I had some too. I love how we are learning and growing together!

Video!

If you are agonizing over getting rid of something and the 2 question method didn’t work:  try asking yourself why over and over until you come to an answer.

Why am I keeping this? Will i REALLY need it some day? Am I keeping it because I regret buying it but feel ashamed to get rid of it? Was it a mistake purchase to begin with? Am I keeping this to remind myself I made a mistake and this is my punishment? Am I afraid to get rid of this because it is closing the door on the potential of who I once wanted to become? Keep asking yourself why you are holding on to this thing until you get to the bottom of its hold on you. You might be keeping it for a valid reason or because you are comforted knowing that you have it. But if you are keeping it out of shame and regret you can let it go to make room for more positive energy and be wiser in your next purchase. Face it, we all make mistakes but we don’t have to keep paying for the same one over and over again by holding on to possessions that don’t serve us.

Same goes for buying. Why do I want this so badly? Do I want it just because it is new and shiny? Will it fill a need I have that nothing I own does? And so on…dig deep!
I listened to the audio book “The Life Changing Magic of Tiding Up” by Marie Kondo and it changed the way I look at my possessions and helped me clean out the excess. I have more time to spend on things I enjoy because I spend less time managing my stuff and less time cleaning.You can find the book or audiobook here. I also enjoyed her book Spark Joy, it is a more in depth book on the Konmari method.

You can watch the rest of the videos in the Konmari craft room series here, I hope it helps you like it has me. Do you have stubborn posessions you can’t decide on or things you are only keeping “Just in case” let me know in the comments below. Til next time happy crafting!