The Dysfunctional Art Closet

If you're an artist, you have one of these. Unless you are Martha Stewart, in which case you'd better skip on to another blog and leave me to my pathetic self.

I am a very organized person, to the point of self-proclaimed obsessive-compulsive disorder. I drive my family crazy organizing everything. A while back I posted pictures of my studio. A lot of you told me I was far more organized than you, which left me puffed up and full of myself. Until tonight when I opened the doors to my art closet.

It all started with a trip to Michaels. I came home with some ribbon which was on sale, so I stocked up. The trouble with stocking up is where do you put it all? You know you'll use it (at some point--maybe 12 years from now, but you WILL use it), it's on sale, and if you don't buy it you'll surely find a need next week for what you didn't purchase today.

I have my ribbon organized by color in the little white containers on the top shelf. My drawers are nearly full, so it took me almost an hour to figure out the best possible arrangement in each drawer to accommodate all the spools. In the end, a few spools got kicked out but I got them all in. (Until the next trip to Michaels!)

While placing the white containers back into the closet, I thought about how difficult it was to get them in and out, so I rearranged the top shelf which took another hour. I moved all the fabric containers to the far ends and stacked them to the ceiling. That cleared an area in the middle and I can now get to my ribbon without pulling stuff down on my head and pinching my fingers in the drawers. Yippee! And look! I even have room for one more container!

This closet is still a work in progress. Some of you will think this closet looks very organized compared to yours, and maybe so, but that's just the top shelf. The bottom is a mess! We've been here just over a year and there are still some unpacked boxes in there.


You can't open the doors too fast or the mat cutter will attack you. Pulling anything from the floor results in an avalanche of pillows. I have no place to store my scrapbooks, so they're all in crates in the closet floor. And then there's the circus tent, which I fall over on a regular basis.

Why, oh why, did I ever buy that thing?! Because it was on sale, and you never know when your child may need a circus tent!

Next in the series of dysfunctional storage will be my side attic. Stay tuned for the exciting narration of that space!