This week’s makeover features a retail shop I worked with back in October. This was a very fun job for me because it brings together my passions for organizing and crafting! SpaceCraft Studios is a new craft shop and studio where locals can meet other creative people and make stuff! The owner, Allison is already very organized but as you can imagine with any new business she was a little overwhelmed and re-organizing the supplies and storage in the back rooms were just not at the top of her priorities! That’s when she enlisted me to help because she realized that things could quickly get out of hand and starting a new business with good systems in place sets the stage for future success!
As both a craft store and a studio that offers classes there have been (and will continue to be) many donations of materials and supplies. As these came in they began to pile up in the storage room. Creating a system for this area was one of the biggest priorities so that future donations didn’t become overwhelming and un-useful. Without getting rid of anything (because there was an upcoming craft supply swap!) I sorted materials and supplies by category and re-organized how they were grouped and arranged in the space. Adjacent to this space was a smaller area that was storage for tools and additional supplies. Some items in this space were moved out and other tools (from other areas of the shop) were move into this area and re-organized.
[Even the tool boxes got a little makeover!]
The kitchen had become a catch all for a few categories that didn’t necessarily make sense there (tools). These items were relocated to make more efficient use of the kitchen for entertaining supplies, food and storage related items like bags, jars and soap making supplies etc used for some classes.
Most of the organizing I did was “back of house” but I re-arranged/re-organized the resource library (available for students and customers to browse) to make room for a new shipment of product. In this case I sorted books by craft category (sewing, knitting, paper crafting etc). I also worked on labeling some of the smaller already organized supplies in the studio space so that both customers and teachers can easily identify (and return) supplies as needed.
If you find it challenging to organize your craft stash maybe you will get a few inspiring ideas from this post and SpaceCraft Studios!
How do you like to organize your craft/art supplies? If you have any tips or brilliant ideas to share please let me know. For more craft supply organizing ideas I’ve got a great Pinterest Board!