stuff...

I have a lot of stuff.

I know that. I've always had a lot of stuff. It happens when you do arts and crafts as a hobby. But sometimes the stuff gets a little out of control and things don't get put back the way they should and then everything is with everything and it just gets kind of stupid... particularly when you spend most of your non-sleeping, non-working, non-mundane activities such as housework or grocery acquisition in one room: the office / studio / living room.

It's where the computer is, it's where the desk is, it's where the tv is, and it's where most of my stuff is... and it got a little unruly during that period when I was taking that medication that made me want to sleep my days away or eat pizza or cry for hours at a time.

Apparently, I should be more ashamed of this than I am (which, quite frankly isn't very much)...

 It looked worse before I took this picture... this is halfway there.

 prismacolors, verithins, ball point pens, drawing pencils, markers, tape, and plastic storage bags...

 miscellaneous, make-up (why is that here?), hangers, doo-dads...

 I'm clearly set on mini clothespins, hole punches, tubes of glitter...

Even the worm jewelry needs a home.

But, the thing is that I'm in the middle of reorganizing all this stuff so that things do get put away or actually have a home. And on a basic level, since I have a lot of small things, my chosen method of storing them involves those little plastic pencil boxes; largely because I have a lot of pens and pencils or small things.

Anyway, I spent a goodly amount of time this week separating art supplies by kind, and going through all my containers to sort everything. Organizing does seem like a huge time suck, but sitting in my living room and not having the floor littered with piles of stuff — actually seeing large swaths of carpeting in the middle of the room is rewarding in it's own way: I actually feel like being there, instead of wishing I was somewhere else doing something else. It's a feeling I haven't had in a while.

Plus I sat there watching tv while I was doing it, so, technically, it was still multi-tasking.

I realize that my version of orderly is someone else's chaos... but eventually I'll have everything put away to my satisfaction. Of course, then it will be time to start a project and pull it all out again. It's a perpetual cycle.

But for now, all my plastic boxes are stacked neatly on the shelf.  Papers are sorted, and organized, and for the most part - in cabinets or on shelves... and more importantly, I can see the surface area of my desk again. It seems silly, even though I still have more organizing to do and stuff to neaten up, but it's so much nicer when things aren't everywhere on every flat surface.

Now that my desk has been liberated from disorder, it's probably time to get some stuff done.

Have a nice weekend! :D