A Place For Everything

No one who knows me has every accused me of being tidy.  I live in what could politely be called "controlled chaos".  Clean dishes do get put away a couple of times a week, but for everything else my method of organization is to "put it over there until I get around to it later".  "Leave no flat surface uncovered" is my motto!  

I may also have a tendency to hoard.

I recognize these as areas for personal growth.

But when it comes to big house projects - and especially big house projects that other people (my dad) are volunteering to help with - it really benefits everyone for there to be space to work and the ability to find the things you need.

Here's what I'm up against in the window shop.

Today is Shop Organizing Day during which I will mostly be grouping objects by function.  Things that cut go in one place.  Everything paint related goes somewhere else.  Small smooth and pointy things go in one jar.  Small spirally and pointy things go in a different jar.  Tools like the vinyl floor tile cutter which I will probably never use again may go into the basement.  

I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do with the shopping cart (not pictured).

In my defense, I started a larger organizing effort several days ago with the library, where there are many shelves (flat surfaces!!) and therefore many opportunities for things to be forgotten.  My library clean up goals were two-fold.  

First, the shortest path between the guest room and the kitchen is through the library and it's generally good manners to reduce the trip hazards for your guests (especially when they are helping you out with house projects). 

Second, the library is the home of my glass collection - not just the large collection of assorted alcohol bottles, but also the collection of antique glass that has previously been removed from windows around the house.

Any experienced window restorer will tell you that labeling things - every window sash, every pane of glass in every sash - is really foundational for getting the pieces to fit back together again.  Which is why none of these panes are labeled and it's a complete crap shoot whether they go back into the same sashes they came out of or not.  (In my defense, I got bad advice about this and didn't realize until it was too late.)

But here, dear Reader, I offer you a sign that I am growing personally.  Here are three panes of glass which I removed from storm windows which I hope to restore over the coming weeks and which I have labeled!  And put into the library with their fellows of unknown origin.

So now, spurred on by these new heights of organization... I venture once again into the shop.