Last year, we decided to get a new quote on our house insurance.
It seemed like a great idea … until the insurance man showed up at my door.
He showed up at my door unannounced.
He showed up at my door unannounced … with his camera.
I stood in the doorway, babbling like an idiot, about why that wasn’t a good day, and could he come back next week?
He tried to assure me that it he wouldn’t be entering the house, he just needed to take some exterior photos, and look inside our barn and outbuilding.
I’m pretty sure I drummed up at least ten white lies on the spot to keep him from seeing the mountain of junk in my workshop.
I’ve shared lots of photos of our outbuilding on the blog before – but I only show you the guest room side.
The other half of the building is my workshop.
In theory, it’s my workshop.
It’s so overflowing with junk that I can’t actually do any work in it though.
Bless my husband’s heart. He took it upon himself to start cleaning out my workshop a few weeks ago.
I was a little freaked out at first.
What if he threw out one of my favorite pieces of junk?
Finally I admitted to myself that I might have a teesy weensy issue with junk, and I needed to just trust him, and let him try to restore the junky mountain into a workshop again.
He isn’t finished yet, but I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I saw a stack of pieces outside the door that he deemed keepers.
I looked through the stack and found two antique cabinet doors I got at an auction several years ago.
One of them is attached to what must have been the side of the cabinet, and it’s in pretty rough shape.
The other one looked like it had some potential though.
I used sandpaper to distress the old brown paint, and attached some hardware mesh.
I wasn’t loving it though. It just looked too dark to me.
I decided to paint it white, which was a huge improvement, and rounded up more junk to add to it.
I found an old bottle and a window lock that looked like a good match.
And I came up with a junk cabinet door wall vase! 🙂
One piece of junk down … a few hundred left to go!
Wish us luck as we continue with the workshop overhaul!
Vaya con Dios,
Hi Angie – Amazing how just one window lock makes all the difference in the transformation. Good luck with your sorting through your stuff!
Thanks Mary!
That is a terrific makeover of a piece I would have had no idea what to do with.
And I soooo hear you about the workshop/mess issue. I’ve vowed organization, rented dumpsters, dumped, organized, cleaned and……it just keeps reverting to it’s natural state. But bravo to your husband for taking it on!
Hoarding tendencies sure are hard to break, aren’t they?!
Ughhh…. I know exactly why and what you mean by your post in its entirety! I have a “craft room” as well…. It was my sons room as he moved out about a year ago and left everything and I mean trash and all left for me to clean up. Why is this hard for me to clean it up? Well, truth is, I’ve been chronically ill for some time, pain, failing organs, no immune system blah blah blah no energy blah no will power. So basically one day I was able to move some of his crap down stairs to the dining room aka now a hoarders den as it’s the first thing you see when you open our front door… So omg… I’m terrified just based off the initial looksee inside that area, that it looks like my house is a hot mess….( thanks Zach ?) anyways so I got half my crafting stuff in my new craft room but there’s still a heavy heavy wooden bed frame from Amish country in there somewhere under about 50 space saver bags of yarn I either bought on sale or was inherited from my mother in law, my gramma and now my husbands grandmother. Yarn… ??check….ribbon… Special Paper… My art paints, stencils, omg everything you can imagine related to crafting anything your heart desires at 2am without leaving the house. If inspiration hits me at 2 am I walk into my “craft area” and get what I need because 10 out of 10 times I have it. The big joke around here is it looks like Micheals, Joann fabrics, hobby lobby and AC Moore met dick Blick art supplies and had a baby, then threw up craft crap all over. Basically because I can’t fully move into the craft room because of that huge bed and dresser that matches… My stuff is spilling out into every nook and cranny of the house. I can’t move it on my own and everyone seems to magically disappear when I need help. My poor husband has offered, no, lovingly THREATENED to go in and organize but I know what that means… Just like you… I’m afraid he’ll look at somethings I see as “a project” or he will throw out scraps of pretty paper I’m saving for a mosaic or mixed media that I special ordered. Ughhh…I’m torn between needing the help, accepting the help, or doing it on my own which truthfully isn’t going to happen. I’d just rather not have my “craft crap” pawed thru by a man who will probably try to throw my most prized possessions aka oh… You have 15 scrapbook paper pads… I’ll throw out 10 you keep 5 because he doesn’t see they are all different lol. To him it’s just a paper pad… To me, it’s arts and crafts… Or ohhh… You have a cabinet full of craft paint. Throw out duplicate colors…. Umm no, each one does something different… One is acrylic one is oil and the other is for glass…. Good Gravy! Can’t you tell the difference? Husband says no, I just see the same color… Ughhhh and THAT is excatly why I need him not to help me but I do need to “condense” my craft supply. I crochet so there’s lots and lots of yarn, crochet hooks both mine and inherited… So yarn takes up 1/2 my room already.. Add on fabric of every possible kind, vintage, specialty, anything your heart desires… Sewing notions galore, ribbon, again I do weddings and ribbon work, embroidery, hoops, thread etc etc… Paper paper and more paper for scrap booking, add in all the punches, my cutters, my Sizzix machine, all the dies… Lol.. Then all my inks, embossing crap… Glitter in every color, shape you could want… Oh my stamps, sweet Jesus my stamps! Color books, my huge collection of all things to color with, Prismacolor, gel pens, markers… On and on… Good god no wonder he wants me to contain my crap! I didn’t even mention the jewelry making stuff… Beads, crystals… Wire, trinkets.. All the embellishments for mixed media… Canvases, you seeing all this? I’m shocked there’s Any room for people in here. So yeah, I need to release some things lol… I do too many different projects… I’m into too many different things… Just like the other posters on this thread… Dumpsters, donating things, giving crap away but somehow it always comes back lol. Basically my husband wants to buy a new house and keep this as my craft palace! He may be right!
I get what youre saying on how you have all of this “good stuff” but noone will see it as good. I had the same going on We have an old play room upstairs that we wanted to turn into a sewing and craft room. Working long days no days off sometimes ( babysitting my grandson. All important things, butn the sewing room is also important because with out organization, you cant relax and functional. When id find a sale Id buy things saying to myself, Oh yea I can put it out of the way in the sewing room FOR NOW. For now seems to be a way of us telling our self its ok to hoard this! It is but it isnt. We have to somehow figure a way to hit the mess and organize it pretty soon so it doesnt build up. But Howww.
My daughter has been on pinterest and sites that have good organizing ideas. We took a yar and got it organized. I dont know how to send pictures to a site but Id share if anyone wanted them e mailed
Peg board is helpful. Verrry helpful! Getting all things up off the floor and tables, with shelves on the wall are sort of what I aim for. Baskets and small containers also help. If the bedroom set is not being used and in your way, could you sell it and use the money to buy shelving and rubbermaid totes? I get what youre going through( When I was in desperate shape I saved glass jars from babtfoods, pickles relish and anything I could. I took one wall and nailed nails in rows to hang things on. Packages tht arent opened can hang on a nail from the hole on the top of the pack. most things Have the hole on top from being hung at the store. Eventually when I got organized I took the nails out. Dont have nails, many women live in a home where the husband doesnt do carpentry and neither do they. The dollar store has them, and nails and screws ) I got shelving strips and brackets at Home depo, and didnt waste money on the fancy wood look already painted shelves. I got planks in the wood section Do you do yardsaling? Many items can be bought very cheaply. Fishing lure containers made from plastic work well for beads and jewelry supplies and babyfood jars. I feel so happy and organized with the room finished, I wish I could help everyone finish theirs to finally give them the same calm and happy feeling. I m hoping you have Luck getting this room the way you need ) )
Love what you did with the door. What a great feeling when the light bulb goes on and the plan takes shape.
LOL I can soooo identify with all this! My husband, who is a serious pack rat too, is always threatening to clean up and throw “about half” my junk away. The places he threatens to clean up, look to me like they have more of his junk – which looks literally like garbage to me – than mine, but he only sees mine. I see his, he sees mine. (I think he wants to throw out my stuff so he’ll have more room for his.)
Isn’t it great when we do start to straighten and find things to use, though? We did that last week and I found some things I’d forgotten about. How fun to be able to shop our own house and yard!
Thankfully, my husband isn’t a pack rat, or I’d be in serious trouble, Wanda!