The joys of unpacking

I’ve spent the last two days furiously unpacking both studio and the rest of the house.  To my utter astonishment, I now have the studio roughly in order – there is only one half-empty moving box yet to be filed.  Admittedly, there is a big pile of stuff on the table, and an ominously large stack of samples in a corner pile that need to be dealt with – some from Complex Weavers sample exchanges, some my own that need to be categorized and filed.  The stack of samples and other stuff that needs dealing with is about eighteen inches high, though some of those are large items that take up more space.  The actual mass of samples is “only” about five inches tall.

Here is a photo of the most interesting corner (the studio is too small to take a photo of the entire room):

I’m pretty pleased with myself – the organization is quite different (and more efficient!) than what I had previously.  Thread is hung neatly in storage boxes on the wall, random objects like pins, sewing machine needles, etc. are housed in the many-drawered cabinet underneath the table.  Previously they had been strewn randomly across the craft table, or precariously teetering in baskets on the pegboard (where I could never find them).  While there is still quite a bit of random stuff to put away, at least now I have an organizational scheme, and a place to put everything.  As a friend said once, “Now I have an ‘away’ to put.”

(The cabinet-with-drawers, by the way, is new: I bought it from Ikea yesterday.  While Ikea is not known for its fine furniture (I bought it because it was cheap and I was broke), I do adore buying things from Ikea because it’s so much fun to assemble the furniture.  Their instructions are clear, simple, and precise, making assembly quick, neat, and satisfying.  It’s like putting together a small jigsaw puzzle: it’s so much fun to find each piece and put it in the right spot, and then there’s the final “click” as the last piece goes ceremoniously in place.  Delightful!)

I’m also pleased with myself because I had worked out the layout down to the last inch, and to my surprise, it worked!  In particular, I had calculated that there I could fit both table and bookcase against one wall, with just one inch of wall to spare.  I was worried about mis-measurement, but in fact they both fit, with 3/4 inch to spare!  I got it exactly right.  Happiness.

Now, of course, there is the rest of the house, which is still full of boxes.  (A girl has to have her priorities!)  Actually I have unpacked quite a few boxes, but you’d never know it by looking: the living room is jam-packed with boxes of books, and the kitchen is in an awful state of disorder.  I suspect that we have more things to put away than the cabinets will actually hold, and then there is the small matter of organizing the stuff that will fit.  I hadn’t tackled the kitchen because Mike was still installing the dishwasher (there’s nothing like trying to unpack around a Giant Box occupying a quarter of the kitchen), but he finished it last night (yay!) and so I will tackle the kitchen today.  After that I will unpack the living room, and only then do I tackle the garage.

I’m glad I took a week off!  I don’t think I’ll be done unpacking until Thursday or Friday.