As many of you know, last year we had a Craft Room Clean Up Sweepstakes drawing. The winner of the drawing was Kate Rothacker of Lititz, PA.
The prize included a variety of Totally-Tiffany products and 2 days of organizational help from Karen and I. Our winner Kate, owns a crop house, 2 of them actually, in Pennsylvania. Her request was that we come in and help organize the tool and supply room at her Cozy Crop House in Lititz.
Last Monday, Karen and I arrived in Lititz with Park and Petey in tow. Because we were there early in the week, the Cozy Crop House had a couple of empty guest rooms and Kate was kind enough to let us stay while we were there. I’ve included some pictures of the Cozy Crop House at the end of the video (posted at the bottom of this post).
Kate’s tool room was an ideal challenge for us to share with all of you. Tools come in so many shapes and sizes and organizing them can be a real challenge.
Monday night we took a few “before” pictures….
Step 1 – Clear everything out.
We were lucky to have the large crop room next to the tool room. The extra space made it easy to clear everything off the shelves, out of the cupboards and off the walls. Like so many organization projects, things often get worse before they get better, and this was no exception.
A fresh set of eyes
One of the great things about having someone else come in and help with a project like this, is seeing things through a fresh set of eyes. Whether it’s your craftroom, your office, your closet or your garage – we all get “used to” seeing things and then go a bit blind to them.
As we worked through the tool room at the Cozy Crop House, we were able ask Kate how and why things were where they were – and if they needed to stay. Kate was incredibly receptive to changes within the space and we were able to open up the space by combining and consolidating.
Here is a few pics of things that didn’t need to be in the tool room space…
Horizontal Surfaces are DANGEROUS
It’s so easy to set something down and walk away from it when you’ve got empty horizontal surfaces. They’re like magnets for “stuff.” After awhile, we just stop “seeing” them. At one time these 3 areas had a specific purpose. They were no longer needed, so out they went.
Putting things back
This is where the fun begins! With everything or most things out of the tool room, we were able to rearrange, repurpose and reload.
On the tool wall, we took out a couple of shelving units and added in another piece of slat wall. We removed all of the tools and reloaded the wall. Kate will add examples of each tool to the wall so croppers can easily put things back in the correct space.
The white shelving unit was a catchall of tools of all types. We used several Desk Maid organizers to create a visible offering of dies, stamps, specialty punches, embossing folders and the tools needed to use them.
Kate’s Cupboard
This cupboard is primarily used by Kate for storing her personal supplies as well as class & make-n-take supplies. The cupboard has doors, which can be dangerous.
Although it looks a mess, most of the things in this cupboard actually belonged there. With a little consolidation we were able to organize the cupboard and create a lot of space too.
We emptied everything out of the cupboard and sorted through each box.
Our main focus here was grouping things together Kate uses together – individual classes and make-n-takes were labeled for easy access.
Kate has a collection of large wallpaper books for mixed media classes and projects. These fit perfectly in the bottom section of the cupboard.
From horizontal to vertical – same shelf better access.
This shelf is used to store idea books. Because these books are large, they will not stand vertically on the shelf when it’s in its intended position. We turned the shelf on it’s side and moved it to the top of the tool shelf – the books can stand vertically; are easy to see, easy to reach and easy to put away.
The imprinting station
Album imprinting is part of Kate’s business at the Cozy Crop House. Her customers needed to see the album samples as well as the foil options. A quick tidy up of this area made samples more visible for customers, and supplies more accessible for Kate. (Pardon the less than perfect pictures – these are the only ones I’ve got.)
Wall-o-Trimmers
Paper Trimmers are difficult to store. When we moved Kate’s imprinting samples up over the machine, it opened up a full panel of slat wall. Though not practical in a home environment, this is perfect for Kate’s tool room.
Thanks so much for stopping by today to check out the Craft Room Clean Up.
To see more – watch the video above.
Happy Crafting,
PS – As many of you know, my younger son Max is home from college this summer. When I arrived home from this trip the house smelled strongly of burnt pizza. If you look closely, you can make out the vague outlines of pepperoni. It’s a good thing he’s not enrolled in culinary school…
Great job, Tiffany & Karen! Questions: how are the paper trimmers attached to the slat wall? And how were the ergonomic Fiskars punches attached to the slat wall? The punches seem to have disappeared in the “after” shots, but maybe I’m missing them.
I’m hoping to dive back into my schoolroom/office/scraproom today…wish you were here!!
Hi Lori –
The paper trimmers are on small plastic shelves that have a lip on the front.
Are you talking about the grey Fiskars punches? We moved those to the white shelving unit and put them all in a Desk Maid 4 Level Stadium Arranger. Scroll up to the section of this post that is before and afters of the white shelves and you’ll see them. T.
I was shocked at the difference. Did a lot of purging go on or was it a miracle reorganization?
Yes and no. A lot of consolidation and removal of extra packaging, boxes, containers, the things that take up a lot of space but don’t really serve a purpose. Kate did purge broken, out of date or rarely used items. I think the big miracle were the volunteers that came in to help. She is surrounded by a group of dedicated family and friends.
Great job! How fortunate was the Crazy Crop House!!
Great job! I love it when you can see all of your tools, etc, at a glance and easy to access. The pizza is a whole other story OMG.
Tiffany:
What a great job at the Cozy Crop house. We were able to find the tools easy. I love, love the die cut holder- so easy to find what you are looking for in the drawers, the slide outs work well. I am amazed at what organization did for the CCH. I am sure it may take awhile for Kate to find stuff-lol! But it was easy to find the tools when we cropped-this week. Thank you to you and your team for helping our:FAVORITE Crop house and our good FRIEND KATE.
HI Donna –
Thanks so much for taking the time to tell us about your experience at the CCH. We had a great time with Kate!!! She was wonderful to work with and we’re hoping all of you are enjoying your time there even more. I was so impressed with Kate’s desire to continue to improve the CCH. She is blessed to have such great friends/customers. Thanks again, T.
Wow! Great transformation! The room invites everyone to use the tools and it’s easy to see where to put them back!
I’ve been going to the CCH for about 10years. The warmth and homey atmosphere makes it a great way to crop. This reorganization wil make it easier to find tools you need
Wow! That was so awesome!! You did a great job and I got a ton of inspiration for my own craft space at home. I have several of your pieces and now I want to get more of your products. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Phew……. it’s good to know not only senior citizens are cape able of leaving the stove on……..(senior humor)
Amazing redo. Tiffany and Karen (and Park) you all did a great job. As for the pizza…..at least no fire dept was involved!
LOL – not that we know of anyway. When does your new book come out?
My new book, SHADOWS IN OUR BONES, will be released on Sept 19. If you,or anyone else wants a discount code join my blog at Tamaramerrill.com
Okay – I’ll join now.
Such a wonderful transformation. Slowly I am organizing my craft supplies. I have 2 Desk Maids. I will have to see what else I can store on them. Papers are in paper holders and I LOVE the Scrapmaster. I want to try your new Die Cube but it’s not in the budget right now. Great job. Happy Crafting!!
Hi Leslie –
Do you have an HSN credit card? They’ll have the Die File in September, not only will they have a great price, if you use their credit card they’ll break up your purchase into 3 or 4 payments. They usually have $5 shipping on craft day too.
Saw the previous answer about the plastic shelf w the lip for the boards on the slat wall. I have some small slat wall space in my craft room. What other items were used to hold the other punches? Some look like metal, others not sure. Do you know where Kate gets them? link? What a difference you make in this space! And LOL on the pizza!!
Hi Anita – you might have the best luck searching Amazon for slatwall or slatwall accessories. Store Supply.com does carry some. I’m thinking ebay might be a great option also, you may find a small store that is going out of business and willing to part with their accessories at a great price.
Also in interested in the white metal slatwall accessories to hold punches? Do you know the name for those or know if Kate does?
Hi Dakota –
I’m not sure what they are called, but I know Store Supply Warehouse – https://www.storesupply.com/ – sells a full range of slatwall accessories. T.