Almost Organized Craft Cave

*WARNING* This post contains subject matter that may offend neat freaks, organized people, people that clean up after themselves, people that have aversions or disorders and are irritated by a room full of (what appears to be) trash. That said, enter the Craft Cave...

The Craft Cave, formerly known as my husband home office. We thought it would be a good idea to share, but the room was just not big enough. He switched to his own space, and my crafts and stuff took over. 

It started out as a series of piles, but it quickly got out of hand. I knew we needed to get shelving, but I didn't really have a vision for the space. I STILL don't. There are dozens of arts, crafts and hobbies represented here, as well as bills, coupons, mail, LEGO, and yes, trash.

First my handy hubby built the shelf. We went with IKEA Expedit. I am a big fan of the Expedit shelving. It is sturding, uniform, it comes in several colors shapes and styles to match a variety of decor. It is also super inexpensive. This shelf is only $199.00.

Of course we still managed to spend $350 at IKEA, buying the 10 turquoise bins to go in the shelving (they are only $5.99), green bins (in the background above) which are only $1.49, a couple work tables and some pillows and toys. It is amazing how much you get with your cash a this place! We are huge IKEA fans and once furnished an entire house in an afternoon from beds to kitchen utensils with their website shopping list on my smartphone and a rented moving truck, the day we moved to Florida for 2011 for a project.

We may need more shelves, but I wanted to leave as much free space as possible in the room, so I thought I'd try to fit it all in one large shelf, first, and see...

After building the shelf we pulled everything out of the craft room.

We organized similar things into bins. The IKEA fabric bins are such a pretty color! They also had a lime green which I thought about mixing in but I'm trying to go simple, here, to let crafts and artwork be the star...

We cleaned the room out completely. Goodbye circa 2005 computer armoire. 

I used post-its to indicate how I wanted to start organizing the shelves. I made temp labels on the bins with masking tape and placed them in somewhat of a pattern. I even let hubby weigh in with his two cents.

As the Household Operations Manager, I ultimately let the organizing start to happen organically. That is one of many New Years Resolutions I've made, so we should have an interesting and organized 2014!