Organized Work Space

I talked about moving my work space into the family room in an earlier post. Well I finally finished (for now!) organizing my beads and findings. I know I'm always very curious about how others organize and use their space, so I thought I would share how I organized mine.

Everything is against one wall in plastic storage drawers.

The large set of drawers on the far right contains paperwork, shipping and packaging materials and tools that I use occasionally. The four 3-drawer units in the center contain most of my beads organized by color. I have one or two drawer for each color: red, pink, orange, yellow, green (2), blue, purple, brown, black/grey, white/clear, mixed/multi. Most of the beads are stored in see through acrylic boxes. This system works well for me. The drawers come out easily so I can look through them, or I can pull out individual boxes and put them together until I find my inspiration. Previously I stored my beads in ziploc bags, but the beads are so much easier to see, and prettier to look at too, in the acrylic boxes.

One of the bead drawer units.

Here is the inside of one of the green drawers.

I have seperate 3-drawer units for sterling silver and copper beads and components. They are organized by findings, beads/spacers and chain/bead-caps/misc.
Other drawer units hold other types of metal findings, stringing materials, focal beads, metallic beads etc. I'm sure as time goes by I'll make some changes, but this is working very well for me right now, and it makes it very easy to clean up after a creative session.

Not shown in the pictures is a portable file box that is stored under the desk. Inside are hanging file folders. I have my stash of wire stored there, seperated by type (sterling, copper, brass) and gauge.

Well, that's how my space is organized. If you are curious how another artist organized her space, check out how Lily of Tulip's Treasure Box organized hers.