TL;DR
This small room in a craftsman home had to work as a laundry room, craft and storage area, and production space for a home-based baby accessories business. Kathi gave the business the most space, moved unrelated items off the counter into side cabinets, stored crafts by how often they are used and created a sewing zone.
Situation: This room needed to function as a laundry room, crafts and storage area as well as the production area for a home-based business. Although the home is beautiful, it is small craftsman built back when closets and all rooms were very small.
Challenge: My client has a popular line of gorgeous baby accessories including burp towels and bibs but does not have a lot of room to create and sew as the orders come in.
Solution: We divided and conquered this room by first determining which activities were most important within this space. After deciding that the home-based business needed as much space as possible, we re-contained and moved every unrelated item up and off the counter and into the side cabinets. We decided which shelves should hold which craft based on the frequency they were needed. The more frequent gift wrapping and card-making supplies were stored in the shelves at eye level.
Once the counter was clear, we were able to sort and organize all fabrics and place them within the sewing zone to the right and under the counter.
As you can see in the photo below, we still have an area for miscellaneous projects and tools in the side cabinet.
The one thing I love about craftsman cottages is that once you can organize and look beyond their small size, they often have exceptional built-in storage areas!
Keep reading
- Organizing a Home Based BusinessSetting up a home office that keeps work and family life apart.
- A Space Efficient Way to Organize Office SuppliesA rolling supply cart for an office that shares a guest room.
Frequently asked questions
How do I organize a room that has several jobs?
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Start by deciding which activities matter most in the space. In this room, the home-based business needed as much space as possible, so everything unrelated was moved up and off the counter into the side cabinets.
How should I decide which shelf holds which supplies?
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Store supplies by how often you use them. Here, the gift-wrapping and card-making supplies used most often went on the shelves at eye level, and less-used projects and tools went into a side cabinet.
How can I fit a sewing business into a small room?
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Clear the counter first, then sort the fabrics and keep them all in one sewing zone, in this case to the right of and under the counter. Kathi notes that small craftsman homes often have very good built-in storage once you look past their size.
