It’s Sunday and my kids have both gone back to school. Time to dig into some work to avoid being sad! So after Marcus drove off this morning, I looked at my to-do list and saw “clean out the shed”. This is a good one that I’ve been putting off for about 3 months and a perfect way restart now that the kids are gone again.
When I moved my office space from the house to the shed I had to downsize considerably from the big bedroom with lots of room to a really tiny space – about 8×12 (less than 1/2 the square footage of the old office). And at the time even that original office-space was in need of a clean out. So I grabbed Marie Kondo’s book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” from my public library and got busy seeing what still ‘sparked joy’ for me amongst all my crap. It worked great. I went from a bunch of crap to a lot less crap – mostly drawing-crap and a few books and kick knacks. I even kept going with the “Kon-Mari” madness and cleaned out my closet, a few junk drawers and reorganized my dresser. (note: I still keep my dresser really neat and love folding clothes vertically rather than horizontally – life changing honestly)
But as it happens – more stuff comes in than goes out and in no time, the place is full of crap again. So, my goal was to do another hard decluttering. Success! About 3 hours of pulling everything out, dusting (so much dust) and vacuuming, I took a huge pile of trash out and an even bigger pile of books out to the recycling bin.
In the process, I decided it’s time for a redesign of whole my setup. It started with the east end of the shed, the side that is behind me when I work – it’s really totally wasted space.
Yes I have a really nice chair, and ottoman, and an easel but I never really use any of it. I’ve painted out here maybe 3-4 times in the 6 years I’ve been out here and I barely ever sit on the chair. A few times, I have had visitors sit there with me but that is pretty rare and I just think I could do a lot better with the space. Maybe a couch with storage underneath? That would cover visitors, give me more storage and even give me another napping spot!
On the West end, (pictured above) everything is pretty good, I just need to tweak the design to make it even better. My home made desk is fine but sagging in the middle. My original desk design had space for cable management in the back – which works but is impossible to access easily. Then I think I could extend the overhead shelves to span most of the west wall – giving me a few more feet of space. Who knows….Time to watch a bunch of videos and get inspired! Below is an oldie that was part of the original inspiration behind the shed build – It’s a really badass little shed (and she has a couch too!) and then the classic Tom Sachs’ love letter to plywood is good to get excited about building stuff.
