Dear Ms. Bead It All,
How do you keep your beading business organized? I am a mess!
please help!
Miss Disorganized
Well, Miss Diss… Ms Bead It All is *always* perfectly organized and properly clean in her workspace. Cleanliness is next to godliness, don’t they say? I will show you how it is done, the Ms. Bead It All way. Above, a picture perfect view of my beading desk, with lots of organizing drawers and compartmented boxes for beads. The sets of drawers under the table roll out, and can be used for extra table space, to put open bead boxes and trays onto while working. I organize my beads by material, and then color: seed beads all in one area, Austrian crystals in several boxes sorted by color, brass/silver/pewter in their own boxes. I try to keep many modular containers so I can pull them out as I need them. I also like to use lunch trays that I bought at a restaurant supply place (I have dozens of them)…they are inexpensive so I can have lots of them, each for a different project, and when not in use, they stack up. Handy true light flip light in the center of the table is mandatory, as well as the tunes and the little trash bowl on the table, to catch those little cord ends and empty bags and other bead trash (a tip learned from Rachel Ray in her cooking shows)
On the other side of this room, which was once a dining room (who needs to sit and eat when they can bead?) there is another important part of the business, the shipping area. This space gets used daily, and has folders to organize the business paperwork and receipts, drawers with packing materials for shipping. The trays on the left side are for organizing customer bead orders. Shipping can be a real chore, but it is easier when everything is at hand in a space like this. See more of the Studio Tour over on the Earthenwood Studio Chronicles blog, including the beadmaking spaces, as I continue taking pictures as I do my spring cleaning (oops, I mean as I casually document my studio in its totally unstaged, natural working state *wink*).
WAIT! What are you doing? OOPS! Don’t open that drawer! No! My secret is out! The telltale sign of how things REALLY are when not staged for a photo opportunity…the shameful beadjunk stash. *sigh* oh well, I guess nobody is perfect, not even Ms. Bead It All!
Ms. Bead-It-All is the sassy alter ego of Melanie Brooks Lukacs, who is the ceramic beadmaker of Earthenwood Studio, who blogs from her Metro Detroit, Michigan home.
Heather Powers
April 18, 2008 at 2:25 pmLooks like a great space to create in Ms. Bead-it-all! Thank you for being the beacon of organizational light for those us who have way more than a messy drawer!!!
*melanie* earthenwood studio
April 18, 2008 at 2:58 pmThanks Heather. Honestly, this is SO staged for this photo op, its not even close to true to lift! And while it is nice to see the space neat and tidy as I always imagine it in my mind, it is a little intimidating to sit down and work in such a clean area, LOL! I am afraid to mess it up!
manamoon
April 18, 2008 at 5:32 pmThis was fabulous and horribly discouraging for someone who’s work space looks like the interior of that box!
Thanks for the posting though – it’s good to have things to aspire to! 🙂
~Sharon
*melanie* earthenwood studio
April 18, 2008 at 6:16 pmWell I am glad to inspire you! Check into my blog this week to see more of the studio space, and you will see where I crammed everything to make these two spaces work so well! HAHA!
Dan Englander
April 19, 2008 at 1:56 amHow are you organizing the receipts you need? Have you tried online receipts? If so, I think you might find my site helpful. Visit us at http://www.shoeboxed.com!
Thanks for the post. It looks like you have a great space there!
Dan Englander
http://www.shoeboxed.com
Miachelle
April 24, 2008 at 10:24 pmI wish my studio table looked that clean and elegant! 🙂 Green with envy!