The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!

OR, can I please get be on an episode of "Hoarders" and get some help!!  Welcome to the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.  My play room, that's the good.  When we planned to build our house, DH promised me a room of my own to do all my "playing in".  Scrapbooking, stamping, sewing, Wii playing, movie watching, all go on in this room.  I've had to share it from time to time and unfortunately, sometimes it becomes a messy catch all room.

My play room is over our garage.  It is a very large room.  In this photo, my scrapbooking area is on the left, work space for me and company is in the middle, and my sewing area is on the right.  The window was free so DH used it in this room.  It is huge and in dire need of some kind of treatment other than just mini blinds.

This is the scrapbooking side of the room.  The cabinets are bathroom sink cabinets purchased at Lowes on clearance.  The counter is 10, maybe 12 foot counter top.  Total cost less than $300.  DH installed shelving above the counter and cabinets and I hung a bulletin board in the center.  I never sit and work at the counter.  I use it mostly for storage and work at the table.

 

There are drawers on the bottoms of the cabinets which are perfect for storing my rubber stamp sets.  The doors above also store stamp sets and idea books.  With too many hobbies and not enough time, I have pretty much given up stamping.  I'm considering trying to sell my stamping collection.

The counter is the perfect place for using my Cricut.  The shelves above still have some stamping supplies on them.

Now, moving along to the bad.  This is the area under the window.  I bought the cubes at Target and they are currently storing scrapbook page refills and albums.  It's a messy area and I don't like it.  Scrapbook bags for when I go on weekend retreats and boxes of photos and memorabilia make the space look clutered.  We have a climate controlled storage closet in the upstairs of the main part of the house.  It is currently being used to store junk...stuff we don't use.  The intended purpose for the closet is to store things we do use.  A yard sale next Saturday is going to take care of that problem.  Once I clear out that closet of the "hoarding", I should be able to store some of this stuff in there.

The right side of the room is my sewing area.  Not too fancy, it just recently became my sewing area with the  purchase of my most awesome sewing machine.  The wooden chairs you see were saved from the kitchen table I replaced last summer. The table went to the dump but I saved the chairs.  They are in decent condition and are more comfortable than the folding chairs I had before.  The cabinet you see is a computer cabinet.  It contains a desktop pc that no one uses anymore.  The table to the left in the photo has a scanner and printer on it.  They have to be moved when someone comes over to play with me.  I need to find a way to get them into that cabinet!  Far right of photo, you see the stereo on the floor.....something needs to be done with that.  I don't use it.  All of my cd's are on my ipod and I have a docking station up there that I use for listening to music.  Another "hoarding" issue.  I am afraid to get rid of it because that will leave me with no way to play cd's except on a pc.

Close up of my sewing area.  Dull and boring!  To the left in the photo is more clutter!  Personal and business paperwork, some in the rubbermaid containers, some not.  This is something else that needs to be organized and stored in the upstairs closet.  To the far right in the photo you will see more clutter.  Just beyond the clutter is my DD's air hockey table, DH's dartboard cabinet, DVD shelves, and the staircase.  Also more clutter that has to be dealt with.  AKA, stuff that does not belong in my playroom!

My bookcase.  It doesn't look quite as messy in person as it does in this photo.  This bookcase is very sentimental.  DH made it for me in his high school wood shop class when we were dating!  In case of fire, everything on it and including the bookcase must be taken out!!  Top shelf is my collection of Monopoly games and an old Christmas quilt that was done completely by hand.  My mother found it at a yard sale years ago for about a buck.  She gave it to me a year or two ago before she got too bad off.  I take good care of it in honor of the person who put so much love and work into it only to have it sold at a yard sale!  On the bottom shelf are scrapbooks I have completed.

You've seen the good and the bad, now for the ugly!  What a mess!  This is the front of the room.  We used to have a full size couch here and an exercise machine but both have since gone to new homes.  Still have the tv for watching movies and playing the Wii.  Do I have a problem with tote bags??  I should be ashamed to even post this photo!  This is where I keep my cross stitch fabric, threads, charts, crochet patterns (yarn is in the aforementioned closet).  Each tote bag has a project of some kind in it, as do the baskets and there is a pile of empty tote bags too.  More photo storage boxes and cd storage boxes.  They all need to be stored in the closet once it is rid of the hoarded junk.  I think a nice antique dresser or small cabinet of some kind would be a nice replacement for the white plastic drawer thing.  Ok, so maybe it's not as bad as you see on hoarders.....but to me it is an overwhelming mess.  I need simple, inexpensive ideas to help me get my play room to be the best room it can be!!!!
Dinner and a movie tonight with DH and DD, something yummy and Iron Man 2.  Spending tomorrow with the rest of the family and going around visiting our Mom's.  I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day!