Going to Pieces

On a good day --a very, very good day -- this is how my office/studio could look.  I say "could" because it would have required extreme effort on my part to keep the work table clean, and to keep that spot on the left next to my computer monitor free of papers and miscellaneous stuff waiting for handling. 

But, as I've mentioned, I now have the room to expand.  The computer desk you see on the left there (a big corner unit), and a table that you don't see, has been moved to another bedroom down the hall.  So I have two dedicated spaces: one for sewing, and the other for work, computer business -- but wait, there's more!  That office now holds a table which I hope to use as a dedicated space for painting.  I can hardly believe it.

Yesterday, the main project was to wrestle the furniture out of one room into the other, and to get the computer hooked up and running.  I will add that, in preparation for that, I painted the office a lovely color and touched up all of the white trim.  As long as I had the trim painting in hand, I went around the house, touching up nicks and dents and scrapes so things like all white and clean.   As it turned out, moving the furniture required taking the doors off of the hinges, removing the feet and some miscellaneous parts from the desk, and basically shoving it through at one point.  But here are a few lessons learned: 1) Move furniture first, THEN do the paint touch up.  I'll have to get out the paint again to deal with a few (ahem) gouges at the edge of the door frame.  2) A silicone ironing sheet does not work as a furniture slider.  Yes, I tried, and no, it didn't really make a difference.  Good idea, though, huh?

Today was dedicated to taking the studio from a full-out disaster zone to reasonably tidy.  No, I didn't take pictures.  But I did fill a whole lot of garbage bags, and in case you need a picture, here you go:

At some point, mystified by some marks on the work table that wouldn't come clean, I remembered I had some of these Mr Clean eraser thingies downstairs.  I went and fetched one, and lo and behold, it worked miraculously.  I don't know what magic product these sponges have in them, but they clean amazing things.  And so that lead me to a somewhat frenzied excursion around the house, swiping away with a Mr Clean eraser and chortling gleefully at how stains or marks I had resigned to being permanent just wiped away.

Cleaning with these is weirdly addictive, and I say that as someone who is decidedly NOT a good cleaner.  The weird rust-like stains on my white enameled bread box?  Gone like magic.  The scuff marks at the bottom of the door to the hall closet?  Vanished.  At one point Miss C came downstairs to remind me it was time for our trip to the animal shelter for volunteer kitty time, and I found it hard to stop cleaning.

Hah.  I know.  I think I'll have to check at Costco to see if they sell these things in bulk.  If you don't hear from me in a week or two, send help -- I might be doing laps around the house, eraser in hand, scanning for marks to clean.

I will post pictures when things are settled.  But for now, I'm enjoying the new space and feeling proud of myself for all of the stuff I'm purging and the dirt I'm erasing. 

I think I deserve a hot bath and a brownie tonight.