The Craft Box Project

So I love being creative and I love crafts. I love coloring, painting (by numbers...I am not that good at painting but still enjoy it), cross stitching, candle making, sewing, photography, jewelry making, knitting, embroidering, and scrapbooking. That is a lot of things to like. I am a little ADD in that I love jumping from project to project but I keep jumping around in a way where I always circle back around so projects do get finished (usually all around the same time) but I have outgrown some crafts and now is the time to declutter because they have been weighing me down.

So let's see how effective the box project is with this session of decluttering.

So this is a lot of stuff. A lot, A LOT of stuff....If you notice I tried to organize things by categorizes so that I could see how much of everything I have.

I know what size box I want. Here is the tub that I am going to be using. It will fit nicely underneath my bed. I also have a sewing basket that I will not be getting rid of because I use it very often and I love it. So the things will be this box (20x13x6), this basket, and my sewing machine (which I do not have a picture of and I am letting a friend barrow it at the moment so lets just use our imagination on that one). 

The box is nothing super spectacular because I just need it to be durable and able to fit under my bed so this box will do nicely.

When decluttering a category that has many subcategories like crafts I list each subcategory from most important to me to least important. This allows me to see where my priorities lie and what I enjoy the most. 

After I see everything all listed out I have a good idea of what subcategories I am going to be giving up completely. You don't have to eliminate any subcategories when you do this (as long as you actually do and enjoy the things that are on the list) but for my peace of mind I need to get rid of some baggage that I have been carrying around for a while and have be from move to move.

So first with so many subcategories in this area if there are any cuts to be made to subcategory....I mean completely wipe them out and give them up, now is the time to do it.

Starting from the bottom of the list where your least important subcategories are I start reflecting and searching for what I actually enjoy and do.

Thinking back while reflecting on number 10 embroidering, I haven't embroidered in a very long time and I enjoy cross stitching more than embroidering anyway. I am completely at peace completely giving that one up.

Number 9 is Knitting. I think to myself, "Well I don't even have any yarn at the moment so that tells you how often I do it. Also I was never very good at it". I found it significantly enjoyable then some of my other categories. I will be cutting the knitting subcategory completely which should be easy since I only have three items.

Jewelry making is number 8. If I am being honest with myself, jewelry making is something I need to let go of. Joshua Becker would say that jewelry making belongs to my dream self not actually me. I wish I was good at it but when I stand and look objectively I know I suck. There isn't really any other way to say it and I have so many other areas that I am either good at or enjoy more. I am sure that I don't want to commit my time to getting better. So that eliminates a third subcategory.

Scrapbooking. Now this is when I start running into some resistance because I did really enjoy it and I have to consult my future self. Figuring out what your past self wants is relatively simple especially when compared to trying to figure out what your future self wants. Will I want to scrapbook in the future? I most likely will but I want to get rid of the things that are easy to replace and that more likely than not I wont need like the Christmas book of paper that you use once a year or the vintage paper that I have outgrown. Its just not my style anymore and that is totally fine. I am keeping this subcategory but seriously pairing it down to the basics.

Now at points 6 (photography) and 7 (scrapbooking) in the list I am running into subcategories that I know I will not be giving up. So now instead of thinking of giving up everything we start paring down the subcategory. I will go back to number one and work my way back down (from 1 to 7) to the last subcategory that I cut completely (i.e. subcategory 8). 

Coloring. I love to color and as you can tell from the picture I like it simple. I am rather particular about my coloring. I like it Disney and for ages around 4+. (not specific at all right..?) I will make a few cuts here because I really like using the basic colors of crayons and every once in a while color pencils.

Before

After

I am kind of in a painting phase right now which is why it ranked so high but I have so few items for it. It is very rare when I paint and when I do I buy a kit so that I don't have to buy paint or brushes. Painting is an interesting category because it kind of only half counts in my mind. I only get a painting when I already have a place I know it is going (in this case my office at work) and since the tools are so cheap they are all  thrown away because they fall apart. This is only my second time painting in like the last eight years so I really don't commit to anything. That is why in a way the painting things will not be counting because in a month there will be no evidence that it every happened in my collection of craft supplies but I will be looking at a (hopefully) lovely painting at work everyday. 

Cross stitching (number 3)...umm I really love cross stitching if you couldn't tell. I think cross stitching took up half of the space in the first photo where everything was combined. However, I have a nasty habit of not finishing often because majority of my cross stitches are time sensitive as in I should be done with it by Christmas. I can definitely pair down in this area. There were a total of 24 cross stitches and I was able to pare it down to 7 so thats a big improvement.

Total 24

Keeping 7 (and two of those are about 75% of the way done)

Candle making looks deceptively big because 70% of the things here were bought early during a sale because this is what I am making my loved ones for Christmas (if your a co-working, a friend, or my amazing mother or mother in law...oops sorry but maybe you will forget by Christmas ;). So all the containers (except the two glass ones and the mason jar) will be gone along with 3 packs of bees wax and two sents. I am only keeping them temporarily (for the next three months) so like the painting I will not really be counting these as something I am keeping just the parts that I will be using for my own personal use.

All candel making supplies (including Christmas gifts)...so basically everything from the line of green to the right will be going away.

The parts that I am keeping just for me. I love using and making candels and now that they are so expensive for the good kinds it saves a lot of money just making them.

Sewing...as I said I have let a friend barrow my sewing machine and I don't have any projects in the works at the moment so there is very little here to start with. We will see how much I can pair down of this already small group. 

Before

After

Number 6 photography. I included photography not because it is crafty but because it is creative and I don't have another area to really include it. So as you can see it is very small to start with. All I have are backgrounds (some of which are wrapping paper and will be used as such when I am done with them), two stands, the camera, and a clicker. I honestly hope to add a good flash in here at some point but as it stands this subcategory cant get any smaller. (until after Christmas that is when all my backgrounds get used up).

And finally we make it back to scrapbooking. The divider between things I am definitely keeping and subcategories I am cutting completely (because lets be real...10 categories is a little ridiculous...I am cool with 6.5 and .5 being the painting that I do once every 4 years). So since I haven't done it in a while but there is a big chance that I will want to do it again in the future I will just try to cut some of the excess or the things that I could live without while still being able to scrapbook well.

This is what I decided to keep.

This is what I am getting rid of.

So lets take a look at the before                        &                        the after!

I love those pictures but I also love this comparison. On the left is what I am keeping and the right is everything that I am parting with. I love when everything I am getting rid of is significantly more than the things I am keeping  (also remember that those three rolls of wrapping paper will be used up in a few months for Christmas).

Keeping

Letting go of

So lets put it away in the box I have chosen. It fits perfectly and if I take out that camera stand the box is really only half full which is great. I will contemplate finding a smaller box and just keeping my camera stand out but for now this makes me very happy.

So just like I did with the makeup many of the craft items were in very very good condition or completely new. For those items I did sell them.

Scrapbooking: Everything here except 3 items were brand new. I sold all this for $60.

Jewelery making: A few of these items were new but I was able to sell the lot for $25.

Cross stitching: I was able to resell these for $40 as I had started 6 of these and many of the little ones only cost me $0.99.

I made $125 off these items with about 2 hours of extra work simply by posting the things on my local buy and sell group on Facebook. I can't wait for what adventure this will go to in the future. I will make sure to let you know what it is.

I would say this decluttering was a success. I got more sanity, space, peace, and some money! Living simply really is the way to go. Check back next Monday for another Minimalist Monday decluttering session with me and the box project! 

I would love to know if I am the only one that had 10 subcategories. I would also love to know what your top three subcategories are so please comment that below. 

Did you see what I did there? ;)