I'll admit it right here. I'm a pack rat. Working in recycled materials only gives my pack rattiness permission. 2 weeks ago when I shot the bookbinding UStream I carefully arranged my cameras so that the viewers could not see the abject misery my studio suffers. My towering stack of boxes of paper had been ransacked for supplies and some of my supplies had never come out of their boxes when we moved. Posters sat in tubes and folds waiting for me to do SOMETHING with them, all stacked in one sad pile to the far corner of my studio. My large workbench, something I take great pride in telling you I refinished MYSELF when we first moved into the house sat unused, not because I don't love it but becuase I haven't seen it's top in months because stuff was piled on it.

After seeing a hoarder's clip on YouTube I realized I'm one step away from collecting my urine in pails and storing it in the studio.*

So I've been planning on buying shelves for sometime now and this is a great time of year to get cheap shelving. Back to school means back to college and that means cheap shelving. Anyway. I managed I find cheap wooden shelves of ok quality at homedepot for $20 each. I picked up 3. It's a splurge but totally worth it. I spent last night moving the giant pile of supplies and paper to the OTHER corner of the studio. I put together 2 of the shelves and started to go through some of the boxes of supplies, stuff I need put into 1 box, stuff I don't in another box. Trash is going into a big ass trashbag.

Art supplies are going on the 2 shelves at the far end of the studio, paper in the closet, and bookbinding supplies on the other shelf next to the closets and the papercutting table. The rolling table will live next to the drawers when I'm not using it, when I am it'll roll out and be used. Various other supplies will get permanent homes as well. When I have a place to put stuff I put it there but when I don't I let it float around and gather places. I might even get out the lable maker…

As I move from my recycled bookbinding** and back into drawing and painting I realize I need fewer supplies and less stuff hanging around. I need pencils, charcoal, pens, paint and the stuff to put it on. Similar to art journaling "fine" art needs fewer supplies. Likewise, bookbinding doesn't need many but paper and thread etc, but the recycled portion of it takes more and paper takes up a lot of space, esp when you start buying it by the case.

I go through periods of simplification in my life, I'm in one now. I'm evaluating what I need and don't need. I'm sure some stuff will end up on the swap and classifieds section of the ArtJournaling.ning.com site and some on eBay.

Really it's good to simplfy and pare it all down to the essentials.

*Wouldn't that be something, but I'm not that bad. But this guy in the UK was urinating into jugs and deficating into 5 gal pails and storing it in his back shed. The neighbors would call the cops ever so often, usually when the smell got too horrid.

**I'm seriously burnt out on bookbinding. I've been doing it for over 10 years and I'm kinda sick of people being able ot offer lower prices than mine because they can afford to NOT support themselves on their art/craft. Or they just undervalue their work. Whatever. Tired of fighting the battle and too tired to deal with people telling me my stuff is too "expensive." I have  aselect few peopel that I will make journals for, they know who they are.