I’ve been posting about this on Threads and BlueSky, but it needs a whole post.

We bought our house almost 20 years ago. One of the things I decided I wanted in any place we’d buy was a studio space. We fell in love with this house and a section of the basement was divided off from the rest of the basement, it even had a workbench and shelves. Perfect.

I used it, and it appeared regularly in my videos, daily. Up until I went to grad school. Then I was too busy to use it. Though it still was used to stash my supplies. Then I started my new career and it was used less and less.

It became a dumping ground for all things art supplies and tools. Over the last few years it’s really piled up. We also had a pipe burst on the other side of the basement.

Oh also, mice. The city I live in had an explosion in mouse and rat population around 5 years ago and we had an infestation. (I feel embarrassed to write this.) It was dealt with but left marks.

That is to say it has left holes in the basement walls and thin areas of concrete.

When I did my values journaling at the end of 2024 I determined that getting serious on my own art practice was necessary for my happiness. One of the goals I wrote down was, “Studio.” Initially I was thinking about getting a studio outside of the house. The Art Association I joined has then for just under $200 a month. Then I did laundry and looked at my little studio.

Spending $200 a month was really about avoiding dealing with the mess of my studio. Also, my studio space is already here and larger than any $200 studio I could get.

So I decided to dedicate the first half of my first week off this summer to cleaning the studio and organizing it and getting rid of stuff that is broken and doesn’t work. I’m also figuring out a spot to put the tools that need charging.

So far I have:

• Removed all the recycling and trash only to have the sanitation workers for my city to go on strike. (It’s all currently sitting on my lawn, a little bit wet.)
• Organized stuff into large and small bins that lock and are watertight.
• Cleaned out and started to utilize a tight space that we never used, it has opened up a lot of space.
• Realized that I have some hobbies that I’ll never use again- largely the brewing supplies for beer and wine. Some of them, like beer bottles I’ll use for kombucha but the 5 gal carboys and 1 gal carboys and wine bottles will get listed on FB Marketplace and C-list for cheap* or free.
• I also have a lot of tools that I don’t want to keep in the garage- due to the cost of them and also batteries in unheated and uninsulated garage. Once the brewing supplies get cleared out I’ll be able to put the tools where the brew supplies went.
• I will also need to get more bins to store the tools. I might need to get some shelf dividers for organizing the tools.
• I also realize that the table that I hate can be cut down to a height that works for me. AND I have the tools to do it!
• I discovered that I have two packages of 140lb fabriano watercolor paper and one package of 90lb fabriano watercolor paper. I know one is a 10 pack and the others may also be. I remember when I bought them on sale for under $5 a sheet. Big money for me 20 years ago. But today those same sheets are around $10 a sheet. So worth more today. The packages are sealed.
• A lot of the recycling is paper and sketchbook that were stored in cardboard boxes that got damp when the pipe broke. The paper itself doesn’t look bad but it smells horrible.
• ​I found a lot of dried out glue and paint containers.

This is a good warning to use it or lose it. I don’t even want to think about the amount of money I’ve wasted in dried out glue, paint, and damaged paper that are now sitting on my lawn waiting for trash collection.

I’m also kicking myself. A lot of the paper would be fine if I had stored it in plastic bins. I also didn’t think that I’d not use that paper quickly.

From now on, I’ll be switching everything over to being stored in plastic bins with cardboard inside them for further organization. Also, everything is getting LABELED with what is in the bin and box within. I have realized that my memory is imperfect when it comes to remembering everything and where it is.

A good thing about my new, “I need to use this space,” mentality is that anything that isn’t aligned with my current art practices is getting donated, to my DayJob.

I am also looking at how I can effectively light a basement for making art and recording art making videos. I remember it being really hard to record down there because of the lighting.

This project feels like it has a million moving parts. I have art supplies in the office, living room and the studio. each time I move one part, 2 more parts need moving too.

I’m at the half way point of THIS vacation and I feel like the project is more than half done. I’ll be able to chip away on it over the next weekends and by the time August is here it should be ready to use. The goal is for it to be fully ready for fall.

*Some of the carboys and equipment were gifted to us and will be gifted to someone else. If you know someone local who wants a bunch of brewing supplies hit me up.