Introduction
So i’ll admit it has been quite some time since I written a “State of the Crazy”, knowing its been at least over a month since my last update I figured it was about time. Strangely I have felt like the majority of March & April have been a whirlwind of a lot of things happening but not necessarily cool & flashy project completions. Instead I have been predominately focused on the inevitable enemy of every tabletop gamer: Storage and Organization.
Like every aspect in life, eventually the issue of storage becomes a primary concern. Either in your kitchen with that drawer of miscellaneous utensils and tools you don’t know where to put, or organizing your closet, insert that place that holds all the junk that doesn’t have home. This issue is no different than the hobbyist and crafter. But how in the world can you stay organized and make sure you aren’t accidently buying a tool or material you already own?
Storage and organization is probably my largest issue when it comes to the hobby. Not knowing if I have the tool, material, models, etc and continuously buying or making more because I am not organized is the largest point of waste in my space. Also admittedly mess.
I mean how many goblins do I really need? Continuously making more because I need 12 models for session on Saturday and they are scattered throughout a series of boxes instead of organized by monster type has really hurt both my time management as well as backlog. I now have WAY more than 12 goblin models laying around the house due to constantly making more. Please never buy me skeletons or goblins.
Now that I have a small assistant in my house who loves to explore. Storage has become even more of an issue. How can I protect models, figures, and even him from the destruction? It has become an ever-growing issue. The most concerning is safety. With resin, sharp objects, and even boxes I must think of ways to keep my kiddos safe. Even the other day he pulled a box off the shelf of scatter terrain and cut his head on the lid, poor guy. He even thinks of himself a crafter and gets upset if I’m in my chair and will commonly “push” me off until he can climb into it.
Why Now?
If this is an ever present issue that never seems to end. Why the current crusade for storage and organization and why is it important to me now? Well in short I believe that I am currently struggling with a deep biological drive called “nesting”. As a 9 month expectant mother i’ll just say hormones are…. strange. Even though I’ve had other plans such as my Wood painting deepdive for the month of April. All previous plans got derailed for the time being. For the last month or so I can hardly focus on anything but organizing. However, this biological need to organize and prepare my house for a new baby is manifested almost exclusively into my hobby. Since I already have a young son not much in the house is needed to be updated or changed. Instead, I’m working on improving my space. I’ve even gone as far to ask several of my “mommy friends” if I am just going crazy and apparently nesting in strange places such as your workplace office is not uncommon for second children. So well here goes what I’ve been doing.
Over the course of the last month, I’ve been working on improving 3 main categories.
- My hobby desk
- Miniature Storage
- Project workflow & Completion
Issues 1 & 2 are current active problems with either my current mass production tendencies and/or the assistant’s curious hands. Giving myself a deeper area to work would allow me to get more things off the floor and easier to find items in the long term. The miniature storage aim is to make it easy to find miniatures along with keeping them safe for long term storage.
Issue 3 is entirely based on the mentality that I just won’t remember what I was working on once the newborn arrives (t-minus less than 30 days!) Being so sleep deprived might completely make me forget, where I was on a project, what is next, and where to find things.
Goals when tackling the issues.
- Staying organized to know where hobby tools & materials are located?
- Keeping those tools in a safe location away from my small assistant’s hands until he is big enough
- Stay cost effective
- In some cases be able to easily move into an outdoor shed for long term storage.
- How to I remember what specific step I was on for a piece of a project.
Storage & Organization solutions are different for everyone and the most popular and common solutions I find are people with essentially a library of bookshelves full of miniatures and terrain. While I think these wide sweeping shelves full of terrain and miniatures look amazing. I do not have the space for that and know that the tiny humans in my home would get into WAY too many things.
The location of my storage is currently predominately in our large outdoor shed. If It is not being actively worked on, or in use. I need to be able to about to transport from crafting station to shed to play space easily. Also, since almost all of my hobby time is after kiddo goes to bed I also have to be able to navigate in the dark to find the specific box I’m looking for. The space is not insulated as well so can be cold depending on time of year. Organization and labeling is key.
Since this undertaking has been so extensive and can tap into numerous discussions i’ve decided to break this write up smaller consumable chunks that could be referenced or read as interested. Also when writing this post I realized how incredibly long it was.
I don’t think any system is perfect and overall my goals are still a long work in progress. However the changes i’ve been working on have been essentially the last two months of my hobbying.
In the future I am hoping to do more Works IN Progress posts which will be better reflective as to what I’m working on while also making these types of updates easier to write and keep up to date with.
As always thank you for hanging out with me throughout the process!
Sincerely,
Crazmadsci
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