Workspace Wednesday | Kelsey McEvoy

My home “office”/workspace is nothing fancy – it’s in my kitchen and comprises about 2 square feet of space, and is in a constant state of chaos at all times, mostly because: kids. But also because the main workspace of my home "office" is the dining table, which is already teeny tiny to begin with.

I keep all my memory keeping supplies (a very small collection of stuff) in an Ikea Kallax unit that's laid on it's side and set just beneath the double windows. What you see there is legit all I have. I love memory keeping but it's expensive, which means the vast majority of my collection are papers from Michaels and bits that I hoard from my monthly Studio Calico Documenter kits. The far left cubby of the Kallax shelf holds the kids' craft supplies and the other three cubbies hold mine. My paper cutter, random page protectors and scraps of card stock hang out in one cubby, sheets of paper and card stock hang out in another, and a stack of stickers and small container full of ephemera and embellishments hang out in the other. My main Project Life® album sits on top of the Kallax shelf, as do a random collection of scraps and embellishments.

To the right of the Kallax shelf is my desk, also Ikea (go figure). It's also in a perpetual state of chaos and is nothing fancy. I don't have a huge desk because I really only need it to be big enough to hold my computer.

Because I work at my kitchen table, I don't have the luxury of leaving projects out and working on them at a leisurely pace. Sometimes this really bothers me, but in the end I think it's the best setup for me. If I had a dedicated space to leave half-finished projects open, I'd probably never finish anything! Having a limited workspace that has more than one purpose/use means that I have to be really intentional about whatever I'm working on. I HATE having to pack up a single project a million times just to clear space for dinner or homework (or whatever), so I do my best to only start working on projects when I have the time to occupy the space, and to dedicate wholly to working on that project. That doesn't mean my projects are always completed in one sitting. Ha! Yeah, right. That definitely doesn't usually happen. Usually I have to put away and break out a project at least twice. Having a smaller, dual-use workspace doesn't mean I get everything done at once; it just means I batch together my "project-making time" more efficiently.

So that’s it. Not huge. Not fancy. Not even really “full.” Just tiny, “real,” and messy. Sure, I’d love to have a bigger craft space and stash, but this setup is all I’ve ever known and has worked for me for the last three (going on four) years, so I’m not overly concerned with having my own dedicated crafting space, or a huge stash of supplies. It'd be nice, sure, but having a smaller space and stash has helped me learn to be creative with my time and with my projects. And anyone who knows me knows I'm always up for a good challenge.