If you’ve ever watched one of my Friday LIVE projects and wondered what the rest of my workspace looks like, today I’m taking you behind the scenes! My workshop has changed a LOT over the years. What started as a place for me to create has also become the space where I store supplies, organize napkins, prep projects, pack orders, and run much of My Home Matters. And while I would never claim that it stays perfectly organized all the time, I’ve learned a few things about creating systems that make sense for the way I actually work.

Take the Full Workshop Tour

Before we start looking at some of my favorite organization ideas, you can come along with me for the complete tour in this video! Remember, I've been doing this for well over 10 years now, so this has been an accumulation of ideas and products the entire time, not all at once.

I’ll show you around the entire space, including some areas that definitely aren't Pinterest perfect. This is a working workshop, and everything in it has evolved based on what I need to store, create, ship, or grab quickly.

Here are a few of the organization ideas you'll see along the way.

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Organizing Craft Supplies Where I Can See Them

One thing I’ve learned about myself is that if I can see my supplies, I’m much more likely to actually use them.
That’s why so many of my most-used supplies live out in the open.

A lot of the storage you see behind me during my Friday LIVEs comes from IKEA. I use KALLAX cube units along with SKÅDIS pegboards and several of the coordinating hooks, containers and accessories. I love that I can change things around as my needs change.

Paints are grouped together, frequently used tools hang within reach, and small wooden pieces are stored in clear containers. The pegboards also let me use the wall instead of taking up valuable work-surface space.

I especially love clear storage for all those little pieces that can disappear into a drawer and be forgotten.

The goal isn't necessarily to make every container pretty. I want to be able to look at it and know exactly what I have.

2. Give the Really Small Stuff a Home

Buttons, flowers, beads and tiny embellishments can turn into chaos very quickly!

These little clear drawers have been such a simple solution. I can organize pieces by color or type and see what I have without digging through bags and bins.

I also love these metal drawers to have a place for all of my napkin scraps. We know that one napkin can be used multiple times, so this allows me to categorize them by season or theme. 

This is one of those systems that works whether you have an entire craft room or just one corner of a room.

3. Use Vertical Space Whenever You Can

When floor space is limited, I start looking UP. Pegboards, wall-mounted containers, shelves and even the sides of furniture have all given me extra storage without taking up another inch of floor space.

I love having scissors and tools right where I use them. It saves me from constantly walking across the workshop looking for something.

And let's be honest. Putting something back is much more likely to happen when its home is two feet away!

I've also learned to make use of some awkward spaces. My rolling utility cart is also from IKEA and is tucked into a corner, but because it's on wheels, I can pull the entire thing out when I need to get to something on it or on the shelving beside it. It lets me use a spot that otherwise wouldn't be very practical.

4. Keep Your Most Used Supplies Closest

Not everything deserves prime real estate.

My paints, glues, Mod Podge, scissors, tools and other supplies I reach for regularly are easy to access.

Supplies I use less frequently can live higher, lower, or farther away.

This sounds simple, but it's probably one of the biggest things that has helped my workshop function better. Organizing isn't just deciding where something fits. It's deciding where it makes sense for the way you use it.

5. Behind the Scenes: How We Organize Our Shop Inventory

The other half of this space has a completely different job. In addition to being my crafting workshop, this is also where we organize and store most of the inventory for the My Home Matters online shop. And THAT requires a whole different set of systems!

Where New Inventory Starts

When new napkins and wood pieces arrive, they don't immediately go onto our regular inventory shelves. One of the top rows of one of my IKEA KALLAX units are basically our staging area.

Each cardboard bin holds something different that needs to be bundled and added to inventory. This makes it easy for my team to know which napkins belong together in a bundle or which wood pieces need to be packaged together.

Just last week, many of these bins were filled with our new Christmas napkins and bundles waiting to be put together. Now that we have worked through most of those, the finished bundles have moved over to their regular inventory storage.

Keeping Track of the Extras

The lower cubes, along with another KALLAX unit beside them, hold more of those same cardboard bins, but these have a completely different purpose.

They're organized by categories like Christmas, Winter & St. Patrick's Day, Spring & Easter, florals and patterns.

This is where we keep the extra individual napkins left from our bundles, and it actually helps me tremendously when it's time to reorder.

If we're getting low on a particular bundle, I can check that category and see that maybe I have five of one napkin, ten of another and twenty-five of another. That gives me a much better idea of exactly what I need to reorder to make more complete bundles.

It's a pretty simple system, but it works!

My Team's Side of the Workbench

The opposite side of my workbench is where my team works on bundling and restocking inventory.

Underneath their side, cardboard bins hold many of our staple wood blanks and bases, including large and small tags, book stacks, chunky squares, framed backgrounds and more.

The shelving behind them keeps smaller wood pieces and embellishments within easy reach. Candle cups, risers, banner blanks, coasters, layering pieces, hardware and lots of those little items that go into your orders all have designated homes.

At the end of the workbench, I've also used smaller stacking bins for things like shelf-sitter cutouts and bundles of layering shapes.

Just like on my crafting side, the goal is to keep the things we use most often close to where the work actually happens.

Where All the Napkins Live

And then there are the napkins!

Four IKEA ALEX drawer units hold our individual napkins, organized by theme and season.

Between those drawers and the workbench, I've squeezed in two rolling mesh shoe organizers. One currently holds the different sizes of cellophane bags my team uses when bundling products. The other holds out-of-season napkin bundles, like Spring and Easter.

I love finding storage pieces that work for something completely different from what they were originally designed to do!

Our current-season finished napkin bundles need to be much easier to access. The large wooden shelves my husband built extend from my crafting area into my team's side of the workshop, so we've dedicated that portion to finished Fall and Christmas bundles.

Those large cardboard bins can hold somewhere around 100 to 200 bundles each, which means we can keep quite a bit of inventory ready for orders without taking up additional floor space.

For other napkin bundles, I use hanging organizers.

One of my favorite lessons from organizing this space is that you don't have to use an organizer for what it was originally intended for. This dresser (also from IKEA: the Gullaberg Dresser).

An over-the-door shoe organizer doesn't have to hold shoes! Those pockets happen to be a great size for storing and separating napkins.

And yes, apparently sometimes it can hold shoes AND napkins!

One of My Favorite Storage Pieces Has a Story

One storage piece in this area definitely didn't come from IKEA!

My dad made this dollhouse-shaped set of wooden shelves for my childhood bedroom many years ago. Today, it has a completely different job. The shelves hold small plastic drawers filled with individual layering pieces and some of our itty-bitty wood shapes.

I added casters to the bottom because the shelf sits in front of the opening to an old stairwell. Now it almost acts like a rolling door. I can move the entire thing aside when I need to access the storage area behind it.
Inside that little space, we keep the things we don't need very often, including bulk workshop supplies, extra glue, Mod Podge and brushes, seasonal packing materials and overflow supplies.

I love that something my dad built for me so many years ago is still being put to work in my business today.

How We Pull Your Orders

Once an order comes in, we have another system for keeping everything separated before it gets packed.

For orders that include wood pieces, we use individual bins that live in another cube organizer closer to our packing area. We print the packing slips, pull the items for each order and keep everything together in its own bin.

Napkin-only orders are a little different. We use plastic bins on a rolling shelf near the napkin inventory. We'll pull the bundles for one order, place the packing slip on top, then pull the next order and continue stacking them until the bin is full.

That lets us pull several orders efficiently while still keeping every customer's items separated.

6. And Finally...Packing It All Up!

This workshop isn't only where I craft. It's also where your My Home Matters orders get ready to head out the door!

I keep mailers, bags, labels, shipping supplies and boxes together so I'm not gathering things from all over the basement every time I pack an order.

And because boxes take up SO much room, I store as many of them flat as possible.

It's not necessarily the prettiest part of the workshop, but it's one of the hardest-working parts!

Once an order has been pulled, it heads over to our packing station on the finished side of the basement. We keep the things we use constantly right within reach here too. Boxes and mailers are stored above the desk, labels are on a wall-mounted rod, packing paper is tucked into a drawer, and tape and other packing supplies all have their own spot. Even the computer is raised up so we don't lose valuable counter space!

7. Create Categories That Make Sense to YOU

This might be my biggest organization tip:  You don't need someone else's perfect craft-room system.

You need a system that makes sense to your brain.

Some of my labels are handwritten. Some containers match. Some don't. Some storage pieces were designed for something completely different.

But I know where things are. And that's the point.

If you're constantly fighting an organization system or can't remember where you put something, the system probably isn't working for you.

Now that you've had a peek behind the scenes, you can take a look at all of the napkins, project blanks, bundles and other goodies we're keeping organized and ready to send your way!

A Working Space Is Always a Work in Progress

My workshop has gone through many versions, and I'm sure this won't be the last one!

As My Home Matters has grown, I've moved things, added storage, changed categories and figured out better ways to use the space I have.

I hope seeing behind the scenes gives you a few ideas you can borrow for your own craft space, whether you have an entire room, a basement workshop like mine, or a couple of shelves tucked into a corner.

And if you watched the video tour and spotted an organization idea you want to know more about, leave me a comment. I may just have to turn it into another post!

#CreateInspireBeWell