What's a Croset?

Hello everyone, and thank you for coming by to see me!

Do you have a minute?
Because that's pretty much all it takes to tour my craft room. lol!

As a military spouse, I've learned that in order to have your own space,
you need to create your own space.
When we moved from Virginia, I said goodbye to a huge three level home,
including a second dining room-turned-craft room,
and hello to a smaller 5 bedroom home in beautiful South Carolina.

After setting up all the bedrooms, I realized that I needed to find a spot just for me.
After throwing out some ideas of a corner in the family room
(um, no thank you - I'm a messy crafter),
a nook in the kitchen (you know, because I spend my entire day in there anyway),
I decided on an under the stairs closet storage.
My sister and I have lovingly dubbed it my "Croset" (Craft Closet).

Not only did this space keep me in the mix of all the activities on the main floor,
but it had a door, and it was otherwise going to be used to store unnecessary stuff.
And so I claimed it as mine and went to work.
Welcome to my Croset.

Here's the door, right off the foyer
(notice the empty shoe slots in my bench? They're all in school for their last week!).
This space is literally in the center of the home, which I love:

First I removed some of the free standing shelves that the previous tenants used
for storing her larger appliances. Then I got started.
I have two Martha Stewart organizers so I mounted one,
then flipped the other one upside down and slid it right underneath:

,

I grabbed some of my hoarded stored Thirty-One products for storage.
The big one below (nestled in a bookshelf turned on its side) holds my Cuttlebug and Grand Calibur, the side pockets hold all the plates, and larger dies.
My hanging organizer is squeaky clean, because school is almost out - woohoo!
Usually there's scheduled activities, sticky notes, and plastered reminders all over it. :)
The four pockets below hold labels,
sheets and sheets and sheets of printed digital images, ready for me to color up.

I scored a neat IKEA chair from a yard sale, which fits perfectly under my "table" -
an IKEA shelf found in the As Is section for $2. Yay!
It fits just right in my little space, which measure just a wee bit over a yard.
A spice holder has been turned into my smaller embellishment station,
and a Pampered Chef kitchen caddy is now home to my small collection of copics:

For additional storage, I keep ribbon in recycled containers
that were originally intended for Beanie Baby displays. How funny, right? 
A friend gave me a ton of them! I found the chalkboard labels at Michaels,
and I am also a little obsessed with their round pens.
The four buckets hold about forty of my collection. 

And there you have it! My little 3'x5' space keeps me happy and creative,
everything that I need is within a swivel of my chair.
If you're wondering where all of my other stuff is,
there's a full wardrobe closet in the garage that I've actually forgotten about
(I think a craft yard sale is in my future).

Have a great day everyone, if you're ever in the area, stop by to see me!
You can even come over and craft...
although only one person at a time fits in my Croset. teehee!

xoxoxox

~*Joni