So I am officially moving to Peninsula, Ohio, which means I will be a full time country mouse! I look back at my city mouse days which included the bay area, NYC, and Boston, and now I am moving to a town of about 600 (well now 602). Peninsula is this really cool little town surrounded by a national park, thus why it doesn’t really grow in size. My new backyard is basically this huge hill side with a million trees and a creek. It is hands down the best backyard I have ever had! I will be going from city water to well water….yeah that’s right I said WELL, as in hole in the grown with natural water!!! These are big changes for me!
Although I cannot wait to move into the new house, there is that whole part about the actual act of moving that I am dreading. Moving sucks. There is just no way around it. Boxes, tape, heavy lifting, the dust, a big truck, and wrapping everything fragile in newspaper is something I could do without.
Over the last week I have been packing up boxes and boxes of books (which is really making me rethink some of my spending habits), frames, clothes, kitchen ware, and so forth. But by far the worst thing has been packing up my studio. Who knew I had so much crap in there. The whole time I was packing yesterday I kept thinking to myself “didn’t you just move here a year and a half ago? And how is it possible that you have accumulated more stuff in such a short amount of time?” With as much paper as I have in my studio some would confuse me with a hoarder I am sure!
So I have decided to be cut throat about what stays and what goes. I am going by what I like to call the Month Rule. If I haven’t seen it, thought about it, used it, or needed it in the last month I must not really need it. I highly recommend this rule…my new downsizing project is moving along rather quickly. This is the only part of moving I actually like. The feeling of removing piles of crap out of my space. It is like a cleansing program of sorts. The only scary part is dismantling a space that I have worked so well in and having to start over in the new place.
But the possibilities of organization in a new space are endless! Okay I realize that made me sound a little OCD, but it is true. I am definitely one of those artists with a type A personality who labels and organizes all of her art supplies. My paper is all color coded in bins, pencils, markers, and rulers all have their own containers, and sketchbooks are organized chronologically. Which for some people probably sounds crazy, but for me makes perfect sense. As someone who uses mixed media and scraps of paper to create illustrations, my studio generally looks like a bomb went off when I am in the middle of a book. So it is necessary for me to have designated spaces for everything to go back to.
I find whenever I have a new project I can’t get any work done unless my drawing table is cleaned up and ready for something new. It’s amazing the kind of inspiration you can get when you have a comfortable space to work in.
So here’s to a new work space! Cheers!
