The sink area is sort of a workhorse/jack-of-all-trades. Partly flat space, partly storage, partly sink, partly mess. This is what makes me different from some other crafters -- I make messes, and sometimes don't know where to put stuff. If you didn't have an inkling of that before, this post will show you that little secret.
This is a view of the overall sink area. Stuff, sink, storage, storage, and stuff. More after the cut, and there are also notes on most, if not all, of the flickr photos.
This is looking to the right over the sink. You can see my dye and fragrance shelf, talked about in Part One. The flat space to the right of the sink is usually full of 1-lb blocks of soap ready to be melted.
Sinky! Note the plants on the windowsill; I had just taken a number of cuttings when I took this photo, and I'm thrilled to see new growth there. ANYWAY. The sink is not usually this clean (I know I said I wouldn't go all out for these photos but I did want to look marginally put-together. So. I cleaned). Usually one side of the sink is full of either soap molds ready to be washed, or yarn that I've just dumped out of a crock pot. The mug is full of soap, and I use it to clean my glaze brushes; the other soap (in the bar fly) is what I'm currently using to wash up with after messy craft days. One bar is Rosemary Mint, one is Cocoa Butter, and one is Frankincense & Myrrh.
This is the sink, looking to the left. I have a pretty extensive mug collection that I had to cut in half when I moved the crafting into this room. I've been remarkably restrained and have only bought one new mug since having to purge 60 of them when this all went in last summer. Now lets take a closer look at what's going on in the corner there.
The red basket is full of chopsticks for stirring dye, potholders, and various tongs for yarn. From the top of the big pile there, we have a sheep crossing sign a customer (Hiiiiiiiii, Sonya!) gave us at Hanks, my tape, a small container full of unused soap labels (the white ones that tell you what fragrance/design), a knitting calender that is sometimes set to the right day, a box full of oatmeal soap that I haven't even photographed yet, let alone wrapped and labeled; and my wrapping station. In the top drawer are wrappings (food-safe wax paper, kraft paper, and kraft dragonfly paper) for guest-sized soaps. In the middle drawer are wrappings for regular sized soaps. In the bottom are stickers with my "H" on them which I put onto the backs of the soap labels. Behind all of that is the CD/iPod player from Hanks, which I thought I would use all the time and have really only used a couple of times. :sadface: I blame that on the persnickety-ness of my iPod, which no longer likes to change playlists.
And lastly for this section, we have... drumroll (or shudder) please... the Under the Sink. Don't know where to put something? How about here?! Not true, really; only about a quarter of it is stuff I don't know what to do with. There's stuff I use: containers for soaking handspun and helping to move wet yarn; boxes of base yarn; a fan to put breeze on glycerin soap on hot days to combat glycerin dew; binoculars for bird watching; notes on dyes and fragrances; pot for soaking yarn; mason jars full of dye stock. There are a few things I don't really use; pillow forms; extra soap base (hemp, which didn't do very well; organic oatmeal, which I didn't like working with; shaving soap, which I haven't even started doing anything with yet). It doesn't look very neat, but I can put my hands on anything I need within a few seconds.
And that's Part Three. There's still more to come! Don't forget, I love feedback and questions!
Previously:
Craft Room Organization: Soap Fragrances
Craft Room Organization: Dyes and Fragrances