track 009 - an organized mess

First, I have an announcement to make. Due to personal family reasons, me and my boyfriend are flying to the Netherlands next Thursday for an unknown amount of time - no less than a week in any case. This means that I won't be home for at least a part of the Month of Letters - however, I'm not planning to give up on it. I will start as soon as I get back home and go on for 28 days. So, all of you who wish to receive something from me, drop me a line at biograffitist@mail.com and I'll get to you eventually! I'm really bummed out, since this is my first Month of Letters, and I was really looking forward to February, but something more important has come up so I'll just have to do it my way.

On another note, I hope everyone's having a great weekend! We're having pizza, and while there was still light outside I took quite a few photos so I can finally show you all how I keep my letter-writing stuff in order (or try to) as promised.

I usually write my letters on the couch, very rarely on the proper desk we have here in the living room. I like to watch TV while I write... This is how the sofa table looks like:

As you can see, it's far from tidy... but I have a system! On the tray with candles, I also store my outgoing letters. You can see Romy's letter there, waiting to be mailed. The plastic box under the table has rolls under it for easy rolling out and in. And once you roll it out, this is what you see:

Most of my letter-writing supplies! Since it is a bit chaotic to look at like this (but let me assure you, it's all logically piled up), we'll start breaking it down from the bottom. The bottom layer has three boxes in it:

The boxes on the left store my unwritten post cards and cardboard, and pen pal letters.

We'll elaborate the rightmost one a bit more, since that's the one I use every single time I write a letter. It's a woven box with layers of stuff in it - if you were to take the box away and leave the stuff as it is, it would look like something like this.

This box works as a home for my lettersets (bottom box with flowers on it), pencil case, scissors, pens and glue. There are also two bags - one plastic one and one paper one - and a mysterious white box, all pictured below with their contents. The paper bag has my stamps and priority -stickers, the plastic bag my envelopes and loose lettersheets and the mystery box has everything random that I use fairly often - stickers, memo sheets, deco tape, extra glue, carved stamps...

Now, onto the next layer of stuff! It begins with two folders that have magazine pages and clippings in them. The black one only has a4 sized magazine pages (that could be turned into envelopes) and the red one has various sized clippings.

After that, in comes a mystery bag with random embellishments and goodies in it, and a box with paper goods. Scrapbooking paper, illustrations, ephemera etc.

Almost done! The second-last layer includes a box with small paper ephemera, and other random flat things. In addition to that, there is another mystery bag - with sticker sheets that are too big for the rightmost box, some ribbons and so on - and a sheet that shows how much postage I have to pay when I send stuff. It's covered in plastic because I have a tendency to spill things. (That's why it looks a bit strange in the picture.)

And last but not least, in goes some wrapping paper I have no better place for, and my loyal sketchbook. I use it as a writing pad, I make letter paper out of its pages, I store letters in progress inbetween it... I don't know what I would do without it!

In addition to my plastic box, I have a couple of more places left. I store my swap envelopes and notes, Christmas cards etc. in a separate box on the bottom level of the sofa table. You can see where in the very first picture (go on, scroll up!).

And I also have a corner bookshelf in the living room that holds my artsy stuff (charcoals, pastels, watercolour pencils and watercolours), a box with some more paper and cardboard and wrapping paper that will be turned into for example envelopes!

So, that is the controlled chaos known as my letter-writing and craft supplies. Let me tell you, it took a long time to find a way that works! For ages my papers etc. were just two overflowing boxes on the floor next to the desk. I still haven't rounded up everything - my watercolour papers, brushes, canvases and oil colours are scattered around the bookshelf area.

Does everyone have fun plans for the weekend? If you're bored, I would love to see how you keep your supplies in order - pictures please!