It seems excessively hard to keep up with making when you have a day job and too many ideas... I'm trying to get on top of it though (apologies to anyone waiting for me to put things up for sale!), and a couple of things which are helping are todoist and some of the hints on to-do lists and decluttering from 43folders.

---Freezer-bag Organisation---

I don't know about you, but with so many projects on the go, I seem to spend more time hunting for sketches, components, or enough space to work that by the time my 'craft time' is up, I haven't achieved anything!

My cunning plan - freezer bags. I got the idea from a blogger who suggested keeping beading projects in altoid tins - tidy, together, grabbable, portable. Now, my work won't quite fit in an altoid tins, but freezer bags - the ones where you squeeze across the top to seal them - are ideal for me. You can see what's in it, they shrink or grow with the contents, and stuff can't fall out!

Each project has an appropriately sized freezer bag, ranging from A6 to almost A3.

First thing in the bag: a project 'booklet'. This is a folded sheet of paper, and on the front goes the title, rough sketches and written notes: eg. for "Botanical Brooches", there are a couple of sketches and a list of flowers which might suit. Inside the booklet will go further sketches, final cutting plans, material costings, and a checklist of stages in the projects.

Each bag is a dedicated go-to space for all of my thoughts and sketches on that project. I doodle constantly, but always loose my sketches. Now, if I have a decent idea, it can go straight into the bag. If I prototype something, it goes in there too. Then, when I'm ready to work on that project, I just pick up the bag, and everything I need is together.

When I'm actually working on the brooches, I'll be able to keep the components together in the bag - silver blanks, half cut out designs, bent wires for the pins, even small tools I don't need for anything else. I can stop and start, days apart, with minimal scrobbling about, and keep my desk clear.

Due to lack of wall-hanging space, I've currently got all my project-bags pinned to a curtain. Ultimately, I'd love to have a pegboard over my bench where I can pin everything so that is visible and accessible - If I feel like woodwork, I can just grab the 'rings' or 'hairsticks' bag, and off I go! Sewing, grab the 'fuzzy monsters' bag, and take the whole lot in front of a film.

I'll post some photos of a bag when one of my projects gets far along enough, and is pretty enough to show.

I hope some other desperately disorganised soul finds this useful

---Current EPIC project---

Most of my shiny projects are currently on hold, in favour of a vast woodcarving project which is currently taking up my headspace, workbench and time.

My brief: A large relief carving, to go on a bedroom wall. Subject - the moon, in the style of North West coast american indian art - my brother and his fiancee went orft around that way last year, and asked me to make something a tad 'epic' in the style for their wedding present. Well, at least they didn't go for that gigantic rolling ball sculpture I foolishly suggested! I'll have to make that seabird mobile and fish installation for myself though, they're too good to pass up.

I have two huge pieces of Iroka, offcuts from a shipbuilder's yard, which I'm itching to get stuck into, but I want to be sure the design is perfect first. My current difficulty is coming up with an original design, in the required style, but with the tone I want - all sun or moon designs I find in that style look scary, angry, or creepy! I'm going for peaceful serenity, as they'll have to sleep in the same room as it...

Perhaps I'm trying too hard, but I'll keep slogging away at it - I'll know when I get it right. I have, however, created a layout I'm very happy with, which is a start!

In the process, I've managed to come up with the seeds of a pretty nifty parrot design, but that doesn't really help me much!

Wish me luck!

M