A Project Room of One’s Own

We have the luxury of two small extra bedrooms in our apartment: one is used for the guest room, the other is used as my project room.  It swings wildly from tidy to chaotic.

It exploded into a mess recently, as you can see, but after a new year’s organizing frenzy, I think I have it under control for good.  I can now open the door and say to you, dear reader, “This is where the magic happens…”

I bought the IKEA IVAR shelving system off Craigslist last year for $60.  (Thumbing my nose here at the people who dismiss IKEA stuff as “disposable” – most of the IKEA furniture in our apartment was purchased second-hand.)

A digression: isn’t that vintage anatomical model great? Hand-painted, from Germany.  My brother-in-law saved her from going into the dumpster at the elementary school where he teaches.  I have since sold it on Craigslist to an oddities collector.

The clear storage boxes are from The Container Store, provider of all perfectly-designed storage solutions.  Case in point #1: this simple, white, handled tray, which holds my most frequently used tools.

Case in point #2: this adjustable divider box, which organizes all of my screws, bolts, hooks, etc. in an extremely satisfying manner.

The other side of the room holds the tool I will admit I don’t use as often as I should: my elliptical macine.

We have a pretty nice mini-gym set-up: I have interlocking rubber tiles hidden under an IKEA HESSUM runner rug.  This base layer absorbs noise, provides stability and reduces wear on the machine.

I mounted a simple shelf on the wall to hold a laptop.  Streaming a show or a movie on Netflix or Hulu is the only thing that can motivate me to work out.  (Well, that and the shame I feel because Jarrod exercises like a crazy person.)

These days I’m working (slowly) through My So-Called Life and thinking (seriously) about wearing plaid flannel dresses.