Attack of the killer beads

In the midst of making new jewelry for the Funky Finds Spring Fling, I had a sudden claustrophobic realization that I was working in only two square feet of free space on my workbench.  This is what it looked like....

It was a mess, totally, but the worst part was the ever-growing stacks of interlocking jar-towers that  I store my beads in.

I didn't stand back far enough for you to really see that there are four drawers below the counter to the left, four small overhead cabinets spanning the width of the counter and two tall pantry cabinets on either side (heaven forbid, if I stood back farther you'd have been able to see all the other crap in the laundry room!).  When I moved my jewelry studio into the space, I only cleaned off the stuff that was stacked on the counter, because I really didn't have that much in the way of jewelry-making supplies and tools.  The drawers and cabinets have remained chock full of assorted, disorganized miscellany.  As my supplies grew, I bought more stacking jars, shoved some things into the overhead cabinets, other things into drawers, but never really cleaned out anything that was already there.

Well, by golly, it was time to make a start of doing something about it.  So I cleaned out the top drawer and moved all the large stacking jars and the small ones that didn't fit into the recycled spice rack at the back of the counter.

Obviously this means that I can only buy one more set of large stacking jars, or I'll have to clean out the next drawer down, although I think I should reserve that for the tools that are currently in the third drawer down (including tools that have nothing to do with jewelry-making...those have got to go elsewhere), so I can move this stack of jewelry trays and divided boxes into the deeper third drawer.  Those are full of old jewelry that friends have given me....and the entire collections of beads and findings that another friend gave me.  Drawer four will probably continue to house packaging materials, but it needs to be cleaned out, too.

The space where I work looks better, doesn't it?

Well, except for this....

I need to find a system to store the coils of wire and spools of chain.  Maybe I'll get my bulletin/white board hung over the counter and I can pin up the wire coils.  Maybe some day the puck lights will get installed under the overhead cabinets, so I can use just my magnifying lamp on the counter.  Maybe I'll remember to show you when I make any further improvements....