Let There Be Light!

The first photo at the top shows my before shot and the second is the current, after, shot. It's still a work in progress, but I feel like I'm miles ahead of where I was already!

My big bugbear has always been clutter. If there's junk all over the desk, then I'm unlikely to feel motivated to clean things off before I craft, so messiness is a big barrier to creativity for me.

Another problem about my nook is how dark it used to be. I think that's one of the reasons why being able to pick up my essentials and craft downstairs, at the dining room table, is so much more appealing to me: more light!

In the first image, for before, the main source of light was a little lamp. It was cute, but the problem was that we had an energy-efficient bulb in it -- the kind that corkscrews. As a result, the cute shade was always askew.

The other problem with the lamp was that it is the kind of lamp that has the on/off switch on the cord, so I was always having to find the switch for it and the clamp-on lamp for my desk, fumbling about for several seconds to locate them.

Not a big deal, but I headed out to Ikea and bought a new swing-arm light (under $10!), traded the cute lampshade lamp for something less floppy (from another part of my house) and also bought a power strip that I stuck on the desk.

Now I just flip one switch and all three lights light up my desk like a summer day!

You'll also notice that the clutter is off my desk, thanks to the in/out trays I bought and painted. Anything that is in-process or that I haven't quite decided what to do with gets stuck in my trays. Whenever I have some spare time and no particular project to work on, I go through the papers in my trays and put them away where they belong.

So that's the update so far! More to come -- just two weeks left of the challenge to go!