My 2012 Resolution - Organizing

A second part of my New Year's resolution involves organization. As you can see, my work area is well, sort of a mess! (OK, not "sort of," it IS a mess!)

One of my main tasks is to go through and clean out the clutter. I want to have my work area cleared off so that I can actually paint or model when I want to.

The first, but most painful, step towards that goal is to simply to go through what I have and decide what needs to be kept and what can be gotten rid of. Once that decision is made, I need to figure out a way to store what I am keeping that allows me to find it when needed, and have a place to put it away when I am done. I want to get rid of the clutter that magically accumulates on every single flat surface of my gaming area.

To that end I have already taken some small steps:  

Paint Station - I see a lot of buzz on the net about painting stations to keep your painting supplies organized and neat. I like the idea, but I didn't want to shell out the bucks for someone else's product. So I took some scrap wood and board I had lying around the basement, made some measurements, and slapped together my own painting station. It is 24 inches wide by 18 inches deep.

It has a section for Vallejo type paints and brushes and tools, as well as spots for water pots. There's a central workspace in which I put an old cutting mat, and two other sections for paint pots that don't fit in the holes, as well as clippers and other tools. I will also add a wet palette, based on PaintPig's excellent tutorial.

My hope is that this will serve two main purposes. First, I want to keep my most-used painting supplies handy so that when I have time to paint I do not waste it trying to find what I need. Second, the fact that it is portable (I put felt pads on the bottom so it will not scratch the coffee or dinner table) means that I don't have to go to the basement to paint. I can paint in the family room, for example, while my kids watch a movie and my wife reads.

Larger game table -  A while back I built a small 3' x 3' gaming table, which is great for skirmish games. I built it with a shelf, and wings to hold rules, cards, figures, and a place to roll dice. I like it so much, that I am building myself a larger version, with a 4' x 6' gaming area, and a 1' wing on the short side. This one also has a shelf on the bottom that can be used to store games, figures and stuff that I use frequently. The shelves on the two tables will allow me to better organize and clear out my gaming area in the basement, and have better access to what I own.

Auctions and trades - I have started to box the items that I no longer want to keep. I am trying to catalog them as I box them, with the ultimate goal being to trade them off or sell them. I will advertise them locally first, on the Giga-Bites bitz trading forum. If nobody is interested there, then I guess I will list them on ebay or Bartertown. My plan is to use some of the money from the sale of my excess gaming stuff to fund the expansion of the games I will continue to play. We'll see how that plan goes...

'Til next time!