How Many Boxes? The Answer

OK, so last week I asked the question of how many boxes it would take to pack up Mandy's craft room. I suppose I should have asked how many days it would take, seeing as Mandy did it in what I consider record time. I came home from work Wednesday and she had packed up her (almost) entire craft room.

What's more, she had sold the lovely set of cubicles she had used as a basis for her craft room furnishing for the past 6 years. Even better is that she sold them on Craigslist for $50 more than we had paid for them (meaning we now have $50). I know what you're thinking..."Trevor, that's amazing. It can't get any better than that." Except it does get better. She sold them to someone who came and disassembled them and hauled them off without my involvement. The only finger I had to lift in the whole process was that of putting my tools away after they were used in dis-assembly. But I'm willing to live with that.

As a reminder, here's what the craftroom looked like as recently as last week.

And here's what it looks like today. An amazing transformation.

OK, I've hemmed and hawed long enough without getting to the point that you're actually here to discuss: the count of boxes. Drum roll, please.

Mandy's craft room took:

33 boxes
18 buckets, bags, or totes
OR, 51 containers in total

Proof...

Granted, a few of those boxes were smallish in nature, but even so, that is an impressive figure. It's more than our four kids' belongings in total. More than our kitchen, family room, and bathrooms combined. More than my garage collection of tools and do-dads, which is saying something.

Speaking of which, some of you were innocently asking how many boxes it was going to take me to pack up the manly side of our house:

16 boxes
3 bags or buckets

Of course, I'm not counting the riding lawn mower, go kart, motorcycle, table saw, router table, tool chest, etc. in my numbers, so I'm willing to call it a draw.

Poll: How Many Boxes Will It Take?

There are two facts that I'm distinctly aware of at the moment.

Fact One is that Mandy has a lot of craft stuff. Some of you might remember my concern that she was a hoarder and my efforts to help her reorganize her craft room. That was in July of 2012. Two years ago. And about six posts ago. Let me tell you: a lot can happen in two years. And even more craft stuff accumulation can happen in two years.

Fact Two is that we're moving. In about two weeks. We've been sort of packing and purging for a couple of weeks now, but we haven't touched the craft room. And that worries me. We have to take the craft room stuff that survived "The Great Craft Room Reorganization of 2012" and all the stuff that's found it's way into that space and move it.

I asked Mandy how many boxes she thinks it will take to pack all the stuff in her craft room and she thought for a second and threw out the number 20. Then she paused and asked what size of boxes we were talking about and if we were counting the stuff that's already packed. I think 20 boxes may be about right, if they were refrigerator boxes. Unfortunately, we don't have refrigerator boxes. Even if we did, I don't think I could lift a refrigerator box full of fabric. Packed fabric is surprisingly dense.

So I'm taking a quick poll. Here's a candid, unprepared snap shot of the craft room in its current state. How many "normal size moving boxes" do you think it will take to move her out? Let me know in the comments below. Whoever is closes gets to help load the truck.

The Flat Surface Cycle

We have a problem in our house. It involves flat surfaces. I've been studying craft rooms for quite some time now, and this problem with flat surfaces keeps coming up. It comes up often enough that I now know its not unique to our craft room. In fact, its a trait of most, if not all craft rooms.

This problem stems from a strange power inherent in most flat surfaces; the power to attract craft supplies and materials. This power is similar to that of a magnet in attracting metal, except that the flat surface attracts items much more slowly, so slowly that it is not perceivable by the human eye. The flat surface accumulates items over time, eventually disappearing beneath the items. (Note: some researchers have speculated that the problem may lie with the crafty persons, and not the flat surfaces, but it is mere speculation at this point.)

When the problem is brought to the attention of the crafty person, the area may be cleaned to some degree or another, but rest assured that items will again accumulate on the flat surface eventually. This cycle of accumulation, reclamation, and reaccumulation is know as the flat surface cycle. It's kind of like the water cycle, only it involves junk craft supplies and materials.

I did a quick Google Image Search of the phrase "craft room mess" (you might want to do the same, just to validate your statement to your husband that "my craftroom isn't as bad as it could be"). The results illustrate the fact that any flat surface has this power. The various flat surfaces have attracted all sorts of items, though fabric, patterns, paint bottles, and scissors seem to be more susceptible to the flat surface's power than things like, say, cleaning supplies.

To further illustrate this cycle, I'll use an example from our home. Recall the air hockey table that I purchased last year at a garage sale. I mentioned last month that it had been annexed by the craft room. This annexation was a result of the flat surface cycle. Typical of the flat surface cycle, the surface (air hockey table) was cleaned off today. The question is, how long will it remain clean before the cycle continues?

I'm putting the over/under at 4 days.

Craft Room Annex

Life got a little easier for me and the kids once we admitted that the air hockey table (of 2012 blog fame) was annexed by the Craft Room.