Happy Wednesday!!
I have spent so much time trying to get my small home studio organized! I scoured Pinterest and Google, and while I found a few ideas, none of them really stood out for my Knoxville, Tennessee home studio. They were either not ideal, or just needed to much space. What I needed was some DIY space saving projects.
I have a modest studio in my home, which is a step up from my tiny home studio in Texas. I'm THRILLED with the extra space, but it needed to be optimized to be as useful as possible during my sessions. Before, I had a closet where all of my backdrops, large props, newborn fabric/blankets were all stored stacked on top of each other in a mess that was hard to find anything. Digging through it to find anything was impossible during sessions and it drove me crazy!
I went in search for good solutions for my prop and backdrop storage problems, and that's exactly what I found! I was able to completely organize my studio for less than $125!!!
First, all of my newborn hats and props needed to be displayed for clients to choose from in an adorable way, and without anyone having to big through drawers or piles. For this, I purchased four, small, decorative curtain rods ($3 each) from our Walmart and several packages of drape hooks ($7 each) for a total of $40. My husband quickly installed the rods, and we used the drape clips to hang each prop.
As a bonus, I found a belt organizer at Walmart as well that was perfect to hang my tiebacks and headbands on, which then hung on the curtain rod.
Next, I took on the fabric newborn backdrops. I've acquired quite a collection over the past few years, and it's always growing, so it's very important to keep them all nice and neat. This was a simple solution, but I adore how it looks! I got a tall, skinny cube bookshelf from IKEA ($60 on sale), then folded on my blankets and placed them on the shelves (they be a little stuffed, I see a second shelf in my future!). My OCD kicked in a bit, hence the organization by color. Total $60
The top of the bookshelf was a fabulous way to store some of my larger baskets and such! Although they wouldn't all fit, it got the majority of them off the ground and freed up more space ($0).
My newborn wrap storage idea was a Pinterest find, and a super good one! I happened to have everything laying around the house and put it together in minutes. It simply took a hanger( free! Who doesn't have at least one empty hanger?) and cheap shower curtain rings (normally $1-$2 at your local Walmart, Target, or Dollar Tree), hooked the rings on the hanger, then slipped 2-3 wraps into each ring. Easy peasy! Total $0!
Close up!
The last task was the hardest. My poly paper and vinyl backdrops are typically stored rolled up. Usually they end up in the corner of my studio. Sadly, this has resulted in the ends getting crinkled, or them becoming toys for curious toddlers. These needed a fabulous, easy to use storage system that got them up off the floor and easy for me to get in and out of. I looked everywhere for a solution! Finally, I was walking through IKEA in Charlotte and happened to see an accessory organizer (the Kompliment $8 each). It had 28 round holes that looked to be the PERFECT size for backdrops. I took a leap of faith and bought two. Next stop was Lowes to buy two shelf brackets ($1.50 each) and a pack of eye hooks ($3). A few screws in the wall later, I had a hanging backdrop storage rack! It has 28 slots, but you could easily roll up 2 less used backdrops together on some slots to give you even more storage. Grand Total $22! That's less than $1 a backdrop to protect my lovely Lemon Drop Stop drops!!
Side view
My grand total for ALL of this organization was $122!!!! If you have a bookshelf on hand already you could re-purpose, your cost could be even less! I hope this helps some other awesome photographers with their organization on a budget.