Boxes and boxes of beads!

I did the unthinkable this weekend. The unimaginable, the unspeakable, the unbearable!! I organized my dreaded and ever accumulating pile of rejected jewelry projects. Bracelets I made years ago before I had any idea what I was doing. Necklaces that were never finished. Earrings that never became a pair. Strands of beads that I forgot I had purchased. 6 years of misfit beads!

I have wanted to do this for so long, but dreaded the idea of sitting down and committing to what I knew was going to be such a mindless and tedious task. I don't even know how it started last night. I just started. It was a Saturday night without plans and I was too exhausted from a fun filled day of learning how to ride a motorcycle to make any. Instead I watched old, cheesy horror flicks and tackled the pile. I cannot tell you how satisfied I was to accomplish this task. I had tried once before but I kept thinking I wanted to keep everything as it was and repair or finish each of the projects. I didn't want to throw away the time I had already spent on making them. Or admit to myself that some were just not appealing enough to complete. Last night I was in the right mindset. I know that my style and technique have taken a vast detour from my earlier projects so it was time to put them all to rest. It was time to take the beads and put them back into the box so that they could become part of another, better piece that will actually be worn and appreciated. My whole work space feels better to me without this box of rejects hanging around taunting me. Ahhhhhh!!!! It's done!

Someday I would like to reorganize my actual bead storage boxes. I buy containers as my collection grows so it has become somewhat of a mix-matched method. I started boxing by color scheme but at the time I didn't have a lot of beads. I admittedly was not thinking ahead and I certainly wasn't dreaming my inventory would grow to the size it has. In the beginning I organized rows by color not boxes by color. So I ended up with boxes containing pinks, purples and reds. Now I could devote an entire box to just shades of pink. So what has happened as my collection has grown is that I end up with several boxes containing several different colors. The box that started out greens, blues and teals has grown into 3 boxes filled with each color because I have had to add spillover boxes over the years. I'd like to just dig in and separate those 3 into the designated color.

Do I really want to sit down and do this?? Do I really want to add that many more boxes? If I keep going at this rate the box count will inevitably grow anyway so I might as well start organizing them now while it is still somewhat of a manageable task. I know I will be grateful down the road. Do I even want to organize by color or do I want to group them by style and texture? Is the idea way too obsessive compulsive to be considered anything other than just anal retentive? Why can't I just be satisfied that I conquered the reject pile for now?! It's a domino effect as always...