Yes, it's time for spring cleaning as this recent picture of my gaming table proves. Various junk as accumulated on the table over the long winter months to the degree that I've been unable to do some projects lately because there just was no space.

I'm accumulating junk faster than perhaps wise and the storage space in the hobby room has been at a premium for quite a while. Everything sort of fits but the problem with the tight spacing is that it gets hard to put stuff back where it belongs. Which quickly leads to junk filling up the one available free space -- the gaming table.

In case you were wondering, lately I've been gaming at the club. But I still need the table for projects and it would be nice to have a game at my place every once in a while too. I am not overly fond of lugging my stuff around, and the storage space at the club is likewise pretty much filled up.

So, I started by moving all the stuff outside. Looking at this pile would have discouraged a lesser man... ok, it did pretty much discourage me too. Would there really be a way to fit all that back inside?

After a full day of moving stuff back and forth and repackaging it in different containers, I finally managed to fit everything back in. And I didn't even have to throw anything away, which I was mentally prepared to do (I have a few boxes full of potential building materials, which are are essentially scrap. While they are useful to retain, there's nothing really valuable there).

The project left me pretty exhausted, but finally with a clean table ready to accept terrain, figures or building projects. Now I can tackle the stuff that was put on hold due to lack of space.

Did this teach me anything? Well, I already knew I gather way too much stuff. It is useful to do a full reorganization every once in a while, stuff tends to get less and optimally stored over time. Unfortunately local weather and the sheer amount of stuff mean that this can only be done during summer.

Clear containers are really nice, because it's much easier to see what's actually in them. When you buy them, buy enough to last so you have standardized containers. Unlabeled cardboard boxes of various sizes are the worst. It's hard to stack them efficiently and soon you have no idea what's in each box. Also, in my hobby room anything without a lid gathers huge amounts of dust over time. If you don't enjoy literally washing your stuff, investing in containers with lids is a good idea.

So are we done now? Well, not quite. There's still the actual desk to organize...