Inventory and Organization...

So...last week I came home because I didn't feel well, and I slept all day. I am talking six hours of sleep.  When I woke up I had some energy...so I decided to tackle my on-going task of maintaining order in my art inventory.

Folks...I have a ton of art...like...well over 1000 pieces on hand.  Nope, not joking.  The first year I did the whole Creative Every Day thing- I was on point.  I kept up with my inventory (check the end of the post for sample of how I do my inventory, it's totally DYI- just a Word Doc...cause Excel makes my skin crawl) and at the end of the year, I even created a catalog of my 2012 artwork.  

Then 2013 came along and I jumped right into making the art...tried to keep up with inventory...but never created my 2013 catalog of work.  ...and if you know me...I mean REALLY know me, then you know that this secretly keeps me awake at night and is always in the back of my mind.  Always.  (I use #OCPDartist for a reason, folks)

Monday was my day to get back on the task, and I did make some progress.  But at some point...I started to feel like I was Hercules battling the Hydra, except instead of cutting off a head and two more growing in its place...I was finding another two (plus!) pieces of art for every one I had accounted for.

Which is an awesome problem to have...but lemme tell you- it is still a very daunting task.  I did make some headway, as you will see in the last slides below, but there is still much to be done.

Here is a rundown of my organization process...just 'cause I know their is some crazed person out there just like me that absolutely LOVES tedious self-imposed systems to organize.  Enjoy!

• Make the work.  Label the back with CED14-Number (Creative Every Day, year 2014) and the date.
  
• Add the information to an on-going yearly inventory document.  Information included the number, size, orientation, materials, brief description, and status i.e. 'in stock', 'sold', 'donated', 'on display', etc (2012 SAMPLE)
  
• I have a clear plastic bin for each year.
• *Each monthly series is filed away, in numerical order, inside of some large white folders I made from posterboard.
• *NOTE: Some of the pieces don't fit in the storage box, so I have another large 24x36 inch portfolio that I keep larger drawings in...then I created my own make-shift vertical storage for my painted canvases...
• If all goes well, I create a catalog of the work for the year using www.issuu.com...(2013 SAMPLE)
• ...this is an on-going project and I am always trying to improve my system and ways to keep everything up to date.