Piano and Voice Training that WORKS.

Organizing my music studio

Alright friends:  Reality check time.  Oh man.  This is bad.  What happened in this place?  Goodness gracious.  What a mess!  What in the Holy heck is going on in this space.  It is really bad.  Guess what I’ll be doing today?  Organizing my music studio!  My music studio is TINY – it used to be a dining room, but my husband built a wall so that

Back to school time is a reset

Back to school time is upon us here in the Northern Hemisphere and with back to school, means my “year” is starting again.  As someone who works in education, I always think in school years and now that I’m a mom that concept has really hammered home.  For me, back to school time is the time of year to do a reset, start of things over, start new habits and make resolutions.

My productivity and focus depend directly on my space being organized and clutter free.  This is extremely difficult because my space is so tiny and filming videos and recording music requires SO MUCH STUFF.  As a minimalist, the mess is a total stress inducer for me, but as a homeschooling, working mom, the mess is so darn inevitable.  It’s a vicious cycle!

Did I mention my studio is TINY?

My studio is around 10 feet, by 15 feet.  I LIVE in this studio space.  It is where I film my YouTube videos, where I have filmed and edited all of my online courses, where I have taught thousands of private lessons, both in person and now (thanks Covid!) via Zoom.

This summer was a total whirlwind.  Between dropping off and picking up my kid at different day camps, shlepping back and forth to the beach and family events and launching a brand new business, my studio has gotten a little iffy.  Time to get this mess cleaned up!

My usual process for getting my studio organized

Organization Step 1

Gather up anything that doesn’t immediately belong in this room – make a huge pile and get them out of the room.  We have a large closet in our hall, so anything that I don’t use every day needs to go in there.

Organization Step 2

What can I very easily put away?

  • My son’s piano books go in the piano bench.
  • The desk – putting away pencils and pens.
  • Put any camera equipment, microphones or loose wire in a bin on my bookshelf.
  • Sort out the tangle of cables and cords.  Get rid of anything I don’t need and tidy up the rest of thwhat is there.

Organization Step 3

Deal with later pile – I have a ton of loose papers that I don’t have the brain power to manage right now.  I’ll put them all in a pile and file them on my bookshelf to deal with at a later date

Organization Step 4 – Time to CLEAN

  1. Dust everything with a microfiber cloth
  2. Windex every hard surface (how did my desk get so ewww??)
  3. Use technology cleaning cloths to wipe the fingerprints off the computer screen and the peanut butter off my computer keyboard.  (??)
  4. Vacuum the living heck out of everything

PS:  Make sure to listen to my music as you clean!

Fun and Random Facts About My Tiny NYC Studio

  1. I have an extreme number of hard drives.  Because of all of the filming and audio recording I do, I need lots of storage space.  Right now I’m in the process of backing up my entire system of video files in triplicate.  So, it’s a LOT right now.
  2. I keep colored index cards to work through my to do list.  I love to cross things off the list!  When I’m done, I get to rip up the index cards and throw them away.  So satisfying!
  3. I have a LOT, like an insane person’s number of stickers.  I used to say they were for my son, but the truth is that they are for me and I love them and that’s it.

Ta Da!  Make sure to watch to the end.  This is super satisfying!