Oh, why is organizing so hard?

A few weeks ago I mentioned getting my room in better order and cleaning out. This past week I spent a few hours two different days trying to make a mark in there. I've still got a long way to go, but I feel better about the task at hand. The bad news is we may have company next weekend so I can't procrastinate too long - they'll need somewhere to sleep. The good news is I've found lots of things that I really like but haven't used simply because I've forgotten about them!

I have antique furniture in my guest room, which includes a cedar chest, a chest of drawers and a vanity. Right now, every square inch of those three pieces is covered in stuff. I started in the chest of drawers and started throwing things away that I didn't need, or adding them to a box for my sister-in-law to go through. I began sorting within the drawers a bit, but it's hard to sort through a mess. I'm the type of cleaner that needs a clean space to start with - you know, empty drawers or containers or something along those lines. That's how I like to organize. It's rarely how I attempt to organize though!! This time I did clean off the guest bed and start stacking things there. I quickly went through all five drawers on the first day and tossed things that I didn't need (packaging and such) and pulled out things for my sister-in-law and moved things around that I wanted to keep.

The second day I tackled the closet. This is really the worst place. I have a very bad habit of not unpacking bags of stuff. When I go somewhere to scrapbook, I pack up what I want to take and go. Then when I return home, I stick the bag in the closet and forget about it!! Not a good idea. I have several Michaels bags stuck in there as well - things I'd been thinking about looking for but just didn't care enough to look right away.

Now the closet is cleaned out mostly but the bed is covered!! Can you see how I struggle to finish this task? :D

I moved my paper rack into my closet since I don't necessarily need it out in the open. My closet has a light, so I can see inside it very well. I pulled a rack the spins and put it in place of the paper rack. I'm hoping that I can use this to actually display things so I don't forget I have them. I ended up with two empty Cropper Hopper 12x12 paper holders - so I need to find a good and practical use for them.

I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one that struggles in this area. I'd love to hear your favorite storage idea. How about sharing something you use that isn't typically used for scrapbook storage? Those are the things I really like. I have a hard time spending money on storage items (unless it's a fabulous deal) because that's money I could spend on tools or paper!!! So, I tend to look for things that I can repurpose.

Okay - that's enough chatting. I need to get back to cleaning/purging/organizing!!

lisa

Thicker Storage (and all those other alphas, too)

So, I have this bad habit of collecting scrapbook supplies. I'm fairly certain that I'm not the only one. My scrap supplies are taking up residence in my guest room. My guest room is also full of laundry! All my clean laundry is sorted and stacked nice and neatly (well, mostly neatly) on the guest bed. This is just out of control. I can't find my supplies. I can't find my favorite jeans. Cole can't find his favorite pj's. IT'S JUST TOO MUCH.

I think the best way to tackle this problem is first - to get rid of the laundry. Put everything away after it's folded - not just leave it there forever. And then second - I need to find a way to organize my favorite things - the things I use the most and go to over and over. I've decided these things are:

my kits
my paper
my letters
my go to embellishments
my tools

Now, I need to weed out everything else. I'm not sure how I'm going to do that - but I'm going to really really make some drastic changes in my guest room this week!!

In my attempt to organize my favorite things, I thought I would cook up some storage for my letters. This is what I came up with:



I found this fabulous cereal of Target. It's so good, I could seriously eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week. It's just that good. But what makes it better - the container is so cute. It's harder cardboard than a regular cereal box and it has a plastic top - instead of just the typical cardboard fold up top.

I used the February BlackBird kit and covered my box and added some embellishments to the front and a label with THICKERS, as well.



Now I need to make a few more with my faves. I'm not sure if I'm going to do this by brands, though - I mean I have enough Thickers to fill up more than one container but the rest of my sticker letters are cardstock stickers and much thinner so I think I'll just group them all together. I can't wait to make a few more and have my letters a little more organized.

Now, if only I could find super easy ways to organize the rest...................

Lisa

How I Organize My Scripts Kits

I've kind of migrated to making my scrapping stuff more easily portable. I do a lot of scrapping in the living room, with my husband, while we watch tv together, or in my bedroom, or with my friends, or at the craft table with my kids... you get the picture!

Because of this, kits are AWESOME for my type of scrapping. Everything is in one spot and I don't have to hop up a million times for whatever things I need.

However, keeping all of the kit in a plastic bag doesn't prove to be the easiest way to find stuff within the kit.

Let me introduce you to one of my favorite purchases of all time. I bought this around 2 years ago.

My Rubbermaid drawers. (You can buy them here - 3 sets of these for $30!)

The drawers are 14x14" so there is plenty of room for all your papers & such.
Two drawers are for kits, and one is just for "new purchases." (hehe)

The cool thing about these is that you can pull the whole drawer out and bring it with you wherever you are going to scrap.

I also bought these little lunch trays (I think at Target- on clearance!) a while back and have them sitting in the top of the drawer. They hold all the smaller bits and pieces nicely.
The little tray can easily lift out and be set aside so you can rifle through the rest of the drawer's contents.
One other thing I like to do (and I know B is gonna laugh; she always teases me about using every last scrap!). When I'm working on stuff, I end up with a pile of papers like this:
I like to pull out a few fave punches, and punch the heck out of them, and then toss the rest.
I add those right into my little tray and have pre-made embellishments for the next project I'm going to do! I hope this helps!

I would love to hear your kit organization ideas; what do you do with the leftovers from your kits?

How do you organize your stuff?

Do you have a dedicated room for scrapbooking? Do you have to share space with the rest of the family? Do you have to go hide off in a corner to scrapbook while the husband hangs in his man cave?

I find it really hard to organize my scrap supplies. I've had dedicated space and shared space. Both are usually a mess. I've been to several friends houses that had a dedicated space and it's messy, too - so I don't feel so bad. But, then I've been to one friends house who shares her space with her kids and everything is nice and neat and put away. I mean - I didn't see stacks of stuff everywhere like you'll currently find in my space. I think it's because she actually USES her supplies!! I just collect the majority of mine. My current scrap space is in the guest room which doubles as the laundry landing pad, so I drag everything out and it ends up all over the house, in the dining room and the living room. It's a mess!!! Huge and giant mess!!!

I long to have a room that's all pretty and clean and mess free, but honestly, I need a bit of mess in my creative process!! Just a bit.

Here's some spaces that really speak to me - some ideas that I really like - so check them out:

Melissa Gunter - this is full of bright colors and looks very inspiring. I think I lean toward this because you can see supplies - I need to see what I have or I forget all about it! I'm not much for super bright colors in my home, but I do like looking at this space - A LOT!

Becki Wainwright - this is great, too and speaks to the shabby chic side of me - it just makes me think of old vintage-y touches! I think it's the lack of bright colors here that I'm drawn to. Funny how complete opposite rooms still get my attention.

And one more - I like that this is a smaller space and you can see she's still got all her supplies inside her room.

For me, I like to use what I have and not go buy new furniture, so I have some restrictions in my space. But, one day, maybe I'll have a dedicated room again and can really do it up with some Ikea buys and The Container Store! Oh the ideas!! I've always loved January and February because of all the storage containers that you see everywhere!! I love it just can't keep it up!

Oh well - I'm a work in progress!! I found this article and thought maybe it would help me out - 100 reasons to get rid of it - this article was great and not just about crafting supplies - lots of things here we don't think of getting rid of.

So tell us how you store things? Do you have a dedicated space? Do you spread out all over the house like me?

Lisa