The craft area clean up project continues! It is taking longer than anticipated if only because I continue to amaze myself with how much stuff I can get into a space no matter how large or small.
Today, I just want to share some photos to demonstrate the scope and breadth of the materials I am talking about. I’m not going to bombard you with photos of overstuffed drawers and shelves. It’s traumatic enough for me to go through it once!
I’ll also share a bit about my re-organization plan.
DINING ROOM TABLE
Stuff has to go somewhere when you’re cleaning and organizing and for me that spot is the dining room table. This is where items that I am keeping live until I get to the organization part. I do this because I want to see what I have and make sure that I am putting like with like. Having like items in different locations is what leads to over-buying.
And in full disclosure, this is only after the start of my going through some drawers. At this point, the table is completely covered and there is no more room for anything else to go on the dining room table. I am now putting items that I am keeping around the table on the floor and on the chairs. When I empty out a container, I put them in my living room.
PAPER, PAPER, PAPER
I have a lot of paper-12×12, 8.5 x 11, solid, patterned, textured, chalkboard, vellum, adhesive backed, etc…In crafting, it is necessary to have paper. However, I not only have paper but I had paper all over the place! I had so much paper that I didn’t know what I had and ended up buying more. I have about 10 reams of unopened paper because I thought I was running low on a few colors and that I needed it. Nope! I didn’t need it. I simply needed to have it all in the same place. The good news is that I will not need paper for a good long while.
Please note: the upcoming photos are only of some of my paper.
This is how I store my paper and I will continue to store it here. During this process, I went through each stack especially of printed and patterned paper and chose what I wanted to keep and what I chose to donate. In the end, I will have significantly less paper but still plenty of it. I didn’t do the same with the solid papers as I will keep all of those but I did make sure that the similar colors are together and not spread out all over the place.
Lastly, I have a storage tower where I keep paper scraps. When crafting, there are often bits and pieces left over. Pieces large enough that they can be used on another project or to make smaller elements or be used as scrap. It is a system that works and I will continue to use it. I did not need to go through these containers because I am constantly using them and because of that they don’t get overfull. Also, a few years ago when I did clean out the drawers, I decided that I would only keep paper as scrap that was truly useful. Now, I recycle the smallest of the scraps. It’s hard to describe but easy to do. The containers are divided by color-patterned paper, black/brown, white/kraft, blue/gray, yellow/orange, red/pink/purple, greens. This is a system that is not broken and doesn’t need to be fixed!
FYI-Like most things in my craft area, my storage towers and containers are several years old! I don’t plan on making any big purchases for this projects as what I have really does work well. I just have too much stuff! The links that I included are for similar products as the exact ones I have are no longer available.
CD RACK-this needs a new crafty name
And finally, this is one of my re-organization projects. I plan to use this rack to house my card making pieces and parts. This is an old CD rack from Ikea that of course is no longer sold because who has CD’s anymore! Anyway, it will hold pre-made card bases, top layers and envelopes. I’m hoping that having some pieces cut and ready to go will make it easier for me to get cards made and ultimately send out more cards. I’m also planning to have some cards completely pre-made that can be used at a moments notice. I will have pre-made cards for birthday, thank you, congratulations, sympathy, just because and any other category that I can think of. Pre-making cards is a way for me to be creative just for the sake of creativity. However, I will still make unique cards for my friends and family!
The other positive consequence of using this rack to house card making parts means that other areas are freed up for storage (or to remain empty)!
The process moves on and I am pleased with the progress. One of the harder parts of this project will be clearing out my work table. It has a ton of storage (usually a good thing) and I have done a great job of getting lots in that space.
Wish me luck!!
