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I have been away for the summer and came home to my mess of a stamp room. I would like to get it organized, but where do you even start? I have a hodge podge of storage systems, nothing seems to work. Part of me would love to clean it all out and start over. How do you get the stuff under control? (I know stop shopping would help) Any ideas would be appreciated.
__________________ Martha
"When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life." Jean Shinoda Bolen
Me Too! I haven't been away for anytime, so I have no excuse, but my Bedroom/Stamping area is a complete mess! I shop far too much and I have great ideas, but not the room to do it in. Any and all ideas would be helpful.
__________________ BilliePam, new grandmother to Liam Roscoe
I am a bit of an organizational freak of nature... The first thing you MUST do Is purge! Three piles, Keep, trash & Give Away (or sell) Then start organizing. You would be amazed how much this helps. Ikea is the best and cheapest place I have found for storage. Try the kitchen area lots of stuff that works great in my studio. i have some pictures in my gallery but I need to update as I have made some minor changes. HTH!!!
There is a section of the gallery where many people have posted photos of their stamping spaces. Maybe you'll spot something that could work for you! You could always PM a couple of the folks whose spaces seem te resemble yours.
__________________ Rachel Proud SU! demo and Sci-Fi Geek!
My Stampin' Up! blog "I'm a time traveler -- I point and laugh at archaeologists." 10th Doctor, "Silence in the Library"
It is overwhelming to get started. I agree with the above posters. Start getting rid of stuff you don't use. I had to move to a smaller home. I had to get rid of stuff. However, ever since then I am more organized. Look at the gallery and pick your favorites and use those. I also have two large baskets. One for projects i am working on, and one for stuff I need to put away. The put away basket helps keeps things out of the working area. Labeling cute boxes or totes is so helpful for me. I always forget what I have. I also found picking a few central colors for my room helped it look organized and put togehter. When buying stuff, I wrote down all my supplies, and which ones I used most often. I went to all craft stores, and home improvement stores (i would have good to Ikea, but none in my area). I picked out only what I needed for the supplies I had. This way I did not over buy containers, or storage things that did not really have a purpose for my supplies. Good luck.
i'd start first by picking a storage system that works for you -- boxes, drawers, shelves, etc. doesn't have to be expensive or complicated. then label, label, label. one of the things i love most about my craft area is that i can leave stuff out if i get interrupted in the middle of something which happens a lot (2 little ones and a new furbaby) but since i tend to be a messy creative person to begin with it often looks like a cyclone went through when i return. once a week i do a good straightening ... put everything away in its place. it usually only stays that way for a minute but then i can start fresh getting it mess all over again! i agree that purging is necesssary -- i have used some of those things i just *had* to have and never used as RAK gifts or blog candy. i have also tried really hard to USE stuff instead of hoarding! best of luck!
I agree with all the above who said to start by getting rid of things you have not used or don't need.
Then I would organize by "Big" catagories next. Paper one spot, punches another, embellishments, etc. each in their own section.
After you do that, look at what you have and think of a way to organize those individual areas that suits you best. Think about if you like having everything put away, within reach, how you use things (color, type, texture, patterns, etc) and how you want to spend your time. I find it frustrating wasting my time looking for things due to disorganization.
There are cheap storage ideas for everything. Before I had my stamp room, I used Iris carts for stamps (organized the drawers by type of set or type of stamp) ribbon (in drawers by rows in colors and types) and punches. I used a files for papers (by color folders, brand, texture, metalics, patterns, vellums, etc) and a separate file cart for scraps that were separated the same way. Embelishments were in a small drawer plastic cabinet that I got at the container store but you can find ones similar at Home Depot or Loew's. Always by my fingertips were my essentials in a spinner from Pampered Chef and my markers are in an Xcube from Office Depot.
So I guess I would start big and work your way down. It should not be as overwhelming that way and it is fun! I love to organize and I hope something in this helps you out. Good luck to you! Pam
I'm in the process of reorganizing right now. My husband and I joined a gym, so we're going to get rid of the treadmill and other exercise stuff we have in one of our spare bedrooms. That means I can move my sewing machine and fabric upstairs and out of my craft room. I'm also getting rid of a 3' square craft table that just takes up too much room and is wobbly. I'm going to get an 8' laminate counter top and a couple small kitchen base cabinets to mount it on. It will give me lots of room and will look better than my old system. DH and I are planning to sell our house and relocate in the next year, so I don't want to put money into storage units until I see what I need. My current room has 3 built in cabinets and I use an iris cart for the things I want to keep handy. What I really need is a way to organize my ribbon. Currently, it's in a lid from a copier paper box. Not ideal, but at least it's all in one place.
__________________ Mary Ann GALLERY Fan Club member since 4/08
Great suggestions! The one thing I can suggest if you are able is use the wall space as much as possible - it really frees up the room! My dh mounted a ginormous 6' x 5' bulletin board (Office Max, 30 bucks!) in my stamp room and I have about 75 embellies & ribbons on that all in plain view, and I change them around as need. The rest are on my Clip It Up. I have another one on the opposite wall that I use as well and it freed up literally two full bins of storage space.
I have 3 file cabinets that hold all my scrap papers by color, images, cut cardstock by color and a stack of ideas that needs to go into a binder. I used plastic gutter pipe for my ribbons, a huge oak literature rack for my stamps (the drawers pull out; it was a rare find by my daughter) as well as two Best carts for stamps, several Iris carts for punches, punch holders on the front and back of my door, parts cabinets (like for nails and screws -- hardware dept. of Target) for punchies and Prima flowers and little fiddly bits, lots of those floss organizer boxes for embellies like buttons and rhinestones, lots of shoeboxes full of stuff (4x6 paper pads, Cuttlebug folders, paints, etc.), 4 paper organizers I got at Sam's Club (have to cut down my 12x12 papers but that gives me lovely scraps too). I have bookshelves (lots) that slicers, envelopes, books and mags, equipment, etc. go on. Probably not the most attractive space but I absolutely love it. If I had it to do over again, I'd have a dedicated shelf for cut cardstock (saw on a blog here) and lots more room for ribbon. It's really a work in progress.
Make a list of what you want near, how much space it will take, how frequently you use something. Make a template of how you'd like that space to look. Graph paper, planning, online research. And then go for it.
Location: Just west of Spokane, WA, on the rim of a lake with a beautiful view
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I had a lot of small stuff that was taking up space, so I bought a cabinet with small shelves inside at different levels and works great for small containers of embellishments, pads of paper, supplies I've gotten on sale, and other odds and ends. It has two doors that my DH put cork boards on that I can keep track of swaps, supplies needed and tacking samples on and of course pictures of my grandchildren. Everyones needs are different, you just have to decide what works best for you. But I do agree with others above, get rid of stuff that you no longer use or need, it just takes up room.
I am a bit of an organizational freak of nature... The first thing you MUST do Is purge! Three piles, Keep, trash & Give Away (or sell) Then start organizing. You would be amazed how much this helps. Ikea is the best and cheapest place I have found for storage. Try the kitchen area lots of stuff that works great in my studio. i have some pictures in my gallery but I need to update as I have made some minor changes. HTH!!!
Okay - was just at your gallery (beautiful cards, by the way) ... to see your studio - This is BEFORE you started working in it, right? LOL. I've set all my bins & drawers & shelves so that I have a U shape (just enough room to walk through) I just swivel around in my chair & everything is at my fingertips - DANG it all, tho, I actually have to GET UP to get the SU stamp sets I want to use, can you believe it - all others are in those plastic drawers on wheels (5 hooked together in a row on one side and 3 on the other with my desk in the middle) I'm down in the unfinished part of the basement - kind of dungeon-y, and lonely sometimes, but on the upside, I DO have plenty of room. Would love to move it up 2 flights to be around people even tho I usually stamp into the wee hours, it's nice to know the DH are close by.
__________________ Collette Heaven Sent For You (my blog) DT Member for Bearly Mine Designs digi papers
If you've got another area of the house that's organized and seems to work well for you, like your kitchen or closet, take cues from that. I realized that food I can't see often spoils before I eat it, so it's all about clear containers and open shelving for me, in the kitchen and in my stamping room! Other people prefer labels and closed boxes, or filing systems...whatever floats your boat!
Plan for growth - don't pick organizers that will "just" hold what you have at this time. If you are like most of us, we keep adding more so you'll want to have space to store all your new goodies
Opt for flexibility - if my way of organizing isn't as convenient as I would like, I change it. Although I like the look of wall cabinets I have adjustable shelf brackets instead. This allows me to change my shelves when I choose with having any construction.
Try it before you buy it all - I've tried some of the storage solutions I see in blogs and here as SCS and for me, they just didn't work and some of the things had to altered so I couldn't take it back. Now, I make sure that what I try, I can take back so if it doesn't work I'm not out the $$
In plain sight - I, also like others, do not use things I can't see. If it's behind something, hard to reach, or not labeled, there is a good chance I won't use it.
Decide if you want pretty or functional - I like both, but sometimes the pretty organization solutions just are not functional.
I have been buying the 12x12 iris boxes when they go on sale at Mikes. When I buy paper or embellsihments for a specific project, I store all the supplies for that project in the project box. When I'm ready to work on the project everything is in one place. Also, if I can't decide on what to make next, I go to my stack of project boxes and pick out my next thing to make. Its fun and its organized.
Stamp room organizing - where to start?
