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I don't have a stamping room I work on my dinning room table. I have Iris drawer carts for everything and everything has a place. The only thing I leave out on my table while I am making cards it my paper trimmer and my Cuttlebug . When I use anything else I immediately put it back in it's place in the drawers. It only takes a minute to put it away and I never have a mess to clean up.
I have each color of my card stock in a Glad 2 & 1/2 gallon plastic bag . The scraps from each color go back in the plastic bag. This way I can find a small piece when I need it .
When I stamp I have the stamp cleaner, a baby wipe and the scrubber out. I clean a stamp the minute I finish using it and put it away.
The extra few minutes it takes to put things away right after I use them saves hours of cleaning later. I know where it should be stored I just took it out.
When I get a new stamp set I either cut it apart and put it in a Univenture binder or as with SU I put the stamps on their wood mounts. They are all ready to go when I want to use them
When I get a new MS punch I make a sample and then put the name of the punch on the sample AND on the punch so I can remember the name. I look through and tryout my samples when I am trying to decide which punch to use.
Last edited by Barbara Jay; 01-04-2011 at 07:42 AM..
My best tip would be to get a cat--I have to keep everything on the stamping table put away (especially ribbons which dangerous for them) or my cats think that they need to make cards themselves. On a more serious note, I am pretty much OCD in that area and cannot stand to have things left out and not put away so I clean up after every project (for the most part anyway).
I clean up periodically as I work. I let things dry while I clean up and put away what I'm finished using. Then it isn't so overwhelming when I'm finished working. (It also gives my eyes a rest and my back a stretch.)
Make sure everything has a "home", and put things back in their homes as you work.
I also have a few tricks I've picked up along the way:
I have a small plastic cup that I use to collect little scraps that are too small to reuse. The contents of the cup get dumped into my recycling bin when I'm done.
I make sure that the things I use often have "homes" within arms-reach. For example, my cutter, black ink pad, stamp cleaner, bone folder, stamp-a-ma-jig, scrap paper for under my work surface, pencils, stumps and gamsol, and ATG gun are all in easy reach from where I sit.
I clean stamps as I go. I don't put them back until I'm done, but I have a staging area for stamps that are ready to be put away.
My desk is still a wreck after I create a card, but since I've adopted these strategies, it's a controlled and easy to clean wreck.
Now that's a good question, cause I have no idea. I've been organizing my craft room this AM and I've been finding "lost" items in some very unusual places.
I think I have a good system going, then it all falls apart when I have a stamping day. Any ideas will be taken into account, but not necessarly put
into practice.
Going nuts,
Goodnuff
1) Start with an organized space where every item has its home.
2) Clean up after each project before you start a new one. This is much faster if you have #1.
I love organizing. If I can't always stick to plan 2 then when I do go to clean everything up I already know where it goes for the most part so it goes a lot quicker.
My best tip would be to get a cat--I have to keep everything on the stamping table put away (especially ribbons which dangerous for them) or my cats think that they need to make cards themselves. On a more serious note, I am pretty much OCD in that area and cannot stand to have things left out and not put away so I clean up after every project (for the most part anyway).
Purrrfect, I have one cat that loves to eat paper, right now my craft room is a mess, but it has a door lol.
it is apparent from looking at my craft room that i have absolutely no idea.....:rolleyes:
Me too! I spent 2 hours Sunday cleaning/straightening up my craft room.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jennifer Styles
Step 1: win lottery
Step 2: hire personal stamping assistant whose sole job it is to tidy up after you
Easy, peasy ;)
This would be the only way I know how to get it done.
The only other suggestion I have is don't stamp - but then that's not really an option. I'm in my room every day doing something. I think my biggest problem is having too much stuff and nowhere to put it. I'm outgrowing my room and I've only been in here a little over a year. I'm soon going to have to rent another house for all my stuff.
Doesn't exist in my life....I can always dream though!
shellie
I'm afraid that I am with you, shellie. I try to keep it relatively neat, and my stamps and papers are usually where they should be, but everytime I seem to clean up my workroom, little reverse Brownies seem to mess it up overnight.
I'm with Shellie, in my life organised stamping space is just an oxymoron. I have places to keep my stuff - just not enough. I keep getting more and more, no matter how much I tell myself I don't really need it. Organisation is just a concept I don't have any idea how to carry out. lol.
Clean up? What's that? My stampinin shop is in our basement and for some reason or other, even though everything has a place within reach, I cannot for the life of me keep it clean up. I will take a couple hours to clean it all up and wam, bam thank you mam, it's a mess in about an hour!!! LOL!!!!
I've found the trick--I just give up, close the door and walk away.
Between the fabric, sewing machines (yes, plural), buttons, stamps, the trimmers and multiple embossing/die cutting machines, buttons, paper and cs, buttons, inkpads, rotary cutters/rulers/mats, buttons, ribbon, and books, I just have too much stuff to ever organize. I am the "out of sight, out of mind" type of person, so if it isn't out I forget to use it. I am very fortunate to have a free standing studio not attached to the house, so I can make a mess and nobody sees it.
I can say it, but I just don't do it. When the wheels are turning, I just go with the flow and clean up later.
__________________ Linda E
Caution: You are entering an artistic zone. This is not clutter - this is creating. These are not pajamas - it's my work uniform.
Is there any such thing as a clean craft room??? I have never seen one, well only in pictures and even I can make my room "look" clean in pictures.....
When I do each time before I stamp I clean like crazy for 10 minutes. Then I stamp and clean up everything I used. Gradually it gets cleaner, but then I have some kind of crunch, like I need a card right now and I have to skip the cleaning step and it all spirals downward from that.
I find it hard to clean up as I go because I don't know if I'm going to use the same tool/product again on that card/layout, but I ALWAYS clean EVERYTHING up before starting a new project. I am absolutely NOT a neat freak (check my walk-in closet for evidence) but I cannot create with yesterday's mess all over my space... That's how I keep it clean/organized!
__________________
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I design for: Stampendous!, There She Goes, Technique Tuesday,
SRM Stickers and Deconstructed Sketches.
My tip -- don't lock yourself into one organizational system. What works for you for use and storage now may not work at all in a year. We all change and add to our stuff as well as change which things we use the most often. I used to have a lot of supplies in their own boxes and trays lined up on shelves. Now many of those boxes have been combined into one big box for storage when I realized how seldom I use some things.
Mary Beth
I keep buying all these items to organize my stuff. For some reason it seems like no how many organizing things I buy I'm still not organized. I wonder, do I actually have to use these things to become somewhat organized?
1 - toss, sell, give away things you really are not going to use, out of style, you're hoarding
2 - clean, organize, and label everything
3 - shut door and never go back in your stamp room (chuckle)
I have a very organized room but pure and simple I'm a messy stamper. It all gets down to putting away the supplies when you finish a project. If I would do it, my room would never be messy.
1) Start with an organized space where every item has its home.
2) Clean up after each project before you start a new one. This is much faster if you have #1.
I love organizing. If I can't always stick to plan 2 then when I do go to clean everything up I already know where it goes for the most part so it goes a lot quicker.
ITA.:grin:
It also helps me that my embellishments, paper, ribbon are organized by color, not type. Everything red is in the red drawer, everything green is in the green drawer, etc. It's so easy to find stuff and put it back without having to do more than glance.
Periodic purges as mentioned previously by someone...
Annual down to the bone cleaning
Put cleaned stamps away as soon as done.
paper scraps sorted into ROYGBIV and in a standing bin from Target right on desktop for instant access.
open shelves for punches(foldand lock kind) with bins to hold them, CD racks for other type
Really strong boxes from Staples (it is UK brand of plastic storage that I love) for embellishments and ribbon rolls.
paper in commerial plastic trays like in a store
pegboard above desk for grab and go tools
labels everywhere
and sometimes I just give up and make it messy..........
__________________ c-mouse-If you can't say nuttin nice--don't say nuttin at all. Thumper. Pansy
Card Sketch Challenge 1-227 done only 396+ to go to be caught up!!!!!
What's your best tip for keeping stamping area organized?
