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I think this would work, I haven't tried it yet but what the he!!. Finish a project and put away all the items you got out, before you leave your work space. That or hire a new house elfs to do the clean up, the house elf here isn't cutting it and my have to go back to work for that guy in the red suit and white beard.
I think it is time for a true story. One that has a moral. ;-)
Once upon a time in SB co-hosting retreat land, I was not in charge of seat assignments. I never worried about seat assignments, because I had ALWAYS made that my charge. I'm a very, very, very messy scrapper.
Shock of all shocks, I was assigned a seat next to THE most well organized, cleanNIK scrapper I have ever known. She pulls out her LO blueprint, then everything she needs to create the LO, creates, then cleans, then starts all over again.
I was horrified I would spill over into her area (as I almost always do when I only have 3 ft of space and not 6 ft. SO, I placed a little masking tape on the edge of the table so when I crossed over, I could tell I was in her space. That weekend, I was actually stamping and making ATCs, so I wasn't as worried as I would have been if I had been SBing. My spot was next to the wall and all weekend I sensed I was getting closer and closer to the wall....and for GOSH sakes, my STUFF kept creeping over the masking tape line. But, I was a busy beaver, because I had to get my project finished and I just trudged on...not making a big deal of it, even though I was beginning to feel claustrophobic.
On Sunday, about 6 of our friends came in after breakfast and stood over our table and everyone was grinning. My cleanNIK tablemate was laughing her arse off. They all asked me if I had enough space and I sheepishly said "Apparently not, because I've been creeping over the 3 ft masking tape line all weekend." :confused: One of them took a tape measure out and measured my space....TWO FT. All weekend, when I would get up, my tablemate would move the tape over one inch. They were all in on it. Ha Ha Ha....I think I laughed the most.
First moral of the story....no matter how much or how little space I have to work/play within...I CAN get the job done. Second moral of the story....measure your space every time you come back to the table when you have friends like mine.
Final assumption: There are "CleanNIKs" and there are "Messies"....I'm a lifetime member of the "Messies". I will never be a cleanNIK when it comes to scrappin/stampin, so I have to just bite the bullet and do a big cleaning at the end. ;)
I think it is time for a true story. One that has a moral. ;-)
Once upon a time in SB co-hosting retreat land, I was not in charge of seat assignments. I never worried about seat assignments, because I had ALWAYS made that my charge. I'm a very, very, very messy scrapper.
Shock of all shocks, I was assigned a seat next to THE most well organized, cleanNIK scrapper I have ever known. She pulls out her LO blueprint, then everything she needs to create the LO, creates, then cleans, then starts all over again.
I was horrified I would spill over into her area (as I almost always do when I only have 3 ft of space and not 6 ft. SO, I placed a little masking tape on the edge of the table so when I crossed over, I could tell I was in her space. That weekend, I was actually stamping and making ATCs, so I wasn't as worried as I would have been if I had been SBing. My spot was next to the wall and all weekend I sensed I was getting closer and closer to the wall....and for GOSH sakes, my STUFF kept creeping over the masking tape line. But, I was a busy beaver, because I had to get my project finished and I just trudged on...not making a big deal of it, even though I was beginning to feel claustrophobic.
On Sunday, about 6 of our friends came in after breakfast and stood over our table and everyone was grinning. My cleanNIK table-mate was laughing her arse off. They all asked me if I had enough space and I sheepishly said "Apparently not, because I've been creeping over the 3 ft masking tape line all weekend." :confused: One of them took a tape measure out and measured my space....TWO FT. All weekend, when I would get up, my table-mate would move the tape over one inch. They were all in on it. Ha Ha Ha....I think I laughed the most.
First moral of the story....no matter how much or how little space I have to work/play within...I CAN get the job done. Second moral of the story....measure your space every time you come back to the table when you have friends like mine.
Final assumption: There are "CleanNIKs" and there are "Messies"....I'm a lifetime member of the "Messies". I will never be a cleanNIK when it comes to scrappin/stampin, so I have to just bite the bullet and do a big cleaning at the end. ;)
This is too funny!!
I don't think it matters if you are a messy or CleanNik scrapper as long as it works for you.
Just do what works for you and don't feel guilty. If you need everything out in sight that is fine. If you need to put everything away immediately that is also fine.
The goal is to make nice cards or scrapbook pages and have fun , not to win the Good Housekeeping white glove award for your scrap area
I do a job and finish it before I start something else. I Have a daughter who will simultaneously be cooking dinner, washing clothes and vacuuming in between. Both of us are correct for our style of working . My slow methodical style would drive her nuts and my head would be spinning if I did things her way
Dragonwold I just checked this thread out and read your comment about your paper eating cat. I have one of those too and all these years I just thought she was a little wierd - lol. I'm so happy to find you have one too. She's not fussy. She'll eat any paper she can find. Won't eat cat food she doesn't care for but a yummy Kleenex tissue - yum!
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 wouldn't have even thought of mentioning that but it's so true!! Sometimes I'm tempted to walk away, but when I start seeing things that are too attractive to them, and imagining "what if," I end up putting everything away!
I will second a lot of the comments above -- "a place for everything, everything in its place," and cleaning up frequently. I'll sometimes completely clean up between cards. It clears my head, I think, too.
Not that I know any differently, but I imagine that it's easier in a smaller space, too, if you have the aforementioned place for everything. I can stand in one spot and simply turn back and forth and get everything stored.
Get a cat, preferably a kitten. LOL, just kidding! But that does keep me from leaving my cardmaking and needlework stuff spread out everywhere and the kitchen clean.
But I clean up as I go and work on one project at a time. I also keep tools put away in drawers and don't have a ton of stuff to begin with.
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
This is a great point -- I often have thought I had it all permanently resolved, and then something changes, or I'll have an "aha moment" or see the perfect storage solution, and everything shifts again! Or buy that one thing ... I recently bought the Vagabond, and did a huge re-do of the closet ~ and it's not even IN the closet!!!! :mrgreen:
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.
It's posts like this that remind me I am an impostor and shouldn't participate in these discussions! Organizing is easy for me because I have less. If you don't count ribbon and buttons, my embellishments are pretty much in two of the SU turquoise (formerly punch kit) tins.
I am truly impressed by those of you with so much who still manage to keep it organized.
..... My cleanNIK tablemate was laughing her arse off. They all asked me if I had enough space and I sheepishly said "Apparently not, because I've been creeping over the 3 ft masking tape line all weekend." :confused: One of them took a tape measure out and measured my space....TWO FT. All weekend, when I would get up, my tablemate would move the tape over one inch. They were all in on it. Ha Ha Ha....I think I laughed the most....... ;)
:mrgreen: Thanks for sharing this story!!! I'll never forget this one - you're a great sport, too!!!
1. Have a daughter with 6 kids under the age of 10 who comes to visit frequently.
2. Keep all your supplies in a spare bedroom on bookshelves and in labeled see-through containers.
3. Do your stamping on a table in the living room, requiring you to bring out only what you need for your project from the spare room. I have a couple of sturdy shallow boxes I found at Sam's that I load up with whatever I'm going to use. It takes a couple of trips.
4. Before the doorbell rings and the kids arrive, take everything back to the spare room and put it away.
__________________ Bugga in OK
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." Dalai Lama
