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How do you stay organized?? Do you have a whole *room* or just a space for stampin'?
I have'nt messed with my stamping / scrapping things in over a year because life was just too hectic (looooong story) but am ready to get back into things full force.... now comes the major job of getting everything accesible again! I *had* a whole room dedicated to scrapping/stamping but it was taken apart in order to make a nursery , but we dont need a nursery after all soooooooooooo I am now trying to decide if I want to set up the room again OR keep things transportable (shelves on wheels that could be moved instead of things mounted on the wall.... kwim)
Right now some of my stuff unit is on a shelf in the garage, some of it is in a closet in the back room, and some is.... well you get the picture :o)
I've decided to UM my stamps so that maybe I can save some space there and get everything all in 1 spot PLUS transportable (thats a BIG plus!) My Mom and my Sil scrap too but we don't get together to scrap as it's such a major thing to try to take our things out of the house kwim?!?
So how do YOU get organized??? Any ideas? Suggestions?
You know, I don't think I will be very much help here because I don't have a room I can stamp in (small apartment)...but I will tell you what I do.
I keep my 'loose' stamps and my inks and tools in a large tool box with dividers to keep everything organized and still portable. My paper goes in a portable hanging file box which I have organized by color.
And all my SU! stamps are in a rubbermaid with a handle...all portable.
I live in a small house, and don't have my own stamping space, but soon will be adding a sun room. I have my SU stamps in a cabinet, sort of bookcase style. We've been getting those units you can put together yourself. They're not beautiful, but affordable. I have my paper stored in another similar cabinet. Just the right size for 8 1/2 x 11. I have six of those rolling carts for punches, scissors, tools, embellishments, etc. My non SU stamps are in medium sized pizza boxes on the top shelves of a closet. They're divided into flowers, christmas, animals, feminine, masculine, etc.
I have tool boxes to hold my non SU inkpads, and the spots and twinkling H20's are in fishing tackle boxes. I like everything sort of portable, and hope that I'll be able to keep some stuff in the sun room, and work out there instead of the kitchen table. I'm trying to plan how best to use the space.
I have things stashed in every place imaginable. Good luck to you.
__________________ The best things in life aren't things.
I am lucky- My husband and I refinished our basement last year and we sectioned off a very small room for me amd my scrapbooking supplies- I am a true believer that if I can't see it I won't use it. I have the verticle stoarge from CH for my paper, a large desk, open shelving units and those neat hardwear towers to store my embellishments in......the only problem.....I need a bigger room!!!!
I REALLY won't be much help, my entire basement is my workshop so that is not a plus for you, but.... I do have a suggestion...
It may seem kind of silly but I know I have used this method and others that I know have used this.
Make a mini template of your room, and actually cut out small scale sized bloxs to represent you furniture that you would like to have in your room...you can play around with placement and find exactly what you like where.
Using stacking boxes and drawer units will help with more storage and some of these items are at $$$ stores, I am storageaholic...so I have tons and tons of different storage ideas and constantly looking for new ones.
I you are going to be using a bedroom with a closet, think about changing your closet door to the ventian type doors with the slots?? If you know what I am talking about.. I use these to store all my STAMPING, SCRAPPING, AND OTHER CRAFT magazines they are right there for inspiration
I use an old baby armoir for my paper storage, and cabinets for my colors and paper!
Try the layout thing it's really fun to play around with!
__________________ Being Organized Interferes with my CREATIVITY!
I am lucky- My husband and I refinished our basement last year and we sectioned off a very small room for me amd my scrapbooking supplies- I am a true believer that if I can't see it I won't use it. I have the verticle stoarge from CH for my paper, a large desk, open shelving units and those neat hardwear towers to store my embellishments in......the only problem.....I need a bigger room!!!!
I REALLY won't be much help, my entire basement is my workshop so that is not a plus for you, but.... I do have a suggestion...
It may seem kind of silly but I know I have used this method and others that I know have used this.
Make a mini template of your room, and actually cut out small scale sized bloxs to represent you furniture that you would like to have in your room...you can play around with placement and find exactly what you like where.
Using stacking boxes and drawer units will help with more storage and some of these items are at $$$ stores, I am storageaholic...so I have tons and tons of different storage ideas and constantly looking for new ones.
I you are going to be using a bedroom with a closet, think about changing your closet door to the ventian type doors with the slots?? If you know what I am talking about.. I use these to store all my STAMPING, SCRAPPING, AND OTHER CRAFT magazines they are right there for inspiration
I use an old baby armoir for my paper storage, and cabinets for my colors and paper!
Try the layout thing it's really fun to play around with!
I do have a room with a closet... the only problem there is that we (my 8 yr old dd and myself) also collect American Girl dolls and so I have tranformed that closet into a floor to ceiling doll organizer so it is already FILLED with doll clothes, accesories, furniture etc. There is no where else to move that so I'll just have to share the space.
When I had the room as a craft room I had it lined floor to ceiling with shelves to hold EVERYTHING. It was completely taken apart and gutted in order to turn it into a nursery 2 yrs ago..... dh doesnt want me to hang things all over the wall again on the off chance that a miracle might happen and we might need the room again..... soooo now I'm trying to find a way to organize with the idea of being able to easily move it all if I need to kwim.
I live in New York and the three of us are smushed in a one bedroom. I don't even have a closet to stash craft things in! My stuff is in pretty boxes: hat boxes for the big things like stamp sets, heat tool, etc. and my little stuff is in square stacking boxes...also decorative. So I have a little box for sponges, wheels, ribbons, etc. I had to think of a way to make things look nice since they are out for all to see!
DH and I have worked on the bonus room in our new house for the last couple of months and it's now workable, but not finished. We bought the open stock cabinets and counters from Lowe's and have 3 workspaces (for feet/chairspace). One is for the computer, one for my sewing machine and serger- those are within 1 8ft section. Then across the room in another 8 ft section is the single workspace and it's for stamping/scrapbooking! It only took up a little less than 1/2 the room, so I did some shelving and filing cabinets by the door, and have a little tykes craft desk for dd... and a few boxes left to unpack...
My stuff is in pretty boxes: hat boxes for the big things and my little stuff is in square stacking boxes...also decorative.....I had to think of a way to make things look nice since they are out for all to see!
Sounds like a creative way to organize in a small space.
I have a space for stamping, well, I guess it's more of a room really. Our basement was unfinished when we bought our house a year ago and so I told my hubby that I'd like a crafting space as well. Because we are highly likely to move again and again, I have two folding tables (those meeting hall kind) in an L-shape with two shelves above one desk. My dh put some pot lights on the underside of the lowest shelf and there's a magnet board underneath that shelf as well. I have all my paper in those wire cubes that I attached with tie straps. It rests on a shelf at desk height and underneath that shelf are my rolling carts. So, nothing extremely permanent, but still looks nice!
I'm just the opposite I guess - I like things in containers so that they don't gather dust - LOL. Yep I hoard, but I have purchased drawers from IKEA, the little hardware drawers, etc. Each has a label with what is inside so that I don't have to remember what I put in there. It is working well for me. I'll try to post a pic later.
Right now the majority of my supplies and work surface is in a closet. It is not a walk in type closet though, so I do have to have some plastic drawer carts sitting right outside the closet to house what doesn't fit in there.
Eventually I will end up with a real area of my own with more stationary items for storage. I don't go on the road for scrapping/stamping so I don't need the ability to transport stuff.
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My husband and I share a home office. My "half" of the room (the room is pretty small, actually maybe 7x12') is used for stamping and then I also use it for my school work, etc. I have everything in that room, but not really within arms reach. It would be nice to have a better arrangement that would have everything I need handy, but I don't see it happening in this house!
I have a whole room and am always organizing it. I am always finding things I never knew I had. My DH took me to Home Depot and into the organizing isle. Then he asked what I need to store my things and how much work space I need. He then drew a picture and got building. I have cabnets and shelves and two counters in a L. I love it and would recemend Home Depot organizations cabniets. We did look at Lowes but they were much more and I could get more cabniets at Home Depot. Good Luck
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I have a room (actually 2 small rooms....old farmhouse with a goofy layout! LOL) and have plenty of space, but I can never sty organized. I re-organize every other week! Oh well.....I can always close the door. I seem to get more stamping done when things are all over the place anyway!!
Lots of great ideas and suggestions, though!
We have a little sitting room, (more like a nook) that I have my craft table in. I have an old open TV stand that I put the things that I used the most and than I have my stamps in an Iris cart. I also have a huge cabinet that DH got me at Target. It has tons of space. I don't have very many stamp, yet but the cabinet will hold a lot as I get them, can't wait to fill it.
__________________ Julie Paper Thoughts One of Kota's Kids
I have my whole rumpus room as my stamp room, but chances are you can scale down some of my ideas.
my stamps are stored in those white shoe shelves, they have them in the hardware dept at walmart, they are stackable and the shelves fit many across and 4 high, i will take some pics tonight and post.
I also have CH vertical storage containers for my 12x12 paper. and a rolling rack for my 8.5x11 paper.
I have CH mini Square boxes for my embelishments, they store in the embelishment box, but are easy to get out and use just one type of embelishments.
I also have all of my ribbon and cord in the CH large square boxes, i havent gotten around to labeling them yet, but i will.
anyways when i get home i can post some pics of how i keep organised. hopefully it will help someone!!
Those pantry cabinet things that Rubbermaid sells could be a great solution for you. they are like bookcases but with two doors on the front. You could line a wall with a few of those and store a lot of stuff well-organised, and if you needed to empty the room it is just a matter of moving the pantries out to the garage til you figure out what to do with them.
I was also thinking that you could get a deep work counter that would fit along one wall, then roll Iris carts underneath for storage and portability, and get some of those cheap little bookcases (again Ruibbermaid makes some) and set them on top of the counter against the wall like a hutch. You would probably want to use brackets to bolt the tops of the shelves against the wall to protect against tipping (not an issue normally but there is always that ONE TIME when the weird happens and a bookcase falls over). Then, if you need to vacate the room you just need to remove a few screws and move everything out to the garage.
I have a small room, but it is more like an oversized closet. :???: But, it works!! ;)
I am a visual person. I have to *see* something to know if it will work for me. I spend HOURS in the gallery here trying to organize my room. Check this link out for some ideas. Studios, Rooms and Craft Closets by barbfarmd at Splitcoaststampers
When I first moved here, I relied on SCS for the ideas and inspiration for my organization and set up of my stamp space! :-D
i do have a big bag (sitting beside my dinningroom table on the floor) for my favorite stamps ( have too many favorite sets and the bag is way to small) plus paper and the stamps i do use so often they are in a seperate box.
i would say this doesnt work for me!!!! i also need to see what i have to get inspired. iam not happy with the situation. i would love to have a table where i just could leave everything out when the kids wake up from their nap. now i need to clean everything tidy because otherwise the kids are in my stuff or we can not eat.
oh well.. i really hope next year we have money to get the basement started
One wall has a 10' counter top with cabinets, I also have a 9' table for my stamping friends.
We are in the process of finishing our basment and my room, so it feels like it is constantly changing. But eventually everything will have it's place in either the overhead cabinets or the cabinet below the counter top!
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not a dumb idea at all! My dad was an industrial engineer...he showed my sister and I how to do this when we were kids. We'd make up templates for our bedroom and furniture & move the pieces of paper around...a whole lot easier than having to move the furniture itself to see if it'll fit.
Ok here is My Stamp Room Organizing Pics
I loaded them in my photobucket instead of bombaring yu with 3 posts just to get them on here!!
Let me know if you have any questions about any of my ideas.
Ooooh! Loved the pictures! AND I have that same cart, the same container for embelishments, plus the vertical paper holder! So YAY now I have some ideas! I know I know I should have already thought of them since i DO have the tools... but out of sight out of mind kwim.
I have a used book sale to attend tomorrow BUT after that I plan to spend the next week organizing my scrap things... PLUS my EZ mount stuff should be here monday or tuesday YAY.
I am not that computer litterate to be able to do pics....yet. CH stands for the company chropper hopper. Have fun with your room and if you are a computer buff I would love to see some pics once it's done. There are some great pics of peoples scrappin spaces on two peas in a bucket and I'm not sure but maybe here too?
I used, CROPPER HOPPER EMBELLISHMENT BOXES-MINI CLEAR
i got them from www.scrapbooking.ca but i am sure any cropper hopper distributer can get them for you, 90 of those little boxes fit into the EMBELLISHMENT ORGANIZER - BLUE and then the other side of the organizer can be used to hold the tools needed to set eyelets, scissors etc. I labeled them with avery clear return address labels, the boxes come with labels, but you haqve to hand write to them and they are not clear. I think i used a size 7 font.
oh yes and I almost forgot, i am getting a kitchen tool caddy from pampered chef for all the tools like glue, scissors, etc that i use every day, its large enough to even fit my wheel guide in it.
I basically took over my DH "Yankee Baseball" room and had costum built ins made. One thing you have to have is draws. I lived out of those plastic draws for years. Also the SU caddy is great to store all those ink pads.
i am lucky to have a whole room.. i have pics on my blog ( which is screwy right now, but you can still look at them)
my room isnt pretty.. it is thrown together ( we only rent so didnt want to go crazy) but its a room i can be productive in, which i NEED with all the classes i teach.. and i can see all my stamps and supplies which {rocks} so i dont forget what i have ;) ( not that i have sooo much that i would *ever* forget ;) ) so it looks more cluttered this way.. BUT its in my basement... no need to be pretty
Ok here is My Stamp Room Organizing Pics
I loaded them in my photobucket instead of bombaring yu with 3 posts just to get them on here!!
Let me know if you have any questions about any of my ideas.
Lindsay - VERY cool. And I just LOVE your paper cart. Where did you get it? I just bought the CH rolling cart after lusting after it for MONTHS... I hope I didn't make a mistake
i am lucky to have a whole room.. i have pics on my blog ( which is screwy right now, but you can still look at them)
my room isnt pretty.. it is thrown together ( we only rent so didnt want to go crazy) but its a room i can be productive in, which i NEED with all the classes i teach.. and i can see all my stamps and supplies which {rocks} so i dont forget what i have ;) ( not that i have sooo much that i would *ever* forget ;) ) so it looks more cluttered this way.. BUT its in my basement... no need to be pretty
Where do I find your blog?? I'd love to see your pictures!
Okay, I've posted a couple of pictures of my stamping space. It's pretty portable because we are likely to move in a few years. So here's the links (once approved!):
Wow!! I just read thru tons of great storage ideas!!! Thanks!!!
I'm in a small house, but we decided to use our living room as our homeschool/craft room. No couches or living room type of furniture (thanks to DD's cats!!!) Soooooo, now we have desks for the kids and a big craft table and shelves for me!! I need to get a few more containers so I can subdivide........I have 3 very large containers w/ lids but I have to dig too much to find what I need!!!
I do have an idea that my two friends and I just came up with........we took digital pics of ALL of our stamps (either indiv. or sets) and numbered them and put together our own booklet! Each pic has a number (each of us are assigned a different color and font) so we can ask to borrow a specific stamp or set. Then I have the numbered stamps in small shoebox type containers with lids in numerical order (1-30, 31-50, etc).
I sure hope that made sense........I think my fingers type faster than my brain works sometimes!!!! ;)
How do you stay organized?? Do you have a whole *room* or just a space for stampin'?
