Craft room reorganization

Purging and reorganizing strikes me every January. It isn't a resolution, it is more of a reaction to putting Christmas decor away and getting daily life back to normal with an emphasis on finding things easily.

I have multiple hobbies that compete for storage space but I've realized over the past few years that some hobbies will never be in the forefront again and that is okay. Those supplies have been pared down and stored in the hardest to reach places.  I've written about this before, such as this post, four years ago.  Since then, I did a major reorganization of my stamps and dies, organizing them by theme.  Last year I began using Evernote, an online database that I can access anywhere and find helpful. 

My problem with organizing by theme is that it didn't work well for me. I had too many crossovers, and beyond that, I seem to be wired to think in terms of designers and manufacturers rather than themes. Organizing is a personal choice. One size doesn't fit everyone, you must find what works for you. I think I am finally there.

Besides Evernote, I have been keeping records of all my stamps, dies, embossing folders and stencils for years. I use Access, a database that doesn't bet much attention these days, and have binder pages stored in Word that I print and store in physical binders. Part of this is my nature, the rest comes from extensive record keeping for a business. In order to sort my stamps, I printed A-Z lists of what I had by manufacturers. I checked the physical stamp set against the list and also made sure the binder page in Word was accurate. Sorting was a much bigger project than my craft room would allow, it took over the front of the house for a day and a half. I did not take photos of the mess (plural, if I'm being honest!) on the floor.

 

I've been amassing this inventory for a very long time. It is good to look at each set occasionally, not just the photo, and remember why it was purchased. One particular phrase might have been enough to buy a collection of Get Well wishes, or maybe it was that one critter that reminded me of a beloved pet and her antics.

I am pleased to say that before January was 9 days old, everything was back in my craft room. I'd like to say that the shelves in the first picture aren't always so cluttered, but this is a "good" day and I actually know what is in everything.

The binders on the bottom left next to the gray stoarage cube have photos of stamps, dies, embossing plates, stencils and one is dedicated to only Stampin' Up products.

I'm working on finding a place for these bins that hold cardstock in hanging folders. I want to protect them from sunlight but don't have room on the shelves yet so they may simply be moved to the floor.

Below is the view of where I work. The rack on the wall once held teacups but I don't do tea parties anymore. I am really a coffee drinker, the tea was back in my smocking days when I was part of a group that did that type of sewing.

Carts wheel in and out of the closet, holding my supplies. This room was a bedroom before we added onto the house 22 years ago. The cabinets and book shelves were added a few years later and this was primarily a sewing room.

The pink paper is heavy cardstock, identifying manufactures on the tall sheets or contents on the smaller sheets on the bins themselves. The cart with the multicolored drawers is not as stable as I had hoped. the bins on the top have dies in them, the drawers have specialty papers, odd sized stencils, and embellishments. The bin and those drawers need labels but they might be tweaked a bit before I am ready to assign labels.

I bought a binder for storing metal dies from We R Memory Keepers to hold dies that are not matched to a particular stamp set. Each page is a pouch with a sliding closure. The black that you see is heavy cardboard with a magnetic sheet attached. no more small dies popping off of flimsy magnetic sheets and becoming lost!

And lastly, one view of a stamp binder. Where Evernote is a good search engine for me if I want to look for anything tagged "birthday", I find using the binder pages is good for me to compare using a character from one set with trees from another. I use sticky notes place on these page protectors to remind me of something I might want to try for a card 4 months from now. 

A benefit of doing this is the reminder of what I already own and that the new stamp set being featured somewhere really isn't different enough from what I already have to warrant another purchase. I dropped out of a Stampin' Up club, not because of the people in the group, but because I couldn't find items to purchase every month that were interesting. I also stopped stamp or die of the month subscriptions elsewhere for the same reason except for Spellbinders which I recently joined because I really, really needed a particular die that was only available to club members. The good news is that I can decline a month at any time without penalty.

If I get the rest of my life this organized, look out world!!! 

Don't hold you breath on that happening.