more organizing

Now I have posted about designing a craft room or area and I have posted about some of the organizing items that are out there and now I am going to expand a little bit…

I showed how I store my ribbons in glass jars; some still on the original spool (ones I haven’t opened yet) and some on round headed clothes pins. (see picture below) I will wrap the ribbon and pin the end. I don’t like pinning them but it is the easiest I have found so far…any other ideas feel free to let me know. I also put all of my buttons in a jar..now I say jar but most of them are more like vases. Anyway my buttons go in there unless I got them for something specific, then I put them somewhere safe so I don’t use them and then forget where I put them. Gotta love it!

 

I can't stand that I can't put these pics where I want them! LOL

I bought; for 75% off, this little hanging thing…I think I paid 3.00 and then bought the little jars for like 4. I found it on one of the back isles of Michael's. I have some of my larger brads in the jars.

I have a place where I put all of my scrap paper. I do it by color in hanging folders. I try to check there before I actually make a card or do a project to see if I can use that stuff up. I really recommend this because you either throw away good scraps or you pile it up and never use it. If it is organized (by color & theme) you know right where to go.

As I sit here so many thought s run through my head…did I forget something? (I am sure I did) Did I mention this, that and anything else? Well I can always do another post!

Hugs!

organize it

Papers, pens, and ribbons oh my…where do I put it all and still find it next time?

I am always on the lookout for new and better storage and organization and it can get overwhelming trying to decide what to use and for what. Paper alone can be a hassle, if not stored properly it can get torn or bent up. Have you ever bought something with a specific purpose in mind and you get it home and low and behold it won’t work. You end up accumulating stuff that just sits and sits and sits. Well hopefully some of this will help you find your way out of that mess!

There are so many things out there that you can buy; everything from paper holders to ribbon dispensers that are specific to that item. But I say check around your house, garage sales, and thrift stores see what you can find that you can make work. (works for finding furniture too)

I went to IKEA and bought towel rods in different lengths, as well as some of their hanging bins and baskets. I put some of my large punches on the rods and some of my hand held punches in the baskets. I put my smooch sprays, inks and some of my gel pens in the hanging bins. Here are some pictures…

  
I think I spent less than $30 on 3 rods, 3 baskets, 4 bins and 4 small glass jars. I thought it was a good deal and all items are useful! I also bought some glass jars, in different sizes, for my loose flowers,  ribbon spools, buttons and beads. I like how all the different colors look on my shelves….

I bought the Jetmax Embellishment Center and Desktop Carousel, I believe they used to be built by Making Memories, not sure. Anyway I bought both at Michaels when they were on sale. I bought the plastic jars and the drawers that go with the center…took out the ribbon rods because it was hard to replace them when I used the whole roll. You have to take off however many if the one in the middle is the one you finished! LOL  I like the plastic jars for brads, clips, eyelets, etc…they are light weight and come in a few different sizes.

I found some art bin cases that I store items in that I have broken down by theme. For instance I have one for dogs, kits, wedding, etc, I also have ones with my vacation stuff in it, pictures of the kids, and so much more! It is so nice to need something for a wedding card or page and viola there it is.

Paper is one of the hardest things in my opinion to store. I started out with it flat, laid in slots in cubes. But unless you are doing just a few sheets you end up pulling out more than you want. Same if you store them straight up in the cubes. Then I tried hanging folders, but that didn’t work for me either. So I went and bought the cropper hopper vertical paper holders (got the value pack 12 x 12) to go on my shelves in my cabinet. I store by color in the large holders and in the small ones I put my specialty papers. Just have to be careful pulling the holders in and out so the ends don’t bend.  I put my smaller paper, again by color, on shelves but not in holders. When I say by color I follow the roy g biv from elementary school! Do you remember that? (red, yellow, orange, green, blue, indigo, violet) Makes it easy to organize!

Now for my copics! I purchased towers from Studio 3 Solutions to hold them all! I know, I know I could have made my own but these are perfect and I took them out of the box and they were ready for action! Here is the site:   http://www.studio3solutions.com/ I love them and they hold a lot!

I had a utensil caddy from Papered Chef, but I gave it away a few years ago. It’s funny how you change how you want things to be arranged and you get rid of it then later on find you wish you hadn’t! Been there, done that several times!

I truly could go on and on but I won’t bore you anymore! LOL I am posting some tips about storage and organization on the tip and tricks page so check that out before you go! Oh just one more thing..yes it’s the last on this post..truly it is! LABEL I mean it label everything. I cannot stress this enough!

Take Care!

Craft Room...ideas

Organized?  Who me? Actually when I look around my craft room I see that everything pretty much has a place to be. Now weather I put stuff back in those places is another story! LOL

OK…where do you craft…do you have a specific area? Or at the dining room table?  I started at the dining room table, went to a corner of my bedroom and was lucky to move into my very own craft room last summer.  Our oldest moved out and we ended up with the space! Yeah me!

It is always nice to have a blank slate to design your craft area or room! But as it is for most of us we started buying or acquiring things before we made a plan. If you are happy with what you have right now…STOP and come back in a few days for a different post. If you want some ideas or tips keep reading!

Now if you are working with a small space like a closet or just a spot in a room I can recommend a few things. First go tall. Use up the space you have with shelving units, stackables, or cube units. Then I would purchase a folding table or cart for actually doing your work on. It's nice with a fold-a-way- style because when you are done for the day you can put it away. Some of the craft carts are nice because a lot of times they have storage built right in! Storage is needed, but a good work area is a must.

Here are some pictures of what I started with….



I put 2 different bookcases and a stackable drawer onto the top of a folding table.         

This was after I got my cabinet from For-Keeps and got my desk from Target. The For-Keeps has a counter that pulls out of the bottom section.

Shelving units can be the wall mounted with brackets or book cases stacked, but the wall mounted would be less expensive. (I bought the 16” wide shelves as well as the standard size) I like these because you can put as much space as you need between them and you can mount those brackets floor to ceiling! Gives you a lot of space!

 

Here is a picture of part of my wall shelves. I like the fact if I want to change them I can!










Stackables, depending on what you are using can get expensive, especially if you go wood. I bought my cabinet (which you see above and later) at www.for-keep-sake.com. They carry several items that you can put together to make the area you want.  Here are some other sites you can check out… www.bestscrapbookshelf.com  www.scrapncube.com  and www.theoriginalscrapbox.com . Some of these can get expensive but they will last forever!

Cubes, cubes and more cubes. I love mine. I bought mine at Target, on sale for half off.  But what I like about them is you can build it how you want it. I do not recommend using the long shelf as a desk though. It’s just not that sturdy for cutting and it’s not that wide. It’s great as a shelf in the unit though. Also I had bought the round, corner cube and don’t really like it. It doesn’t hold my books the way I wanted…so I put my 2 scrapbooking cases there.

You can see the 2 cases there on the left. The drawers are great to have...more on that later.

In my so humble opinion a desk is a must have! Your computer has to have a home! LOL Nice thing is you can find a decent desk at reasonable prices. AND a desk usually has drawers or shelves…another spot to put stuff! You can always build your own…depending on how handy you or your spouse is. Mine can do stuff like that but getting him to do it is another thing! LOL So think about what you would use the most and get to it!

Now if you have a whole room to design you can get crazy! Well depending on your budget. If I could do my room all over I would add more peg board! It’s really inexpensive, but very versatile. Of course you have your regular hooks, but you can add baskets, bins, or buckets. AND you can design it as you want and change it anytime you want to. I found a board at Lowes for my mom for $3.00 and it was 2’ x 8’. Like I said I would have added more if I would have thought about it.

The wall mounted shelves, the cubes, and stackables are also good when designing a room.  I recommend making a diagram of your room using graph paper and make miniature examples of what you want to put in the room. This way you can move stuff around without the weight! And you can buy only what you really want knowing it will fit.

The best thing that I purchased for my room was a table. I bought a black one from Target that has 2 36” bookcases on each end and a table top that sets right on top of the two cases. It is 51” long by 38” wide. And it is counter height! I love being able to stand or sit as I want. Fits great in the center of the room!
Here are some pictures:

I have my copics, stickles, cuttlebug and a desktop organizer on top and still have plenty of room to work. I have storage drawers and my folders of my printed digis as well as some paper stored under the table. On each side I store paper, photo boxes (filled with all kinds of stuff), sew mini, and books.

There are more out on the market that are about the same as what I paid and some even a little less. Here are some sites I found:  www.target.com  they carry Venture and Coastline www.racksandcabinets.com for Spartan you can also check Sears. All else fails by 2 shelving units you like and make a table top.

Ok enough about rooms. Next post will be about getting the area organized after you have it designed.