{31 Days To organize the "hidden" areas of your home} Day 3~ Scrapbooking Supplies
I love to scrapbook!! As anyone who scrapbook knows, with this addicting "hobby" comes a lot
of accouterments. I have drooled over the pictures in magazines of ladies showing off spare rooms dedicated to scrapbooking and scrapbooking alone. While that may be a dream for someday in the distant future, those of us who don't have a spare room to organize all of our STUFF (and I meant stuff with a capital S) have to look for other ways of making sense out of all our nonsense. We have a large dining room in this house. When we first moved in I put an armoire at the end of the dining room to store our school books in. When I purchased shelving units for the books, the armoire was up for grabs. I have a great, oak desk that I put along side of the armoire for a work space. I took the inside measurements of the armoire one Friday night and went out to some yard sales on Saturday morning. I found a great "cubby" style bookcase for $10.00 that is the same shade of wood as the armoire. So I put that in and started loading up my stuff!
In the cubbies, I put my numerous boxed of Stamps and inks, adhesive tapes, etc. On the top shelf I put all the embelishments I have collected. During my many, many trips to the craft stores I would find myself looking at the pretty little jars and storage novelties they sold for scrapbooking, but couldn't bring myself to purchase any of them. While I was organizing, my husband walked in drinking a Starbucks Frappuccino in a glass bottle. "Light-bulb" (said like Gru from Despicable me) I snagged the bottle, took off the label and told him to drink about 8 more bottles. They work wonderful and for me they were free...hubby spent I don't know how much enjoying his overpriced, legal addictive stimulant. I did purchase a paper filing system, using a 50% off coupon, for all the paper I have collected. They are plastic folders with a flat bottom so they stand up relatively well. I have separated the papers in themes like Christmas, vacation, girly prints, solids etc.
I purchased two sets of these storage systems so I think I have about 8 folders or so. Some are larger than the one shown here but they work really well for me.
Below you can see a close up of the upper part of the armoire. Everything is close at hand so when I feel like working I can just sit down and get started. I spent around $30.00 to purchase the bookshelf and the two paper organizer sets. All of the other storage containers were re-purposed. If you don't have an armoire, you could use a closet, a dresser, a book shelf. I did a Google search for small scrapbook storage spaces and found lots of good ideas. Another benefit from keeping things organized, is that I can see what I have and I don't over buy anymore. Before I go shopping for supplies I take a quick look at the papers I still have and what I may be low on. It is so helpful to have everything in a see through container or storage unit. That doesn't say there aren't a few impulse purchases now and again but at least I have a system in place to put all my "I just have to have these" items when I bring them home.
of accouterments. I have drooled over the pictures in magazines of ladies showing off spare rooms dedicated to scrapbooking and scrapbooking alone. While that may be a dream for someday in the distant future, those of us who don't have a spare room to organize all of our STUFF (and I meant stuff with a capital S) have to look for other ways of making sense out of all our nonsense. We have a large dining room in this house. When we first moved in I put an armoire at the end of the dining room to store our school books in. When I purchased shelving units for the books, the armoire was up for grabs. I have a great, oak desk that I put along side of the armoire for a work space. I took the inside measurements of the armoire one Friday night and went out to some yard sales on Saturday morning. I found a great "cubby" style bookcase for $10.00 that is the same shade of wood as the armoire. So I put that in and started loading up my stuff!
Below you can see a close up of the upper part of the armoire. Everything is close at hand so when I feel like working I can just sit down and get started. I spent around $30.00 to purchase the bookshelf and the two paper organizer sets. All of the other storage containers were re-purposed. If you don't have an armoire, you could use a closet, a dresser, a book shelf. I did a Google search for small scrapbook storage spaces and found lots of good ideas. Another benefit from keeping things organized, is that I can see what I have and I don't over buy anymore. Before I go shopping for supplies I take a quick look at the papers I still have and what I may be low on. It is so helpful to have everything in a see through container or storage unit. That doesn't say there aren't a few impulse purchases now and again but at least I have a system in place to put all my "I just have to have these" items when I bring them home. 
No comments:
Post a Comment