to my organizing problem! LOL I am cleaning and organizing and purging. Yesterday I went to San Diego with Xaver to drop him off at a training for work. While we waited for him all day, I scrapped and hung out with Elena, Melanie, and Gloria of Scrapbook Royalty. We cropped at Gloria's house. She showed me her scrap space—and the very little paper she has on hand. But she always has the latest and greatest stuff so I could not understand–she actually USES her paper and embellies right away!! What a concept! That is why her paper only stood about 2″ high in a stack–she did not have a crazy stockpile!
Then I went to Elena's house and she is suffering the same symptoms as me–we are suffocating under the mountain of stuff we have in our rooms–something has got to give! I was reading the latest copy of Real Simple magazine this morning and there was an article about organizing. Apparently it is in our DNA to hoard things since food and other things were scarce back in our caveman days. Add that need to collect things to the feel-good medicine of “retail therapy” and here we are, with bags of brand new good yummy scrap stuff shoved into Rubbermaid tubs because we can't put it all away, full-on ROOMS of our homes dedicated to holding all of our scrap, and this guilt for spending spending spending and not using all this wonderful scrap goodness we have stashed away.
There are challenges going on all over the forums and groups–no spending, no shopping, use your stash, use your scraps, make a shopping list for the LSS and stick to it…it's not just the economy. I think it is that we all have the same goals in mind. We want to have the latest and greatest, we want to use what we are buying and not just be wasting money, and we want an organized space. We want to have our cake and eat it too!!
Honestly, what works for some people doesn't work for others. So I am looking for ways to make my space work for me. We will likely be moving soon and I will have a slightly larger room and alot more wall space to set up shelving. But I'd much rather use that space for tables–I'd love to have my sewing machines out and have space to scrap at the same time. I would also really love to have space to set up a little corner for Katie to do her crafting and school projects.
I need to find a solution. Here's what I am trying to do:
- If it's older than 2 years and I have NEVER used it, get rid of it. Scrapping Lounge is having a yard sale so I'm packaging all this good loot together and selling it off cheap!!
- If I still LOVE it but it is over 2 years old, make a page kit with it right away. That way I'll use it up.
- Organize my drawers (they are already sorted by color) so things are even easier to find. I have lots of things in baggies, like all my flowers.–the I binder clipped all those baggies together so if want orange flowers I just pull that big clipped thing out of the orange drawer and there are all the flowers that are orange in one spot.
What is standing in my way:
- First, “Mogar the Destroyer” lives here–Matthew is the enemy of clean. He can destroy a kleenex box in 2.5 seconds flat. I get little done when he is awake.
- Classes–I have 4 days until my next class ( I have 3 classes next week alone!!). Goal is to get this done before then…
- Girl Scout Cookies– trying to wrap this up and I have to go to the bank about every other day to stand in line..uggh!!
- Classes again–I buy stuff in bulk because I might “do a class” with it–so I have to make alot of decisions as to whether or not I will actually use it in a class and so on. That takes alot of time.
I already have the light green drawer completely organized!! I'm off to see what Mogar is screaming about–hopefully I get through a few more drawers before the evening. I'll post pics when I get it all done!!
Good luck girl!
Jennifer… anything your don’t sell at the Scrap Lounge, I will take off your hands. I am always looking for a good deal on stuff to give away. So if it’s new, name a price and I will come with an empty SUV to pick it up. Maybe in April when I leave my car there… hubby shouldn’t mind being w/o the SUV. Good Luck on your goal!!
Good Luck. I keep reorganizing my area and probably will until I get it just to my liking. I too have all my little things like brads and buttons organized by color and I love it that way.
Wow! Jennifer, you were ‘preaching to the choir’ on the tons of scrap-piles and confusion and unused stuff. I can’t give it up yet. I’m not there yet so I would like to organized a great scrap space. Can’t wait to see your pictures when you are done. I know it will inspire me and others.
Des
hi there –
was doing my every-few-months linkback scan and saw you’d listed my qk font list in your sidebar in january. very shnazzy, but you linked to a comment and not the list – which is why it would request a login.
to view the list requires no login at all. that’s why i kept it there at sb.c (i don’t really go there much at all in the past couple years except to update the fonts!)
here’s the correct link, if you’re interested:
http://www.scrapbook.com/blogs/19078/view/3115.html
Okay, I’m as organized as a mobile scrapper can be. (SOMEDAY~ when I have my own craft room…ah, to dream the dream!) Anyhow, I did recently go through and inventory my embellishments and ideas for embellishing (things I can make with what I have on hand). I printed the list, cut into strips of paper (for lack of a better system yet), hole punched at the top, placed on a ring and attached the ideas on my catty bag. My goal? I want to randomly grab a few of these “ideas” and incorporate them onto a page. It will force me to use what I’ve got and keep me from leaning toward those same ol’ things like the Prima flowers that I love so. I’m sure that what I grab from the ring won’t always work, but it will make me re-think what I am using. I’m calling this Scrapper’s Un-Block…since I tend to stare at my pretty paper wasting precious time.
BTW, how goes the house shopping? I keep thinking of you as I stare at the houses for sale in your neighborhood. Too soon for me to buy…but don’t lose that realtor’s ph #. I may need it by the end of the year! Wishing you the best of luck on the hunt!