Craft Room Organization

 

Hello friends. Today I want to talk about craft room organization.  I'm always in the process of organizing my materials.  I've changed my methods many times.  I try one way then another then another until I find what works best for me. 

They didn't look at all like this picture, and there were so tall, I had to put some foam and paper so I could see which pens I had.

I went through several types of paper storage for scrapbooking:  First was a tall rolling cart of sorts where the paper would often get dusty from sitting out exposed.  I've tried stackable trays, but they take up too much room.  Now I am using  drawers for my solids... (I have two of these on a table)

And these upright cases that are kind of like magazine holders (but bigger) for my paper pads.

 I tried using an inkpad storage container, but most of my ink pads wouldn't fit.

It also took up a lot of room, so I went with a regular plastic box for inkpads.

I keep my vinyl, paper scraps, and current projects in 12x12 bins that fit perfectly under the paper table. 

I have my sewing notions (needles, thread, bobbins, marking pens and so on) in the pokets of an old hanging jewelry organizer similar to this one:

I think there might be a better way to do this, although it's very handy hanging on the wall right by where I sit to sew.

I've tried several ways to organize stickers and die cuts. I started off using a zippered binder system, but it became too much of a hassle.

Then I began using a Creative Memories sticker keeper.

But I don't really like it.  It's kind of messy looking, and regardless of the tabs, it is difficult to find what I'm looking for.  So I started using this instead.

But I haven't relocated my stickers to this organizer just yet.  Any suggestions for sticker storage that might look better and take up less space?

I'm really having trouble designing my pegboard where I will get the most use out of it. I basically took everythign down and restarted this project.

I ordered some cups for pens, but they were too tall and sat on the pegboard unevenly so for now, they are in the green bucket near the top left of the pegboard.

  They were too tall, so you couldn't see what you had  in them without putting something in the bottom, and they were very flimsy.

Then I purchased some excellent baskets that go diretcly into the pegboard, but I realize two is not enough.  I may have to go get another set. I had everything on my pegboard then decided I wanted to rearrange things and took almost everything down..  Had no idea how difficult it would be!

I really wanted all of my containers to match to some degree, but they didn't have it in white,  I'm not sure where to put everyhing.  I have cricult tools, jewelry and craft wire, scissors and tape products that need to go somewhere..  I've resgined to myself that it's not all going to match.  I would love to hear your craft room organization hacks . Fire away!

And visit Friendsip Friday and Crafty Creators for many more crafty ideas!  Have a great weekend!

Friendship Friday-Getting Organized

 I'm linking up with Create With Joy.  Join us, please!

Hello friends!  I'm happy you stopped by.

I was feeling stressed yesterday (about my mom's health and such-long story), so I decided to do some organizing.  I tackled my makeup drawer.  I have a small stack of things to give away (hair clips and such) and a huge stack of trash.  Some of the trash came from under the counter which I also organized, but I didn't take a picture of it.  I'm happy with the new look of my drawer.

You can clearly see that I am not "married" to a brand!  Clinique, ELF, Maybelline, Cover Girl, NYX... it's all there!

I have a big pile of washed fabric to iron so I can start on some sewing projects, but I've only gotten so far as stacking it on the ironing board!

Not sure what I am going to do with the Marauder's Map fabric yet.  Any suggestions?  I want to make a baby blanket, a dress, and some burp cloths out of the other fabrics.

I also went through my photos in an attempt to organize them so I can see what I still need to do.  I also organized my finished pages into stacks according to date. I've got to get my craft room set up so that I can be finished organizing and actually work on some projects!

Sorry for the shadow on the picture.

Have a great weekend and do something that makes you happy!

Purging the Closet

I've seen this simple tip many times, but Connie from Family Home and Life said it well.

Suggestion:  Put all your clothing hangers backwards in your closet once a year, then after you wear an item of clothing, hang them back the right way, forward. After a year, throw out all the clothing items that are still backwards because you haven't worn them.

What better time to start than the beginning of the new year?  This is my closet.  I've turned my hangars backward, and anything I don't wear will be donated at the end of the year.  Great idea!

I may not set resolutions, but I sure do set goals!

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Weekly Roundup

I only have two posts that I felt worth sharing this week.

I used to be so organizing, and as my kids are growing up and leaving the nest, I am feeling the urge to get organized again!  I love this post from Organizing and Decorating Everything about using baskets in the kitchen.

There was a great post on Popsugar:  20 Ways to Ensure Workouts Happen Every Day.  I don't work out every day, but I can use all the motivation I can get in order to work out a few times a week.  There were some creative tips.

Link up at the Weekly Roundup at High-Heeled Love (also co-hosted by My So-called Chaos).
(Photos - public domain)

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Wednesday Website - Organization

I love this website!  I started using it about a month ago.  It's called Livebinders.  I love to be organized, and sometimes it's not so easy, but I love using Livebinders:  Your 3-ring binder for the web!  The website describes itself this way:
•Collect your resources
•Organize them neatly and easily
•Make an Impression

It's easy, and it's free! And unlike Pinterest, you can save the actual content of the site, not just a photo. Right now, I have a binder for my recipes. There are subtabs for beef, chicken, pork. You can create as many subtabs as you want. It's so much easier to use than trying to print every recipe I would like to try.

I also have a Civil Rights Livebinder in which I have organized all of my resources for a particular teaching unit. You can have as many subtabs as you need, also. It's very easy to set it up and get started.  I even have a binder with song lyrics and videos I want to go back to.

One thing I really love is that I have "Livebinder It" in my toolbar, so when I am on a website I want to go back to, I click my "Livebinder It" link in my favorites bar, and it automatically grabs the website for me. I can choose which binder and even which subtab I want it under. And it's easy to reorganize your tabs and subtabs within each binder.

Give it a try! I think you'll love it! Livebinders.   There is a great tutorial on how it works, or if you're confident in being tech-savvy, sign up for free and give it a whirl!  Happy Wednesday!

This is NOT  paid advertisement.  This is 100% personal opinion, and I am not receiving compensation of any kind for this post.  (Not that I would mind that, darn it!)

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Declutter Friday

Marcia, the Organising Queen, always asks, "What have you decluttered this week?" I have mine ready to go!

Five Christmas ornaments that were already broken or broke before they made it to the tree.

Also, this is what happens to expensive round candles when placed in a box in the attic by your unknowing husband: They look more like rotten tomatoes or shrinking apples than candles now.They still smell good, though!

How about your decluttering projects?

Clutter-Free Gifts

I definitely decluttered this week - both before and after our 16 year old's suprise party last Saturday. And I cleaned out at least one item of clothing each day from someone's closet since I know they're getting clothes for Christmas. But that's not where I'm going with this post today.

Marcia, the Organising Queen, had a post last week titled "Clutter-Free Gifts - Just in Time." That's what I want to focus on today.

We all know someone who is so hard to buy for because he/she has everything. We also know those teens, tweens, and kids who have so much stuff, not that they don't want more stuff, but they already have so much stuff! Besides, who wants to give someone a gift knowing that it is going to sit in their home/closet/room/whatever collecting dust and serving no purpose? That parafin wax home treatment station seems like a great gift right now, but, really, how many times will it get used before it goes in a box and sits in a corner for ever and ever? Twice in our case. And how many calendars and fuzzy socks can one person actually use?
I've been racking my brain trying to think of clutter-free gifts. Here's what I've come up with so far. For my son and husband, Rockets basketball tickets. For my daughters, movie theater gift cards. For my mom, tickets to a local dinner theater performance. Other ideas include restaurant gift cards, massage gift certificates, hair salon gift cards, and manicures. How about the gift of house cleaning for an older relative? Then, of course, there are consumable items such as homemade bread or cookies. The hard part is to match the recipient with a clutter-free gift he/she will truly cherish.

Yes, we'll have clutter at our home this Christmas, that is definite, but I'm trying to reign it in and have some control over it. Baby steps, as I always say. And I'd like to know what ideas you have! Please leave a comment!

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Declutter Friday

My biggest decluttering project this week was the file cabinet. How does it become such a mess so quickly? Take a look at the stack I had to shred!

My husband has a tendency to think we should keep every receipt, bill, piece of mail, etc. that we ever get, but he doesn't put them where they belong, so it's left to me, and I have to say that we will never need some of the things he wants to keep. Do we really need a receipt for the glasses he bought two years ago? I thought I was a pack-rat! So don't tell him, but I threw away a lot of things he would've kept. The file cabinet is cleaned out for now. Now, f I could just stay on top of the filing, this won't happen!

Also got rid of a tee shirt, coat, sweater, and some papers from my children's younger school days that I didn't really need to continue to hang onto.

I hope you'll visit Organising Queen and consider joining us for De-clutter Friday. All it takes is the will to want to de-clutter at least one thing a day.

The Laundry Room

One of my favorite blogs, I'm an Organizing Junkie has a monthly "round-up". Each month, we're supposed to organize a certain room in our homes. I've been able to participate several times this year. February was dedicated to the kitchen. In May, I did my son's room. In July, we were challenged to oranize under our bathroom sinks. And in August, we did the entryway.

November was the laundry room, and here is mine, such as it is. Not so much a room as a closet, in my opinion, and certainly not the laundry room of my dreams (is there such a thing?) But, I've had to be creative and use what I have to work with.

First we have the view of the left side, then a view of the center, and last, a view of the right side. I'm fairly organized as it is, but there were a few things I needed to do.

First, the whole room needed a good cleaning. I don't think the blinds had been dusted since I moved in 3 and a half years ago. Next, I needed to clean off the machines themselves. It's amazing what you'll find behind a washer and dryer, and not just socks (a ski glove? hangers! unbelievable amounts of lint)! I had to toss some things my step-daughter put in there when she returned from college last summer such as a pop up hamper, a disabled DVD player, and a picture she no longer wanted hanging in her room.


On the left, I refolded the extra towels and made a stack for regular bath towels, a stack for beach towels, and added a plastic container for extra blankets and pillows so they won't fall off the shelf. I still have my bar for hanging items that I don't want in the dryer.


On the right, we have three stacks: flat sheets (because for some reason, my children don't always like to use the flat sheet on their beds, and I just don't get this); full size sheets, and twin size sheets. I made labels for each stack. On the shelf underneath these I have pillow-cases, my refresh'n dryer towel, and a box of dryer sheets.

I wish there was some other place to keep the laundry detergent and bleach, but there is just nowhere else to put another shelf, so those have to stay on top of the dryer.

After I cleaned the floors, I was finished, and it feels good. Wonder how long it will stay this way?

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Declutter Friday

I have been a declutter machine this week! I've had the whole week off, so what better to do than get rid of stuff before we get more stuff at Christmas!?

My photos are clutter-free on both computers (the desktop and the laptop). I deleted tons of duplicates! Everything is nice and organized into folders now, just the way I like it.

The biggest project was my son's closet, which I don't think has been cleaned out in years. I bagged up so many toys and stuffed animals. I even found a new, still-in-the-box water gun that his friend gave him for his birthday last year. Here's a picture of the CD holder (it wouldn't fit in a bag), k'nex, unopened toy, and 5 bags.

I also decluttered clothes from his closet as well as mine and my daughters. This is a jumbo-sized container, and I found even more clothes after this photo was taken.

I'll be making a trip to the donation site this weekend. Right now I'm off to declutter the bookshelf and file cabinet.

P. S. Have you visited Organsing Queen? What are you waiting for?!

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This Week on the Home Front Part 7

As part of Organising Queen's declutter challenge, I've been making a special effort to declutter at least one thing each day.

This week, in addition to recycling all of our aluminum and plastic, I took a few minutes to clean out three pajamas/nightgowns from my dresser as well as 3 tanks tops and 2 blouses from my closet. I also cleaned out 2 shirts from my son's closet. Not a lot of progress, but small steps, baby, small steps. Here's this week's stack to donate:

And speaking of clutter, one of my favorite blogs, I'm an Organizing Junkie, has a post with 11 tips for decluttering. For all my non-organizing-type bloggy friends, check it out. It's not so hard! I especially love her "One in, one out" suggestion. If I get a new shirt, I try to get rid of one. Sometimes that's difficult, but it's a good suggestion.

Speaking of small steps, I also take part in Rachel Anne's Small Things Challenges at Home Sanctuary. Come on in for some coffee! (I don't drink coffee, but the logo is so cute!)

My favorite post this week was one titled Creating Sanctuary from Chaos - Where Do I Start??? Where to start is often the reason most of us don't de-clutter or organize. Right? It's my son's biggest problem when he's cleaning his room, and sometimes I feel that way with my filing at home and grading at work. First things first... start with a prayer. I think that's the best suggestion I've had all week!

Have a great weekend everyone!

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