Tuesday Tips... Organized Craft Room

Is your craft room out of control?
Are you buying items over and over, that you already have but can't find?
Paper crafting, especially scrapbooking and card making are two crafts that involve a lot of stuff.
And when you have a lot of stuff, it's easy for it to get out of control.
Over the years, I have found some ideas that worked really well and some that worked --not so well (I"ll save that for another post)

Here are my Top Three  Organizing Tips to kick off my new weekly blog post--Tuesday Tips

#3.  Stamp Storage
--be creative, I use my stamps a lot, so  I want them to be accessible
solution Ikea GNEDBY Shelving unit, was the perfect solution for me.
 
These shelves are adjustable, and affordable.  Plus you can always add another shelf and  another and another...
Downfall, you have to get down on your knees to reach the bottom shelves.
Which was fine 10 years ago, but now that I've crossed the 50+ hill, it's not so easy.
 So I turned mine on it's side and put it on a 6' long table, and  then because I have a lot of stamps I bought two more and stacked them on top of the first one..
And Voila!! Perfect stamp storage.
 (note: when you turn these units on their side, you have to nail the shelves in to form the dividers.  I just used finishing nails and it has worked quite well)

 #2.  Labels
Labels are a simple, yet super way to keep your stuff organized, especially your stamps.
I use broad categories, family, boys, girls, baby, birthday, Christmas, etc.
This way I don't have to be too particular about where I put the stamp, so long as it's in the right cubby.

And my Number One Tip...
                                  Start Clean, Finish Clean

I tend to be a messy creative person, as I pull out this paper, that stamp set, a bit of ribbon, and a bit more of this or that.  And by the end, my craft space is a war zone.  However, I try to always tidy everything up before I start another project.  This doesn't mean that I tidy up my space everyday, if I'm in the middle of a big project, I will use all my tables (I think I have 7 or 8 or them) and spread everything out and then leave it there, so I can come back in an hour or the next day and finish it.  But when I'm done.  When my project is complete.  I tidy up everything.  Scissors, ribbon, stamps, paper, it all gets put back in its spot. (This is a tip within a tip--have a spot for everything to go back to)  So I have a clean and organized space to start with for the next project.

I Hope you have found these tips helpful.

Join me every Tuesday for more Tuesday Tips 

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