Stash size

My stash is as large as I want it to be It shares a room with our home office/computer.

I went a little crazy buying paper and embellishments when Archivers and some of my local SB stores closed in the last couple years. At the time I was worried that scrapbooking was on its way out and that I would not be able to find supplies. So now I really try to control what I buy, since I have a very good stash that would keep me scrapping for decades And I've also noticed that a lot of the things I order online, I don't care for in person. So I really try to think about my online purchases (but dang, I love me some ACOT!)

I keep my stuff well organized. I love to sort through it and see what I have, and reorganize it. I do that a lot when I have scrapping block But I do weed things out on a regular basis and donate what I don't think I will use.

I consider my stash to be very large, but only in what I currently like. For example, I have very very few stamps and ink pads, I have an original silhouette so that's pretty small. Now paper and stickers - that is overflowing from the rafters. I could wallpaper my suburban neighbrhood in scrapbook paper and adhere it with stickers.

When I was at CKC I bought TWENTY FIVE packages of enamel dots. I bought probably 500 sheets of paper between EXPO and CKC. You may recall I gave away about 600 sheets of unloved paper in the spring.

What I need is a wall to ceiling shelf unit with everything stored in organized iris boxes. Now I do have a wall to ceiling shelf my husband made for himself years ago and I only get about 2 shelves of it. If I could clear him out I might have a chance.

Bigger is not better.  It is a hoard.  I don't think anyone needs the amount of stuff we have acquired.  I could scrap every photo I have and ever will have and still have 3.5 walls full of product if I started out with 4 walls.

Even when it is beautifully organized it is still too much IMO.

We must be scrap sisters at heart. 

Mine is large and way more then I'm ever going to use or need probably.

Is it as big as the 3 part video room tour I just watched heck no but it's more then a person probably needs.

For me buying scrappy stuff I guess fills a void. I am in a unhappy relationship and it's a coping method. I can go weeks without buying stuff but then I'll have a bad day (yesterday) and order or buy stuff because I feel I deserve it. My argument for yesterday was he just got back from a hunting trip about a week ago and my spring and summer so far have really sucked and he really doesn't seem to care.

Our house is paid for and have been for at least 5 yrs.

My kids are adults they have their own money.

My hubby spends 10s of thousands of $ on hunting trips and never spends anytime with me because he took a second job to pay for his stupid trips.

I make my own money and I feel I can do what I want with it.

I enjoy my hobby and when I die I do wonder what will happen to it all but for now I will just enjoy my stash!

I think if your supplies give you anxiety, prevent you from paying bills or take away from your families needs that needs to be addressed for sure but I don't feel I'm there if you kwim.

Small-medium sized. I have a 10 by 10 room and almost all my scrapping stuff except albums are in storage furniture, bins, containers etc on one wall (and not up to the ceiling, I can reach it all without a ladder . I'm trying not to outgrow the space since 2 of the walls in my room are not usuable for storage (big window and a big doorway).

I actually feel overwhelmed with my stuff at the moment (I've been organizing) and have decided not to order anything else until I use up some of large paper stash... 75% of my stash is probably paper and the huge amount (and I mean huge) amount of already printed photos that I never scrapped. Why did I order so many freaking prints? From now on unless it's a vacation, I will not order more than 4 prints per layout!

I could scrap for years without needing anything but adhesive. I have a decent sized amount, but when it comes to paper, I have a ton.

Actual scrapbooking stuff (papers, embellishements), I would say my stash is on smaller side. But, I also haven't scrapped in awhile, so I have purged a lot!

And lot of things that could be used for scrapping (stamp pads, inks, tape), I also use for mixed media, so I don't consider them as part of my scrapping stash. If you included all that, then my stash is probably more than medium.

Move over on the bench, then, and let's be triplets. NO REGRETS here either. My first non-CM paper buy was in 2006, but I quickly learned how to "catch up". 

I think of my stash as medium sized. My craft room is small and I have limited storage which is probably a good thing!

I have quite a few tools and lots of stamps/dies but a smaller volume of paper - about 8 SB kits/partial kits mainly from Cocoa Daisy plus one 12x12 bag of general patterned paper. Then I have a couple of iris type containers with 12x12 card stock. I do also have several magazine racks of 8 1/2 x 11 card for card making. Then I have a clip it up sitting on my desk which is where most of my embellishments are.

I get overwhelmed if my stash is too big so am always rejigging it and getting rid of stuff if I buy new supplies.

Oh my dog, I'm known as the resident small stasher on here? YAY! Will totally wear that title with pride and dignity (sort of, as long as you ignore me when I've had my weekly two-glasses-of-wine-in-one-evening)... Prepare yourself for a rant. *deep breath in*

To give people an idea of my current stash which has just been replenished a couple of weeks back because I was naughty and ordered from a shop that had 70% off recent collections (this is my stash at is fullest):
- 3 packs of alpha thickers (one is already half-gone)
- 4 12x12 sheets of large alpha stickers (one almost gone, one 2/3 full, two completely new)
- 1 Studio Calico Documenter kit zipper pouch half-full with leftover die-cuts from old kits + almost empty ephemera packs
- 1 Studio Calico Documenter kit zipper pouch half-full with leftover chipboard shapes from old kits
- 1 Studio Calico Documenter kit zipper pouch full of miscellanea (flairs, fabric patches, tickets, small packs of sequins, rubber pieces, tiny word sticker sheets, tiny alpha sticker sheets, etc.)
- 2 brand new ephemera packs + 1 half-empty pack
- 2 half-used 12x12 chipboard sticker sheets
- 38 pattern papers (that's a lot for me! I usually have around 20-25)
- 1 Christmas-themed paper pad to mostly make Christmas décor, not actually scrap
- 2 6x6 paper pads (one half-gone)
- 2 sticker sheets
- 3 packs of enamel dots (2 half-gone, 1 new)
- 4 specialty vellum papers
- 10-ish coloured cardstock + 28 white cardstock
- 2 old mini Project Life kit boxes (from the small collections back in the day... they're about 4x6 and 1 inch high) filled with various PL cards mostly from kits like Messy Box and SC
- 1 shoe box full of stamp sets + half a shoe box with dies and a few embossing folders
- 1 shoe box filled with ink pads + mixed media supplies
- 1 shoe box full of various tools (scissors, Crop-A-Dile, fuse tool, etc.)
- 2 paper trimmers + Big Shot + Tim Holtz x Tonic Studios stamp platform
- 1 Glossy Accents + 1 roll of adhesive tape + 2 adhesive runners + 1 pack of foam squares + 1 roll of Glue Dots
- around 40 page protectors in advance
And that's it, I think? If I missed something it's because I stashed it away elsewhere in my wardrobe and am overlooking it at the moment. (yes, that totally happens sometimes)

I love my small stash. It fits in our small apartment (40 m² or 430 ft² which is normal-sized for an inner city apartment around here but could make some of you feel a little claustrophobic) and doesn't take away too much valuable physical space (I'm giving up space for an extra four pairs of shoes for this hobby, darn it! That's enough ). It's also great for not crowding my mental space. However, I'm aware I'm the exception on this board and would not advice people to go from a "normal-sized" stash to something on the super minimal side of the spectrum like mine just for the sake of "freeing" oneself. It's all about striking a good balance. I believe most scrapbookers need a greater variety in embellishments and alpha thickers and stickers than I do. Many of you produce far more layouts in a year than I do and cover a greater variety of life events (I don't have children).

Nevertheless, a reduced stash (not necessarily as "bare" as mine!) does offer some great advantages for those who are in a similar mindset:
1. I get what I love-love-love and I use it up-up-up (I'm currently hoarding 3 pattern papers from Moonstruck for next year and that's all, folks! All the other pattern papers in my stash were acquired this year and will very likely be used by the end of the year)
2. I know my aesthetic down to a tee and I can easily zero in on my true needs and what I'll use without causing myself too much of a headache;
3. Almost everything I own right now works together as a whole (my stash pretty much works like one XL-sized collection and I tend to not buy something just because it's pretty/maybe I could use this one day but weigh whether it'll find enough "friends" amongst what I already own to be part of a layout without spending more cash to make said item work);
4. I don't have leftover stuff from when I started scrapbooking sitting around while my tastes have evolved;
5. Sing with me now: "Let it goooo! Let it gooo-ooooh!" A good third of the stamp sets I've purchased in my scrap life have already been sold off and rehoused. If I don't use it anymore, it goes. A small stash helps me keep track of what I own and what can go. I will sometimes flip through my pattern papers and realise there's one in there I am unlikely to use. If it's still there a few weeks later, I'll just take it out and give it away or turn it into gift tags/gift box/fancy envelope. All my stuff is there, right under my eyes. It's very easy to figure out quickly what won't work and needs to leave the stash ASAP;
6. If you're into mixed media and watercolours like I am, a smaller mountain of goodies to choose from really pushes you to use your art supplies and creativity on a regular basis (almost every single time I scrap);
7. Finally, I have the financial freedom to buy what I want, what I really really want (ZIG-A-ZIG AAAH!), both for scrapping and everything else in my life. That's important to me. As a millenial in a super tricky economy, I enjoy the feeling that I'm not overspending and building a hoard "just in case." That's the kind of thinking that ultimately makes me feel anxious (although others, especially from older generations, enjoy that sort of security). I just remind myself that new collections keep coming out (at a super fast rate too) and that I keep finding stuff I really like. That's enough to keep me from feeling the need to invest in a larger stash. I know more's coming and that I'll find enough I love in the next round of releases to fill up my future albums.

I do think there are benefits to owning less but I don't believe it's the way to go for every single scrapper out there nor that you ought to reduce your stash to something similar in size to mine for the sake of minimalism/purging/the new age guru message du jour. I do advocate taking a realistic and as objective a look as possible at your stash if you feel it's not helping your scrapbooking and could be a potential creativity/enthusiasm-killer.

Disclaimer: I've never had a scrap/art room. I've never had a stash bigger than this. Please don't think I'm judging any/all of you! This is
my small European life and has always been. We have an under-the-counter fridge, a small bathroom and everything else typical of expensive
cities. We are not poor and I'm not looking for scrap handouts. We're both university graduates with Master degrees and employed full-time. We have no debt, no student loans to pay back. We're fine. I promise!

My stash is quite large. I have learned over the years how to kind of compact it so that it fits in a pretty small space. But now my scrap attic, where I've been for almost three years now, is also quite large. I basically have the second floor of my 110-year-old house to myself unless we have guests. Up here is a full bath, a guest room, and the scrap attic room, which is probably 12 x 25? Not sure.

Anyway, I have been scrapbooking since 1994. I also have a pretty big interest in stamping, which as you know requires its own stash, although there can be a lot of overlap.

I definitely love paper but I don't have nearly as much as some ladies. I prefer neutral cardstock, so I have quite a bit of that around. And I do have lots of patterned paper as well, but I'll bet I could shove it all in maybe 3 cubes in a Kallax unit if it was just paper. That's still a lot but not nearly so much as lots of other scrapbookers. However, 6x6 pads? Yeah, I have many many many of those (definitely 100+). I love them.

I do have lots of embellishments and I would say a world-class alphabet collection. I just don't really give myself limits in the alphabet category. Stickers, thickers, wood veneer alphas, stamps, dies, whatever. It is the one thing where if I see it and like it, I put it in the cart and I don't look back. I have zero regrets about that. Other stuff, I try to keep at a manageable level and contain it in the space I've allocated for it.

I also love pens and office supplies, and I've recently gone a lil nutty in that department, but that's a little different, I suppose. In terms of mixed media colorants and pots and potions, I have quite a large collection of that stuff as well. And I have recently upgraded my manual die-cutter, which used to be a Cuttlebug, and that worked fine for years, but recently I felt some limitations from it, so I ended up getting a Vagabond II, I think it's called. I have a Cameo, but not the latest, and I only have that because they were selling the at-the-time latest Cameos at the SC warehouse sale for $100. I have literally thousands of cut files for it, though, because I had a Silhouette SD before that and sort of went on a collecting binge. I never use it, though. I have plans to, just never do. I think it's habit more than anything that drives me. I recently did a scrap attic reorg and moved it very close to my main work area, so hopefully that will change.

I very rarely go whole hog with anything (except alphabets), so that is good, I suppose. I have always liked the idea of Project Life, and I do have a bunch of PL and other cards, but nowhere near the number I see out there in scrap room tours sometimes. I just have little bits from this and that. I also try not to get every color of a thing, even though I am tempted. I just get the colors I think I will use. Example: Nuvo Drops. I just have a half-dozen or so bottles. And it's not often that I buy a whole collection of anything. That's just never been my thing. If I really like something or it is the only way I can get the pieces that I want, fine. But in general, I don't like getting stuck with what I call "dogs." Those ugly pieces of paper that are pushing some design trend limit, or the freaky weird embellishment that maybe others love, but I am never going to use. Generally, in any given collection, if I really like it, I might buy 7 or 8 of the papers, usually more like 3-6.

My stash is packed in yet spread out in this big room I am so fortunate to have. I have a 2x4 Kallax, some Recollections cubes in a closet without doors, an Alex unit, a trofast unit, a few armoires, a nice big Hemnes dresser, big desk, and a bank of kitchen cabinets that hold my stuff, along with a Raskog and some other shelving. It doesn't really seem like all that much stuff, or maybe it does....but it is. When I compare it to some of the big room tours, I don't think I have as much as some of those ladies, though, probably largely because I am really pretty selective about paper and don't buy as much as a lot of other people seem to. I also go through periodically and weed stuff out, just did that this past spring and donated a ton to a local children's museum that put out a call for crafty stuff, plus I give my sister stuff all the time.

I would love to see 950nancy!

I am right there with you!

Medium to large. Not as large as some of those scrap rooms on videos and bigger than some. I include my sewing and my mixed media supplies in my stash.


Sometimes I really have a budget and work to stay within that. Other times, when we don't set up a family budget, I may or may not be good. But bills always come first and I'm not sacrificing our lifestyle for my goodies.


Of course, Size Matters!   
Seriously though, I really love having an extensive stash. When I first started out, I had a very small stash and to do anything I had to create it from making my own backgrounds to my own embellishments. With little ones, I didn't have the time so I wouldn't create a lot of pages each year. Some of those pages are really great, but man were they time consuming. Although I use this hobby for a creative outlet, I would also like to tell the stories before I forget them, which has happened more than once. Even though many of my pages take longer, I can make a layout in as little as half an hour now. The longer ones are usually just because I'm having fun playing with embellishments.   

Having said that, I realize that a larger stash does not feel the same to others. They can't breath under the 'weight' of it. To each their own. I do like my things organized and if it gets too out of hand (because I don't like to put things away in the heat of the creative moment), I will have to stop and clean/organize.

I've done one major purge when we moved in 2012. I regret getting rid of my Christmas stash, but I wasn't creating any Christmas layouts at the time. I am now, but I found that I prefer to do them digitally. Otherwise I don't regret anything I purged. Otherwise, I'm a hoarder of crafty stuff - all sorts of crafty stuff. When we were able to go to homeschool co-ops, I would be the one teaching the crafty styled classes where those items I save get used. The kids use my stuff for school projects.  DD uses my stuff for whatever she comes up with too.