How do you store your scraps?

I am more likely to use my scraps for card making than scrapbooking, because I am really picky about what paper I use with my photos. I am more likely to check my scraps for card making.

Before we moved, I cut my scraps down to photo mat or card mat sizes. I store them in an iris container by color. Recently, I had a bunch of card making scraps left. I stored the larger pieces in an Iris bin as is, but I had my container of Q&Co Foundation dies out, so I decided to use them to cut banners, tags, and other small card making shapes from the smaller, “worthless” scraps that I would normally have thrown away. By the time I had finished, I had a bunch of die cuts that I can use for card making, and what tiny scraps were left after that were tossed in the trash. Out of curiosity, I counted them. I had 250+ die cuts that I can use for quickie card making. I sorted them by color and store them in smaller sized ziplock bags in a basket. I was surprised at how many useful die cuts that I got from what I’d have normally thrown away.

I’ve decided that going forward, I am going to try to make cards with the scraps, and what I can’t use will be die cut till there is nothing left to die cut, but I’ll probably get out some of my Spellbinder and other dies, too, so I have a bit more variety. I’ll add those die cuts to the appropriate ziplock bag of other die cuts.

Here is a photo of what I got out of relatively thin strips, in between pieces, etc., that would normally have been thrown away:

I use a shopping basket that fits in my Kallax cube.

All 8.5x11 cardstock, scrap cardstock and pattern paper scraps are stored in the basket sorted by ROYGBIV. I use gallon zipper bags for the small cardstock pieces. I use 8.5x11 sheet protectors for pattern paper scraps.
12x12 cardstock is stored in another kallax cube (I don't own much) and pattern paper bigger than 8.5x11, smaller than 12x12 stays in it's respective category with the other paper.

I mostly scrap 12x12 using divided page protectors and 8.5x11 so I do keep tiny scraps of paper. When a gallon bag or page protector gets too full, I throw some pieces away. I know realistically I would never keep up having perfectly cut pieces of cardstock in various sizes. Although it does look prettier that way.

The majority of my scraps stay with the kit collection or the folder for that color. That way, when I pull out that folder/collection, I already have the full sheets and smaller pieces in one place and I know much I have available for my layout/card. Leftovers from that go into a ticket holder.

I am trying to find some good card sketches to use up all the random, uncoordinated bits of pattern paper I have. I find it extremely difficult to toss any bits of paper even though I have enough to wallpaper my entire house, actually, neighborhood..

The March 2022 Sheetload of card sketch uses 6x6 sheets. If you can coordinate a few different patterns and cut your scraps down to that size, you can make 6 cards!