Unloved/unused supplies

Oh, gosh, probably 20 years. I'm sure I have some paper I bought at the beginning of this hobby of mine where I bought it because it was new, exciting, pretty, and addictive. And even through two moves and a couple of downsizing episodes - it's still hanging around because I get all sentimental about, "Remember when..."

I've outgrown my current crafting space by double though. Everything is spilling out into the hallway, the floor, creeping into other areas of the house, piled on top of each other, etc. I need a new outlook on my supplies. I cannot possibly use all this. Especially not at my current rate of production. I don't buy as much as what I once did, but I'm still buying. And it seems I'm still buying for the possibilities...not the practicality.

Just waiting for the right layout, I have a few papers from 2003 sitting in my stash...

I just decided I was going to take that stuff and sell it on eBay so that I can buy some new things for DD. For me, it’s usually my Studio Calico stamps that I hoard but know I’m probably never going to use. Hopefully they go to a home where they will be used.

I have some stuff (including paper & stickers) that are over 20 years old... I've been scrapbooking for 22 years and I know I still have some stuff I bought when I first started.

I used some Christmas embellishment last year that was dated 2002 and I was so proud of myself LOL!!

I recently purged some of my stamps that I no longer love and it's got me itching to do another purge of my paper and stickers/embellishments.

I definitely still have some items from the early 2000s. I recently went through all my paper and was surprised by how much of it I still liked or thought I could use. I thought I would try to sell a ton of it, but ended up more focused on my stash and finding a use for it.

Having it sit unused bothers me a bit, but only because I have so much. I feel better when I have a good handle on knowing what I have and that I will likely find a use for it at some point. I also get a huge thrill out of shopping my stash and making use of what I have, so I figure it's just a balance of only buying what I really like and keeping acquainted with my stash.

I have unopened albums from Creative Memories circa 1995 I don't know why I keep them. I need to donate them. yikes

My scrapbooking is story-focused with a simple/clean/linear/minimalist/"magazine-ish" style, so my inventory consists mostly of paper & tools with few embellishments. Since I painstakingly overanalyze every purchase, I only buy what I like & will use...eventually. I'm grateful to still have supplies from the original Bazzill, Chatterbox, KI Memories, Quickutz, & other manufacturers of the early 2000s in my inventory. I routinely incorporate supplies from these defunct manufacturers into my layouts because I find them more creative/versatile/usable/unique & less themed/repetitive than most current releases.

I think I may also have a few from this era.  And the page protectors and pages.  That's probably about the oldest unused supply I have.  I don't think I would have realized this unless you had posted first, so thanks, and I didn't want to leave you hanging in the "yikes" area by yourself.

I use whatever seems to suit my photos or cards at the time. I have stuff in my stash that is over 20 years old.

My stash isn't super old as I started scrapping in 2016 and got rid of the majority of my card making supplies before then. I thought my oldest stash was Pebbles Happy Go Lucky (2011). I was wrong!

I recently found some old 8x8 October Afternoon paper pads - Woodland Park, Fly a Kite, Cherry Hill (2009) and Ducks in a Row (2009). I thought I'd purged them when I stopped making cards in the 2010s, but I guess I pulled them back into my stash at the last minute. I think these will come in handy if/when I scrapbook my childhood photos as those are bit yellowed. They should match up well with the creamy OA papers.

I think if I stopped buying new product, I wouldn't have enough to see me through my lifetime. The two years of the pandemic I crafted a LOT and assume my crafting time will be similar once we move next year. I think I have about 3-4 Kallax cubes worth of 12x12 paper (patterned paper, cardstock and collection/kits combined), not including christmas/Halloween. I think I've used 1/2 a Kallax cube worth of paper since the pandemic started, not including all the embellishments that were used!

My unloved 12x12 paper that I know I won't use on a layout, I turn into a handmade envelope. It's a great way to use "ugly" paper! Orange and brown are my least favorite colors, and the least used. Now is a great time of year to make & use envelopes in those colors, lol.

If I build up a "special" photo or product too much in my head, when I do use it I often feel disappointed in the results. I'm trying really hard not to save things for the "perfect" project.

Use what you love that you already have. There will always be more/new stuff that you will also love!

I started scrapbooking in 2002 and have a few random odd papers from the early years. I do try to periodically let go of supplies that I just can't see myself using. I did recently use some KI Memories on a layout and some snap rivets on another layout. Felt really good to use those. I do however have about 5 canvas bins full of rub on's, Jolee's dimensional stickers, and K & Co metal embellishments. I scrap with a group of girls monthly and also at a LSS so both have blessings tables where I can off load my treasures that I'm ready to part with. I love buying new paper collections though, sometimes with a project in mind but usually not lol Of all my scrappy friends I probably have the least amount of stash but I think that's because I'm more picky being space challenged.

Quoting myself to update, I went to the 2 pieces of paper that I thought of when you asked this question and cut them down. I lied about being over them - they still made me hesitate to cut because I was afraid of ruining them. One was a star map paper with a really defined border that wasn’t going to work as part of the card background so I cut it from the middle and got rid of them. The panels came out really pretty. That paper was from 2015 I think, time to use it. And the other paper was my last piece from a Shimelle Starshine paper pad, also a lovely full page image, and I cut that down yesterday too. Worst case scenario, I waste some of the paper by cutting without a plan; best case scenario, I make several cards that make people smile. 

I'm back to muse some more about this. I have been into papercrafting for such a very long time, my whole life, really. It is very safe to say I have a huge stash or a hoard, even. I never really got into buying two or more of every paper, and I don't have a ton of things like 12x12 paper pads, but I have a very large stash. I've done three major offloads of stuff since I started scrapbooking as an adult in 1994, and then of course like most people, I have given away or sold stuff here and there over the years.

In general, though, I really do only tend to buy stuff I like. I love a bargain as much as anybody, but I'm pretty good about passing by things that don't interest me just because they are a good deal. I like to try new stuff and sometimes when I do, I realize it's not for me, so I have some things related to those pursuits that I tend to give away or save up and get rid of in one go. But as a general rule, the things I liked when I started this hobby as an adult, like stationery-adjacent designs (ledger paper, notebook paper, grid paper), kraft-based things, and rich, saturated colors, are things I still love and use. I have an obsession with typography and alphabets and that is just as strong as ever. I dislike what I consider to be kind of awful handwritten designs. I actually do not understand the interest in that, my thought being that I can do a better job lettering myself; why would I want someone else's crappy scrawls on my stuff in the form of hand-stamped additions to cards or a journal, or even a scrapbook layout. No thanks.

So upstairs in my Scrap Attic there's quite a large collection of stuff. I will never use all of it in my lifetime, and there's no way I will not add to it as time goes by. That's just realistic and how it is. I do give myself limits, such as having a large dresser drawer that contains all of my Christmas stuff, or all of my adhesives, for example. When that fills up, I do stop adding to it until I use some of it up or go through and get rid of some of it.

I feel very fortunate to be at a time in my life that I have the space to curate and contain the things I have collected over the years. I get an enormous amount of pleasure working with my paper crafting stuff, and as a person who has not always had the luxury of a budget for this stuff, or the space to contain it in a way that works for me, I am very grateful to be here now. It's also really great that my adult children have an appreciation for what I do with the stuff, and they really do look at my scrapbook layouts. One in particular complains when I don't upload my latest stuff to my Flickr account so she can check it out.