Crafty organizing and decluttering

Pondered some more.

I have four bins of durable goods (stamps/dies/stencils/embossing folders). Two are narrower and two are wider. The narrow ones are nominally normally sized stamp/die sets and standalone die sets -- all the things that fit in little square or 5x7 storage envelopes/sleeves. The wider ones are nominally for oversized stamp/die sets (the ones that fit in the really big pockets), stencils/background cling stamp (things that fit in the larger square pockets/sleeves), and embossing folders (which don't need pockets at all). They are (again) nominally separated into categories (general stamps, sentiment stamps, dies, embossing folders, background stamps, stencils, oversize stamps) and alphabetizes by manufacturer/set name inside the categories.

I am now wondering whether the categories make any different at all. Maybe the four bins should just be one each for tall wide things, short wide things, tall skinny things, short skinny things, all alphabetized....

As of right now, it's only four bins and I do have a relatively good memory for what I have and who makes it. I feel like it might work.

I hope you like them! I wanted to make sure you realized that it is a multi color pack, 4 white,  2 blue, 2 green, 2 purple. Very deep colors so you can’t see well through them. I didn’t the first time I got them and probably wasn’t clear in my post! I use them for everything. And keep buying another pack every now and again. 

It's not perfect but it's more organised (and labelled) than before. I didn't bother taking photos of the Alex drawers under the desk or the 3 cubes (smaller - not Kallax) next to the desk (with Cricut cartridges and idea/sketch books/binders)

Recollections cubes hold cardstock and paper

Kallax has (top row) scraps, clear stamps, albums (middle row) dies, some collection kits (in the envelopes) and more albums (bottom row) albums, cards/envelopes

This is behind me when I sit at the desk



cart has themed embellishments, alcohol markers (grouped in colour families), and stamping up stamp sets



I couldn't get the desk in one picture (not enough space between it and the Kallax)

drawers have larger themes such as Christmas, travel, military, next to the drawers are alpha stickers by colour, the container to the right (in front of the Cricut) is stuff I'm currently working with

great job 950nancy

I ended up filling a goodsized box with donations - I agree - the videos are motivating for organising and purging

Linda, it looks great!  

I'm having a glorious Saturday in my cleaned-up studio.  The HVAC people come on Wednesday, and after that I will get more intense about sorting and finishing things up.  I priced out how much it will cost to redo my desk area with the Michaels Simply Tidy furniture I chose and it's less than I thought as long as I hit a sale.  I'll work on that soon.  

So far today, I've worked a bit on my WITL project and done a bit more tidying and micro-organizing.  Tomorrow, I will have to get prepped for the HVAC guys.  In order to get to the AC unit, they have to go through a sort of secret door in the bathroom.  It is the back of the linen closet in the bathroom, so I have to remove the shelves and move everything out so they can get to the attic where the AC unit is.  The closet is built so the shelves unhook pretty easily, and we store things in bins so it's easy to do this, but still it will make a bit of a mess. Old houses...

Thank you wordfish - sounds like your space is coming along well.

From my post a few mins today...So far I have tossed into trash...about 3 large tote full of scraps and other things that are not good to go to anyone..

Ok ...get this..so far I gave to goodwill 25 large totes of everything...from papers to bits and bobs that I have sorted....

I found out ,,,the more I got rid of the easier it was to just let it go!!!

my reward is to have my craft room with more wiggle room..and to stay away from buying those paper packs from micheals.....

I think ill need to get rid of another 5 totes to call it done....hopfully by next week...then I can enjoy!! These are full sized rubbermaid totes!!

My AC is installed and glorious as I sit up here in my studio this afternoon. I pulled the trigger on enough Michaels cubes to redo my desk/main work top. I've used Ikea sawhorses with a door or just a piece of painted wood for over 20 years. I ordered the Michaels cubes this morning after spending a couple of weeks working out the configuration I thought would be best for what I want to store closest to where I work. They are on a decent sale right now, plus I had some rewards $ from some frames I bought recently. I remembered I have a credit on one of my credit cards (two, actually) so I just went ahead and bought them. They were ready to pick up in six minutes. We picked them up and they were all in perfect condition. A total of eight units. I put half of them together and my husband put the other half together, and they are already installed and ready for me to fill up. Yay! There's a cord mess and the desktop needs to be cleared off but I'll take some photos hopefully today and post them. I'm really pleased with them!!

Just a small thing but I found a way to put my printed sketch(es) up where I can see them and out of my way! I used a magnetic planner clip that holds easily to my metal Canvas lamp.

Magnetic clip! by jo.blackford, on Flickr

If anyone has an At Home in town and hasn't been, their kitchen/bathroom organization section is an awesome place to get storage. If you sign up for emails, you get 10-15% off too.

Yes! I tell myself that too. 
I also shred paper and cardstock that doesn't have any plasticky elements (foil, sticker backing paper) for a neighbor who uses it as browns in her compost pile. Feed the soil

If only we had paper recycling here...

Here was my main work area about two weeks ago:
IMG_3852 by Seanna., on Flickr

My daughter came over to spend the day with me on Mother's Day. She wanted to help with the studio reorg process. I knew immediately what I wanted to accomplish: Move the black Kallax that was on top of a dresser in another part of the room:
IMG_2691 by Seanna., on Flickr

To here (my husband is sitting in my new chair, playing with my cat, Toby):
1c7afaa4-3016-4e95-8111-83ff01ac3e8a by Seanna., on Flickr

We did more work after my daughter took this shot, but the little "wine insert fridge bin drawers" are now directly behind my main workspace and should be really handy. I haven't yet reloaded all the paper shelves, and I think I have a total of 30 empty ones to work with so far. There were six people hanging out up there on Mother's Day--so much better than how I started back in March. I don't think six people would have been able to hang out up there in March--too much crap everywhere. Now, it's a pleasure.

Yesterday I ordered 4 more Michaels cubes from two local Michaels. I picked up from one location at lunch yesterday and will likely pick up the rest at lunch today. Those 4 cubes will form the base for my upcoming cloffice conversation (the reach-in closet behind my husband in the photo). I am going to pull everything out of there this weekend and am thinking about painting it to match this one:

IMG_2687 by Seanna., on Flickr

Do it! Throw them away and move on. Otherwise you'll keep finding them and agonizing over whether you should throw them away or do something else with them... over and over and over. You can always reprint them if you have a real need. So unless there's a person who might enjoy looking at them before agonizing over whether they should throw them in the bin 😬 I say toss them!