Crafty organizing and decluttering

Well, we've put the four Michaels cubes together but I haven't pulled everything out of the closet yet. I think we are going to get it painted and set up next weekend, though, since it's a long weekend. I'm slowly moving things around to maximize the use of the space and to get the things I use more frequently closer to my work area. I figure it will be fall before I have everything just the way I want it, since I'm anticipating being gone for a pretty big swath of the summer, but we'll see. If I can pull off setting up this second cloffice area, that's the last big foundation stuff left to do and the rest is finishing a sort and then the micro-organizing. I think there will be room to spare, which is amazing.

I have a few more containers coming, and my plan is to put all the stuff that I don't really need but don't want to get rid of, mostly stuff from my parents, just a box or two, and stuff from my husband's parents, same thing, up on the very top shelves of both cloffices. I have some of those pretty white Ikea plastic boxes with lids and a few that are similar and my plan is to use the cricut to print some vinyl labels, put everything in boxes and store them up there. I think I've already tossed most of what I wanted to toss, and some of the stuff I did not toss but that I was really not sure I wanted to keep ended up being EXTREMELY USEFUL when I was trying to solve a huge genealogy mystery that literally no one in our family had any idea existed until I looked at my Ancestry DNA results a few years ago. It was a random sheet of paper that survived for probably 80 years in my parents' stuff, so I'm pretty set on keeping most of what I haven't already tossed. But I don't really need to look at it often, so I think storing it way, up near the ceiling, labeled and out of the way, is the best option.

I am the keeper of the family archives for both my family and DH's family so I have loads of photos and memorabilia that I've inherited. I've been slowly organising, labelling, and storing over the past 4 years or so. I have a closet in the guest room where I'm storing the 'finished' and labelled boxes. Finished is in quotes because more than once I've gone upstairs to add things to one or another of the boxes but ...

Yay on solving a genealogy mystery. I have a couple I'm hoping to solve.

wordfish - what a wonderful discovery!

Which leads us to another Shakti's Weird Decluttering Question of the Day™:

In software validation, there's a concept of SoUP or Software of Unknown Provenance. I am running into PoUP or Paper of Unknown Provenance. Since I am primarily a card maker and don't need to be overly concerned with acid-free/archival, should I just put it where it would belong if it were any other scrap? Or recycle it on principal?

I have found a mystery panel, about A2 size, of some sort of white, slightly textured paper with some sort of subtle glitter or sparkle embedded in it.

I would just put it with your scraps if you like it.  If you don't, I would toss it.

Thanks for the input, wordfish!

I think the question is, would YOU use them to ship things to other people? Or would you just reach for a roll of bubble wrap or a padded envelope and never think of or pass by these kinds of sheets. 

I'm like wordfish, I have a bin of packing foam chunks, peanuts, air bubbles, etc and when it's too full I stop. But I also ship a lot of things on the regular. I find that I rarely reach for certain kinds of packing materials so I have to be realistic about why I'm keeping the stuff I don't actually use. 

Finished another ae word phrase sticker sheet - yippee!
Just need to find a similar sheet from my stash for the last few photos without a phrase in my witl so it’s all matching.
Then onto journaling and then witl will be finished - all before any kind of updates on the project from ae…. So WEIRD!

looking good Shakti

Shakti the crafty cabinet looks awesome. You've got a lot stashed in there to play with!

I think that if that's how you'll look for a supply - by background or focal or sentiment - then that's the best way to organise them. In general, storing things the way you'll search for them makes sense. I think it's Dana White who says to put things in the first place that you would look for them in (general organising not craft specific)

I can see that working for you Shakti

I definitely like that idea. I might even move my own few 6x6 background stamps so that they're stored with my embossing folders, because yes, I'm really just looking for some kind of texture to zhuzh up a background and tone-on-tone stamping (like Crafty Al did for this month's Sheetload) would work just as well as embossing in most cases. If they'll fit.

The other option being some kind of list reminding me to look at my coverplate texture dies and background stamps as well. I might make a divider marked background textures and if everything doesn't fit in that spot I can put my cheat sheet of alternatives right on the divider. (I liked the idea behind Justine Hovey's technique binder but I'm not sure I'd remember to use something separate like that).

I currently have dies sorted into basic shapes, words, standalone fancy dies (which are mostly layering leaf or flower shapes, postboxes, shoes, etc), and background/coverplates. I seem to only have one border die and I just moved it from the fancy section to the background section since it's a woodgrain texture. The embossing folders are right behind the background dies, but the background stamps are buried in the middle of the rest of my stamps organized by size. I think I can make space to shift them over.

I just did it and if I consolidate some mini sentiment stamp sets into one larger sheet/envelope I think it will work perfectly. I had moved my one turnabout into that location anyway since I use it more for sentiments (which are stored right behind the embossing folders) so it makes a logical transition for my brain

There are always a few odd ones that could go into different categories but I try to make sure they're ones that I know/love/remember I have and go looking for. If not it's sometimes easier to just destash them!

I’m wondering if anyone has experience using some type of printed index list over time?

I’ve spent the last 7 days sorting and organizing items but I’ve yet to develop a method that allows me to consistently use what I have over time. I struggle most with things that fall into several categories/themes. I need an old school tagging system that doesn’t involve referring to an electronic list.