Q2/Q3 organization: chat and share

This has immediately been added to my everyday vernacular, and soon my sister’s as well I suspect. I’m not part of any challenges but definitely looking for craft room motivation, encouragement and chats!

I’ve already shared the fabulous word with those who are interested in this kind of thing, I know it will be adapted. Love Dana, she is so real!

Okay, I just climbed back on the board and into crafts so my first goals will be to work on some ideas from Q1.


These two go together for me because it’s my new product that needs to have swatches made. And I need to play with them and put them where they belong.  

And I’ve already started with this challenge last night.


I like the concept of 50% or more done it becomes clutter. It’s a bit difficult for me because I am a tortoise scrapper, I work on something then come to a stop due to depression, need a product I don’t have, or I come to a mental blocade. And I’m happy to file those aside where they belong and come back to them when they’re fun again. That doesn’t disturb my space. 

But for other crafts like card making and dotting I think this does frequently apply to me. I’ve wanted it for a while but I finally pulled the trigger and got the WRMK project cart. I no longer work on one thing at a time for the most part, my brain won’t let me. So I need a space to keep my current projects that doesn’t take up horizontal space in my room, isn’t visually distracting, and is super easy to use and access. Another feature for me is that it only has 6 trays, so that enforces a limit of 6 current projects for me. 

I put it together last night and have my current projects on the top, then added my project “clutter” to the other 5 trays. So I have something fresh and fun to work on, as well as some things to finish up. And I won’t allow myself to start another craft project until I have cleared off the 5 clutter projects.

I will say we’ve already applied this concept to the rest of our house. We have a project room where these unfinished projects sit so they don’t take up space and bother me throughout the whole house. And a space in the garage for the larger ones). There are 4 work tables and the current projects are kept on top of those, with the rest of the projects nearly under the tables. There are a few permanent larger projects that get their own space, the rest is taken out as I feel like working on it. This works so well for us and keeps the “to dos” out of the rest of the house, and off of my mind. Huge weight lifted off my shoulders. Highly recommend it! Anyway, I’m addressing that room on NSBR organization thread. 

And last night after reading through the Q1 thread I took a look around my room and realized I need to do some moving about of projects in my craft closet to make better use of the space and make sure my most used crafts use the best real estate on my shelves. So I’ll also be slowly rearranging the closet.

Looking forward to chatting about everyone’s adventures in their craft rooms!

eta: I forgot about Christmas! My craft room has a peacock theme and it makes me happy so I kept it up until a week or two ago then decided it needed to come down to still be a treat over the holidays. Most of it is packed and away, but I didn’t have good sized boxes for some new items, some items need repair (like the tree) some new items need glitter (what kind of glue do I use I feathers???). So now I need to box, repair and attack new peacock Christmas items with glitter before moving everything to the garage then move the furniture back.


I also have some items stored vertically in a few places on my shelves that are driving me batty so I need a new solution, I think I’m going to get an additional horizontal storage unit from Michael’s when I see it on a good sale.

As for purging, I have a time will tell bin that it’s time to make decisions on and I’m sure watching y’all will motivate me to do maintenance declutter with small sections at a time.  

I feel a lot better having decided on some specific goals besides “work in craft room” and getting the, written down.

I don't know if this will work, but I saw a video on FB from Altenew quoting some psychologist about why it's good for you to have multiple projects going at once. Trying to link: www.facebook.com/reel/1355813225357122

not in my case - I always have multiple projects in progress but need to clean my desk between layouts and too much visible clutter stresses me out.

I’m the same, I don’t even like seeing most of my supplies out, my anxiety likes a ton of blank space. Unfortunately, I’m also practical and all about function so my supplies are more visible than I prefer. Of course, the fact that I don’t have the fun money to spend on closed drawers and cabinets affects that as well 

wordfish Yes, I use the old Just do 5 minutes ploy to trick myself into starting all the time! The fact that I know I am tricking myself and it still works baffles me a little.

Jennifer McGuire did a YT live on mostly cardstock organization yesterday. It's really long but one of the first thing she shows is the 8.5 x 11 size version of the dividers I'm using for my patterned paper horizontal organization. Of course, hers is magnificent

Jennifer McGuire organization LIVE

I like the Michaels packs also - they cut much nicer than the HL ones (which fray terribly even with a fresh blade). I do love the textured Hot Buy cardstock pads as well though (also Ms)

Oh, man, that video sent me down a rabbit hole! As I said, I didn't really hear much that was new. I should add to my rant above that the reason I like assorted color packs is that I can amass a wide selection of colors without ended up with too much stock. I really appreciate that since I can't imagine buying compete packs even of a selection of colors. Maybe for a specific large-batch project specifically.

I'd also like to move my specialty (glitter, foil, vellum, etc) up to where my regular letter size card stock is so that I remember to use it (it's now behind a cabinet door). I need to use up more of the random brands of letter size to make room, but I don't think I want to move that to behind the cabinet door, either. I think for now maybe I just keep grabbing a brand or a stack and keeping it in the on-deck circle until it's gone.

Thank you wordsmith , going to watch as soon as I finish this thread. Our organizational styles/preferences are very similar so it’s always helpful to see specifically how she does some things.


joblackford It’s been a while since I’ve watched a lot of her videos, but one thing I do appreciate is that she seems to say quite often that this is her job that’s why she has so much and often reminds you that you probably have something in your stash will work instead of buying what she’s using. I’m wondering if that’s changed with more sponsors. But yeah, you definitely organize small stashes much differently than large stashes much of the time and not even those not in the industry have just huge stashes. Huge! Sometime though, you can take bits and pieces of their suggestions and tweak them for yourself. For example, her stamp/die cut/embossing folder storage is really great for my way of organizing and reaching for supplies. But all of mine are in one of the side by side bins and don’t even fill it up 🤣🤣🤣. But I changed from being separated just by type of tool, then added categories for each tool, and am now in the process of changing over to mixing the types of tools in the categories and breaking down my sentiments category. But the storing by manufacturer would not work for me except for collections!

I've done this. I've never been particularly loyal to one ink manufacturer or range although I own a lot of the distress oxides. I have all my ink swatches on 3x3 cardstock squares that I keep in the top of my ink drawer, and I keep them by rainbow order irrespective of who made them. I love being able to pull the swatches and lay them next to my project to determine which one I want to use.

So, I had a moment in 2023. In January, Crafty Al's SLoC was a mini-slimline design. I made a set for my mom; must've given it to her for Mother's Day. I was thinking MSL was the GREATEST greeting card size EVAH! In the fall, I was supposed to go to a CK show/expo/whatever they call it. I missed it, but a local crafty acquaintance was able to pick up the stuff from the classes I signed up for. This included a CM envelope punchboard! Which was the best thing EVAH because now I could make my own mini-slimline envelopes! So I picked up an inexpensive pad of Parklane single-sided letter size PP -- to make all those envelopes, of course....

Would anybody like to guess how many mini-slimline ANYthings I've made since I got that punch board? Anybody? Bueller?

I'm having an easier time seeing my way to donating the paper pad (which is lovely in its own subtle way, but not quite my style and not a size I generally use). The punch board, while I can't see needing it again, since I didn't much enjoy making envelopes the time I tried it out, also seems like the sort of thing one would be mighty glad to just HAVE in those moments when it's the only thing that would do.

Then I think about it some more and decide I could always use the paper; some of the patterns would be quite nice as subtle backgrounds, but really why would I want the punch board if I'm fine buying envelopes?

Like I can wrap my head about getting rid of one, or the other, but I trip a mental circuit breaker at "both".