Hi Everyone!
Today's post is for my fellow paper crafters! I have been excited to walk through my office with you again, and share a few more details about how I have organized my tools and supplies. As you know from my Makeover post, Target supplied a lot of new items for my studio, and I highlighted those items in that post. In this post, I will talk about the items that aren't from Target and why I chose to use them or reuse them in my space.
First off: I love organizing just as much as I love decorating, but when you've reached a point where you have so much stuff that all you ever do is move things around, it's time to purge. Pare down to the essentials and be sure that the things you make an active decision to keep have a designated space and don't clog up your life. That's a little bit of wisdom that works with any improvement project.
I buy a LOTof my furniture at IKEA or an IKEA piece from Craigslist. In fact, we don't leave the house for IKEA until we have searched our local Craigslist for the item we are looking for, by name. I can't tell you how many times the item I was planning to buy for full price, was listed on CL at a massive discount. It's great!
I love the look of white painted furniture, mostly because I am drawn to modern clean lines, and I also live in the dark and gloomy PNW, so I need all the reflective light surfaces I can stuff into my home. :P Also, I shop at IKEA because I can't afford to shop for furniture elsewhere. I have a very limited budget and I have collected a lot of the items you see here over time.
I know a lot of paper crafters have seen the turquoise RASKOG cart, it's a great item to buy, if you can find them in stock. I like to fill it full of embellishments and Project Life journal cards and roll it up to my table when working. Currently it's still full of supplies for my December Daily album. I need to refresh it with some of the newer spring supplies, and put those older items up on my art desk.
To keep my supplies organized on the top shelf, I used a couple of different document storage pieces, and you can use similar ones. I really like these by Martha Stewart for Staples. I also have a Project Life organizing tray for my PL sized cards, and I used a couple of BYGEL hanging baskets from the kitchen storage at IKEA to house odds and ends.
I'm actually contemplating putting this cart downstairs in the dining room and filling it full of craft supplies for Maggie and buying myself one of the 4-shelf carts like this one from World Market, for only $99.00.
Another popular item from IKEA is the EXPEDIT shelving unit, I think just about everyone who has access to an IKEA has one by now. If you're a scrapbooker, and you've been on the fence, I hope this little tip will help push you over! I bought a KVISSLE letter tray sorter from IKEA from their new collection of office accessories. I initially bought it for the top of my desk, but when I was playing around with arrangements in my office, I discovered that it fits nicely into the EXPEDIT cubbies.
The trays are sized to hold regular letter sized paper, but I wanted to see if I could use them for my 12"x 12" pattern paper. Guess what? They work great! Just flip the tray upside down, pull it out about 1.5" and stack your papers on top. I lined up my stack of papers with the front edge of the tray, and because the trays are made out of sturdy metal, they don't flop or sag when extended, even if you have a heavy stack of paper on top!
This was such a great solution for me, and looked so great, I bought another one. Now I have the two side-by-side on the top row of my bookcase, yet I can imagine a whole EXPEDIT unit filled with these tray sorters and pattern paper and looking fabulous!!
The other item I use for storing my 12"x 12" papers are these 13"x 15" KASSETT file boxes. I cut priority mail shipping boxes in half, fill them with paper and put them into the file box and leave the lid off (I put it on the bottom) for easy access. These boxes get a bit heavy, so I put them on the bottom shelf and slide them out to use them.
So that is a pretty thorough overview of how I store my papers and my basic embellishments. Now let's move onto my shelves and my desk and see what I have set up in those areas.
My shelves are full of a variety of KASSETT boxes, some large, some small, and some flat. I know that IKEA has stopped making the skinny flat boxes, which is sad, because I was using them to store my most used acrylic and wood mount stamps; most used on top, less used on the bottom. My handle stamps I store in a vintage stamp holder. My copic markers are in the metal flower pot, and I have my Project Life album inserts in one of those large file boxes, and the other larger file boxes contain a lot of older products and embellishments from around 2009, that I can't part with. Most of the KASSETT boxes hold supplies of one form or another, broken down by size, material, and quantity.
Under my standing desk, I have a row of 5 Y-Weave storage bins from Target, and these bins hold my punches, tools, stamp pads, hot glue gun and accessories and one empty bin for future items. I also have a very shallow height shelf that is the perfect spot for my guillotine paper cutter, score board, cutting mats, sketchbooks, and tin boxes (some old KI Memories holiday gift sets from Target) where I stash memorabilia and photos that I don't have another place for. Maggie's art work goes into a KASSETT box downstairs in the dining room. I also use some FLYT magazine files for my Thickers. In full disclosure, I have a HUUUUGE box of Thickers in my closet, so the ones on my shelf are my favorites. :D
Speaking of my closet...I don't have a picture of it, but I have two heavy duty sets of plastic shelving from our garage inside, and I use it to store boxes of miscellaneous craft supplies, fabric, paper and printing supplies, and craft tools like my vintage typewriter and my Cuttlebug. It's where my stuff goes to die. I purge my closet as often as I can, but it always looks a mess.
Last but not least, my desk is where I keep a few essential items; my Epson Picturemate photo printer, my Project Life supplies, my Silhouette and my current craft projects. If you're looking for more great divided office organizers, I love this one from Land of Nod. Any other smaller items, like glitter, embossing powder, buttons, paint and brushes, etc, go into the cubbies of my vintage locker unit, you can find a photo of it in this post.
I hope I did a good job explaining everything clearly, and I hope I gave you some ideas that you can use in your crafting room, because I know first hand how hard it is to walk the fine line between having supplies at hand vs. your supplies having the upper hand. ;D
As always, if you have any questions on anything specific, please leave me a comment below and I will do my best to answer!
xoxoxoxo
-JP