How to find time to scrap???

[Forever a Princess]

Hello!

I'm having a hard time finding the time to scrap. I'm a busy professional woman that works a lot of hours.

Seems like housework, grocery shopping and all the household stuff takes up a lot of my free time. On the weekend I spend my time trying to rennovate my kitchen. I hopefully will be done with that project in a couple of months.

I have thought about scheduling a night of the week to scrap.

Let the dishes and laundry pile up for one night-I'll get to it the next night.

Also when I do get the chance to sit down and scrap I have a hard time. Somehow I think that the page needs to look like it has come out of one of the scrapbooking pages.

I did fix this in part by really thinking about what MY style was. My style is clean and not a lot of "fluff" on the page. Realizing this has helped quite a bit.

How do you guys find the time to scrap???

Renee

 

[nikkistevej]

I stay up very late some nights, and drink Mountain Dew at work the next morning!! LOL Really I just make the time, I usually put my DD5 to bed, and scrapbook at least 1 night a week, I do go to an all day crop or a Friday evening crop once a month at our local scrapbook store.

 

[LindaBabe]

it's a lot easier, now that I've retired! lol

 

[party of 3]

i have that same problem. i work outside of the home and i have a 6 year old son so it's always something that needs to be done 1st. so i admit i don't get much done. and i hooked on swaping and that takes up time as well.

i figure i'll just plug along at it!

 

[patchchild]

I end up scrapping in small chunks. Grab the photos and some coordinating paper one time, then run off to chase my son. Later,I do some haphazard layout, then chase my son some more. Little by little I refine what's there, kind of tossing it over in my mind between work sessions. It's fun to plan while running around doing other things.

 

[Lisa]

Many of us have very full schedules and fit scrapping in the best that suits us. Some of my SAHM friends brew up a pot of coffee after the kids have gone to bed and they finally have a moment to themselves. For me, I get up an hour before I need to do get things done, laundry, pick up house, etc. My ironing board is set up in my scrapbooking room so each morning when I iron my clothes to wear for work, as the iron is heating up, I tinker with a layout.

 

[PrincessNancy96]

Well, I'm a SAHM but I also have a very busy schedule with 5 kids; just because the kids go off to school does not mean that my day is finished until they come home!! I have great friends on this board that are PROFESSIONAL women that work outside of the home and they will fit time into their schedule w/ work and home commitments even if it is just a few hours a week or a crop or two here and there!

I find it hard to find time to scrap. Being at home does NOT allow me the time to just sit down and eat bon-bons while I scrap all day long... I personally have sit up a routine and a window of a few hours a week to scrap.

 

[Kim1964]

It helps to have a place where you can leave your stuff out. When I didn't have that, it was much harder to find time because I'd have 10 minutes available, but by the time I got everything out and set up on the kitchen table, I'd have 5 minutes left and then I'd have to pack it all up again. Leaving stuff out means that when I have a few minutes I can crop photos or cut mats or play around with a layout.

 

[Raenstoirm]

I end up scrapping in small chunks. Grab the photos and some coordinating paper one time, then run off to chase my son. Later,I do some haphazard layout, then chase my son some more. Little by little I refine what's there, kind of tossing it over in my mind between work sessions. It's fun to plan while running around doing other things.

Although I don't have kids, this is me as well. While I am waiting for the washer to fill with water, I put a few things together and then come back while it washes for a minute or 2. I got 49 pages done in 2.5 days. Wanna know how?? 90% were already done in my head and about 40% just had to be glued. If I hadn't been hit by the flu and missed those days from work, most of those pages would still be waiting to be finished, but you get the idea. Usually 1 Sunday a month i set aside for scrapping. I get 5 hours where I lock myself in my scrap room. Chores wait.

Whenever I finish a set of pages, I get the next "topic" out. Right now I have my beach vacation on my scrap table. I have sorted the pics into pages (as in these will go together, and these and these) I have 2 pages that need to be cut and glued (tonight actually since it is the paper scrap challenge deadline) and two pages that just need the mental finishing touches. And ten other piles of pics that will be pages at some point.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Play nice ladies!


I'm one of Lisa's SAHM friends, I have 3 in school but 1 at home so I am like Patchchild, I scrap in chunks of time.
One day I will gather my photos and sort them into layouts. The next day, I'll gather embellishments that go with my pics.
the following day I will gather papers, then each "kit" goes either into a 2 1/2 gallon ziploc bag or my power layout box.

I typically don't scrap at home, Lisa has a monthly crop that I go to. This way I can get my pages done without Mom..... Honey.... can you help me.....I need......

I think most of us feel the same way about scrappers guilt. We feel that the housework, chores, errands, kids, etc need to come first. But if you put in the dedication to your pages as much as you do to your dishes, you will be amazed at the amount of stuff you accomplish.

 

[JandJ]

I love to scrap, obviously, but it's always something that keeps me from sitting down and doing it. Now that I'm working full-time again I'm too busy and too tired at night, plus I like to relax with DH in the evening. Like Buffy said, though, I put housework, dishes, laundry, etc. ahead of scrapping on the weekends and I could let that go one day on a weekend - or at least for a few hours

 

[nikkistevej]

It definately helps to be able to leave it out. I don't think I would scrap as much, if I couldn't just work on a page anytime.

 

[MazdaUK]

I work 4 days a week and have kids, and I scrap when my friends watch soaps Dh works evenings quite often so i scrap then, either while kids watch TV or after they're in bed.

I also do swaps - it takes scrsap time but it does mean you can get pages together quick as you have elements ready to go!

 

[laura&fam]

It sounds like I'm with most of the others - scrapping into the wee hours of the night. With everything else in our lives that's the only time left!

I try to schedule one night a month, it's only once a month and so it doesn't get scheduled over too often. I tried once a week, but I felt guilty with so much housework to do and not spending time with the kids, etc. etc. Also it was too easy to think "I'm too busy this week, I'll do it next week".

Good luck finding what works for you. When we renovated our kitchen nothing got scrapped for a couple of months.

 

[Forever a Princess]

Well, I'm a SAHM but I also have a very busy schedule with 5 kids; just because the kids go off to school does not mean that my day is finished until they come home!! I have great friends on this board that are PROFESSIONAL women that work outside of the home and they will fit time into their schedule w/ work and home commitments even if it is just a few hours a week or a crop or two here and there!

I find it hard to find time to scrap. Being at home does NOT allow me the time to just sit down and eat bon-bons while I scrap all day long... I personally have sit up a routine and a window of a few hours a week to scrap.

My hat is off to you!!

I used to be a Nanny of four kids. I was so tired by the end of the day I just kind of fell into bed (and only got half of the household stuff done that I meant to that day.) I definetly didn't have much energy left over so my hat is off to you for for getting scrapbooking pages done with five kids!!

 

[Forever a Princess]

Hmmm, I never thought of scrapbooking in bits and chunks.

I always thought that I had to have a large chunk of time that I could sit down and scrap a bunch of pages.

Maybe if I add my scrapbook area to the "household merry go round" I'll get something done.

Thanks ladies and keep the ideas coming!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Another thing is if you follow the 15 minute routine you get a lot done too.

15 minutes to clean the kitchen
15 minutes to clean the living room
15 minutes to scrap, your reward for doing 30 minutes of housework.

I do that too.

 

[Spinning]

It is tough...
I work part time and every week I say to myself...on Tue I am going to spend the day scrapping..does it happen...nope!
Things just seem to pop up. The one thing I ahve learned to do is plan a scrapping weekend away. That seems to help. WHich I realize isn't in the budget or time plan for many....I know for years it wasn't for me. But my kids are now older and I can.
Also if you can find a place to leave your stuff out that is helpful.
I do think you are on the right track with finding your style and the next step would be figure out what you really want to scrap. When I did this is helped so much. I concentrate mainly on the kids scout, school and sport books. I also stopped scrappign ever picture. Each activity or event is no more than a 2 page spread. Some times just a one page spread especially their scout and school books. I really just want a record of their friends and what they did that was fun that year. If they want to see all the pictures they can look at the DVD!
For fun I still do some of the cute pages or big events in their lives but I don't focus on the outside playing pictures or day trips......I have tons of pictures on DVD's they can look at if they want too.....
Good luck!

 

[Fran98765]

Not that I'm here to brag or convert anyone .... but lack of time is a perfect reason to digi scrap! I can open my program, start a page, go afk for an hour (save first of course!) and then come back to it as I have time throughout the day!

 

[ColleenG]

I haven't done a ton of scrapping in awhile. I work part time but lately I've been working a lot more. I can't scrap when the kids are up or they have every thing pulled apart. When I'm home more during the day I try to get things gathered for what I want to work on that night after the kids are in bed. This fall/winter I'm hoping to get a section of our basement fixed up as a permantent scrap area. I hope if I can leave stuff out then I can run down and do a little here and there. Just not having to unpack everything and then repack it would be a huge time saver.