Organize Your Space Challenge - Week 4 Remaining Embellishments, Tools, Albums

[party of 3]

ok i have been avoiding this thread like the plague! only because i know i'm the most unorganized person in the world when it comes to my scrap crap!and my *crap corner* (as dh calls it) is really out of control!!!!!!
so this morning i opened up this thread and starting reading it. O M G do i need to do something with all my stuff.
dh and i were talking about re-doing my corner (it's in the basement) and we have so much work to do just to redo it down there. so my thought process was always, well i fix it once we re do it. but i can't stand it anymore. i have a gagillon stickers, stamps, paper, sizzix's. so much so that i can't find a stinkin' thing anymore. it's just all willy nilly down there. I need an intervention. seriously. i'm so overwhelmed. where do i even start. it's stuff everywhere.
help me ladies. help me find a starting point.
keep in mind that i work full time, so when i get home at night, it's supper making time, homework time, shower time, book time, and by then i am totally exhausted. and on the weekends we get up, breakfast, pool and errands. the usually sat/sun routine. grocery run, walmart/target run.....you know how it goes. so when do i work on it?
what i need is someone to say, Holly- go find every brad you have and put it in a box or case or something. give me some time to complete the task and then give me another mission.
any takers????

i'm open to any suggestions!

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

Holly - go find every sticker you own and put them in boxes. And I mean everyone of them. You go look through your stacks, your drawers, under the table, everywhere. GO Go Go GO!

 

[party of 3]

ok, but if you don't hear from me in a few days, i've gotten lost down there!

 

[hurleythurston]

i'm open to any suggestions!

Hint #1: There is no doubt that starting 1 January has helped most of us feel that there isn't a rush, so #1 is to pretend TODAY is 1 January.
Hint #2: Set a timer for 15 minutes WHENEVER you can, as many times as you can per day (0 or 2 or 7...) and start with the mantra " like with like...like with like...like with like..." Don't worry about HOW you will perfectly store the stuff, just get it TOGETHER. It will be so uplifting just to have all the stickers, buttons, sizzix, etc. in its own temporary place.
Hint #3: post a before picture, so you can see how far long you have come when you are done/near done. We can also make fun of it if you want.
GOOD LUCK, Holly!!! You are not alone.

 

[hopemax]

Holly,

If you are starting with absolutely no good storage ideas, I would get about a half a dozen temporary boxes.

Stickers, Paper, Sizzix, embellishments, Ribbon&Fibers, inks & stamps.

And then like hurley said, get a timer set it for 15 minutes, grab a pile and sort it into the proper box. Timer goes off, you're done for the day (unless you want to do another 15 minutes later in the day). Could you do it at the same time, your little guy is doing his homework?

I think once you see a dent, and can get into a 15 minute routine, you'll find more motivation to keep going. And if you can get everything sorted into likes, you could take a box upstairs to sort, while you are watching TV or something.

But you can do it! Go, Holly, Go!

 

[believen]

Holly,
You can do it! I just started this week really. I am slowly sorting everything into piles or boxes. I guess one day soon, I will start organizing it all!

Yodasmom,
I love my bookshelves! I remember as a child, maybe 8 or 9, staining them with my Dad. The desk was DH's as a child. Things I can't part with. The other side of the room, has a dresser and a great old desk that I just bought.
I am open to any suggestions you have for "our" room! lol

You would never know that I am actually a neat freak! My kids think it's funny that this room is such a mess.

I bought this yesterday- It will be the new home for all of my eyelets, brads, and bling

The picture is dark- sorry. It is a really pretty tote. The 3 cases have divided sections and should hold most of my small embellishments.

 

[party of 3]

hi everyone! great ideas. i have a ton of rubbermaid storage bins that i bought a various times to get myself organized, but just keep filling them up with scrapping crap in no order. i have just spent more than 3 hrs down there sorting stuff out. i put open containers (boxes & rubbermaid) on the floor and made one metal stuff-adhesives-tools-odd ball stuff-brads &snaps-flowers- and a basket for my ribbon. i have copier paper boxes for my sizzix's and other dies. O M G. do i have some crap or what. i have so many stickers it's really not funny. i did take before pics. just so i can see it for myself. how bad it was. the whole problem is, is that i thought i was moving over on the other side and then decided to ask dh if he would finish it and make it a *real* room for me. so now i have stuff on both sides of the basement.
i think i'm calling it a day for today. hopefully i can just make myself do a little more each night.
i can't do it while bubba does homework, because it's either i do homework and dh does dinner or i do dinner and he does the homework. but i'm going to try to do some each night after dinner while he's in the shower. before reading time. wish me luck!

the good part of doing this is that you actually see what the heck you have!

 

[hopemax]

Awesome job, Holly!

And yes, you do get to see what you have and have forgotten about.

 

[hopemax]

Day 20 - Ribbon

Hope everyone had enough time to sort their stickers, but the train is moving on. Ribbon is not something that I worked ahead to finish so I could have pics to show, when I updated the post. Once upon a time, my ribbon was nicely stored in a big Sterilite drawer like my Sizzix stuff. And then I bought more ribbon. I have a couple storage things, but never really organized it the way it should. I will work on it today and see if I can get things condensed, and not feel like I have ribbon in 5 different places.

I do have a storage idea for when we have a place of our own. It won't work for me in an apartment, since I don't have the freedom to do whatever I want to the walls, but it might work you guys. I've seen a couple variations posted around the scrapping boards. Vinyl Rain Gutters!

http://www.scrapbook.com/gallery/source/146585/IMG_10529.jpg

The lady said she bought a 10 ft section for about $6, and then some end caps. Much cheaper than the $80 Clip It Up Ribbon Holder.

My loose ribbon (ends and swap pieces) are organized with my fibers, and I do have that taken care of.

 

[PrincessNancy96]

My ribbon is done...
my little spools are sorted by color in a flip top/divider container..
I have several stacked in by style in clear containers
and DH made me a temporary holder that I stuffed through the centers of the spools and can just cut right from the spool what I need...
Unused ribbon is stored willy-nilly in a clear container sitting right on the desk...so I find myself using all the ribbon with it sitting closer to me!!

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

My ribbon is currently in a drawer & a few clear containers on the shelf. I'm hoping DH will suddenly find a sale or good deal on the gutters now that I've shown him the photo.

 

[123SA]

This was the part I was waiting for. I had everything else organized, but ribbons and fibers are a mess. I love the gutter idea! I don't have a place for that in my dining room though. I could put it in my storage room in the basement, but that is not very user friendly. Right now I have them in photo storage boxes, but they are overflowing and the ribbon doesn't stay stacked nicely - -they are too tall for one spool, too short for double stcked spools. Anybody have photos to post of their containers? Thanks.

 

[ddavis860]

Oh, I'm doing this one!! My DS20 works at Home Depot, and he will help me out tomorrow. I have a small wall that just has a pic on it...it's between the door to the room and a closet door. It's about 12" wide.

Right now my ribbon spools are in band boxes, labeled dark and light. And I have cuts from swaps and spool ends in glass jars like old yankee candle jars. Getting the spools out of the boxes will free up top shelf space, use up dead wall space, and be decorative...win, Win, WIN!!! Thanks for the idea!!

 

[hopemax]

Done, as well as I am going to be.

This is an example of the problem with most ribbon storage systems, they are just too gosh darn small. Ribbon is so pretty, you need lots of it, just to look at.

Basic Ribbon

Crop In Style Ribbon Holders...I have 2 of them. Full, and all that fits is my basic thin, colored ribbon. My problem is I don't have a good place to stick them. I don't have nice shelves on the wall, which is what I want. Someday.

Drawer

Once upon a time, all my ribbon fit in here. The bottom layer is a Costco box of ribbon. The top layer is a modified Priority mail box. Susan, maybe something like this would work for you? I cut off one of the large top panels, but it's easy to grab out and take somewhere, or move around to get what is underneath. And it's the perfect height for most spools. More pics...

Other Ribbon Thingy

I bought this from Michaels, with a coupon, thinking it would hold all my non-basic, non-holiday ribbon. Which didn't all fit. So it's kind of storing random things. It doesn't look pretty. I like pretty.

Unfortunately, after all of that I still have...

The one on the left is American Craft ribbon spools, the one on the right is a combo of Basic Grey spools, and Making Memories ribbon. The MM ribbon came 5 or 6 styles on one spool. But when you take one piece off, the rest unravels, until you have a nice big mess.

I cleaned up the AC ribbon holder, and found enough room to store the multi-colored BG spools. The MM ribbon I decided to take off the spools completely, and store it in my loose ribbon/fiber storage, which I will show pics of tomorrow. I have a few BG spools left, but they are small and one color, so I will throw them in with the fibers tomorrow too. But here's the mess.

And here's a pic of everything put away. I still feel like my ribbon is in too many places, but it's cleaned up. That's why I am so excited about the gutter storage. It's cheap, it's expandable, you can see the ribbon, and easy to grab or put away.

 

[believen]

A ribbon Trifle! It's not organized, but I think it's pretty. **lots of this is from the whimsy jar swap***
I think I will see if DH will go for the gutter idea.

 

[hurleythurston]

Love the gutter idea for ribbon spools, but luckily I don't have that much. Mine are in a 3 plastic drawer container, and they fit just fine. They are not color organized or anything, but it doesn't take me long to look through them. I am nervous that as I use them more, I will fall in love. Of course, THEN I can get the gutters.

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

Before:

I took them out of their drawer and stacked them by color except for the two container in the back - they are just like the ones Hope showed.

After:

I sent the message with the photo of the gutters and DH thought it was a great idea and came home and put them straight up. They are 3 feet wide. I have the duplicates and smaller rolls on the shelf unit under the gutters. It used to be a bra unit from an old Walmat. So the the front of shelves have a plastic guard. The rolls stay put, but I can see them fine.

Now to figure out fiber.


Anyone need any ribbon? I bet I have it.

 

[hopemax]

Yay, for something to get the men involved, and they enjoy it!

 

[ddavis860]

Oh I love it!! Very nice job Mr AWM!!!

How did he cut the gutters?

 

[Disneyland_emily]

I finally figured out a decent way to keep my fiber (and found a use for all those black backer cards from pins) I still need to go get the larger binder rings (as right now Im using shower curtain rings and they are a tad thicker and smaller than I want)

I have all my loose ribbon binder clipped and hanging on a curtain ring- Im not sure I'm loving it but its better than it was...