Hello every one,
I know it has been a long time blogging…but I was not away from crafting. If you follow me on my other social media handles you will know what I was up to.
Coming to today’s post, it is all about how I went through cleaning and tidying up my craft room.
Finally took the daring step…😄… Craft room organization…
Decided to begin with stamps…
I’ve taken this simple yet SUPER LONG STRENUOUS step… Because I’m often repeating my stamps and also forgotten about some of them over time. So I thought every little stamp should get it’s importance and of all…I should explore more fun techniques 😍
I’ve first gathered them up on the floor…
Plan:-
1. Write down categories into which I plan to pile them…
2. Arrange them in baskets in a file system.
So far so good… I’ve started with clear stamps and then rubber stamps… I’m happy with the job. Next cine in embossing folders… These were a huge mess. I don’t remember the last time I used my embossing folders on my cards… Time to give them some attention!!! The first thing I realized was the packaging… I’m usually that kind of a person who saves the products in their own packaging usually. But this time I thought it was making my folders invisible.
Plan:-
* Get rid of the packaging since most of my folders are from the same company.
* Arrange them according to size.
* Fasten the smaller ones with a rubber band
And here they go… All organized. I know what all I have. Just a little step.
Clear stamps, rubber stamps, embossing folders… All done 😍😎… What next?… Here I am with all my dies piled.
I’m going easy with the organization because I don’t have anything to purge…I don’t want to get rid of anything unless they are inefficient or damaged, as I’m a craft supply hoarder but a sensible buyer. I have never unnecessarily bought anything…I buy only when I have at least 10 ideas in my mind to use them. Enough said… Plan for now
* Categorize them – like sentiments, alphabets, shapes, flowers and flourishes, animals and butterflies, cards and album dies, interactive and miscellaneous
* Arrange them in the file system
Let’s see how they’ll line up 😊
Accomplished…I now have my craft dies and embossing folders compactly arranged in a basket. They are now visible and easily accessible. Hoping for the more better idea during crafting now 😍
So far everything easy and tidy. I anticipated the whole process to be very tiring and difficult to achieve but a little planning and a few minutes for each category were all that was needed.
I grouped them depending on the type of inks… Organized them into boxes and then into a single basket. So if I want to work with them, I can either have the whole basket out on my desk or the individual box and work with ease. I also have my stamping blocks and sponges along with the inks.
I’m usually an organized crafter. But, once in a while taking a break from your regular crafting to organize your supplies I feel is very essential. It not only makes the place tidy but also gives you an opportunity to get a glance of all the supplies you have at a glance…
By the way…I forgot to mention that during the process of tidying up, I had a notebook next to me in which I noted down -the supplies that need to be bought -project ideas -supplies I regret buying and so on…
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Now here we are with all the inks I have… As you can see they were not very messy too.
Shifted them to a bigger basket. Now, I have all the inks, inking sponges and stamping blocks all at a place.
This time its PENS… Of all kinds… Writing, coloring, fine tip markers, brush tips… All sorts of pens in one place.
Actually, when you put them all at a place, you realize how much you have. Maybe how little you have or maybe how much you have than you need… You’ll get to know an idea of the scenario… this was my major motto in taking up this whole tidying process. I was not aiming at getting rid of supplies or downsizing or anything of such sort… All I wanted to know is WHAT DO I ACTUALLY HAVE? DO I HAVE WHAT I NEED?
DO I NEED WHAT I HAVE?… That’s it… These 3 questions were all that I asked myself.
– Firstly,I categorized them according to brand or type and bundled them up with a band. This made my job half done.
– Next, I took time and tested each pen. If they didn’t write well or the ink was dried I purged all such pens… There is no point holding on to them if they were inefficient.
– Placed them into a desk organizer. I’ve bundled them up with a band even while placing them in an organizer… Because I can pull out the whole set I’m working with and then place it back the same way. This will keep it organized the same way for a longer time… Than without a band!!!
Brushes and knives…
This was one place that taught me and reminded my basics. It was then I realized, how bad I took care of my brushes. Sometimes while doing a project, I would either keep my brushes soaking to clean then later or sometimes completely forgot to. This took a toll on my brushes. For a person like me who usually is very possessive and careful of craft supplies… This sight of purging most of the brushes was very very disappointing.
Lesson learned… Take care of the supplies well. It not only saves you a lot of money but, the most important point is you’ll have them when you need them. Otherwise when you are in the middle of a project ( usually midnight for me…) You would end up finding that you don’t have something that you badly need and don’t have the time or scope to go out buy one either…
Paper packs… I’m not very specific about my themes and patterns… All I bother about is the size and color shades…
I organized them into a basket according to their size and vertically stacked them… So that it was easy to browse and easy to place it back. Easy to place back is very important… Because most often I choose a paper and don’t really end up using it. I’ll have it on my desk waiting for a time to carefully place it back. That time is enough to gradually clutter my workspace and start getting it messy.
3 days of tidying… To make my craft space a HAPPY place…
I have been sharing how I have been going through all this. If it was boring… Thank you for still hanging on. If it was of any inspiration to you or bought in any changes in your craft storage… I’m glad we are on the same thought 😊…It wasn’t difficult at all, but, it was definitely demanding a lot of patience though. I continued as I didn’t want to quit. I knew it was going to definitely make my crafting a lot more frequent and my project ideas are going to be more unique and fresh. Thanks to my 3-year-old daughter who supported and helped me through…(she was eagerly waiting while I cleaned up the mess… So that she might get some goodies on the way 😊…) Some stamped images, pieces of unwanted card stock, pattern papers, unused pens… These were some of the goodies that could make her super happy… Little hearts are the best ones, they can be made happy with the simplest of things 😍.
I do not have a very fancy room… Or fancy drawers to store my craft stuff. I am happy managing them in shoe boxes and plastic bins as well. That’s it for now.
In the previous pictures, I have shared my craft room pictures. If you would have noticed, I have these simple tags tied to each basket or box with the category written on it. Now, the purpose of this is not that it should be easy for some stranger to come and pick my stuff easily 😁… It is JUST FOR ME… Yes!!! This whole process of organizing stuff is good and looks easy and understandable now… But after a few days, I might be wondering where did I put particular stuff. For example, before, my stickers and handmade flowers were in different boxes and my decoupage tissues were along with my pattern papers…I know where they are now… But I should also understand that a new system will take time for my brain to accept it. So, I don’t mind labeling. After all, I went through all this so that it will be easy for me… If I end up forgetting where I put what…I’ll be back to square one.
Thank you for being with me while I organized my Crafty happy space…
I hope this post was of some inspiration to you. Thank you for stopping by.
So… Let’s get crafting…😊😊😊
letsmakethingssimple 