Gettin' Scrapbook Organized

Scrapbooking is one of my favorite pasttimes. I love having a creative outlet, although I admit I'm not a crafts person. Scrapbooking is great because, unlike other crafts which require a long learning process or alot of skills, it can be very simple or extremely elaborate. No design is wrong if the scrapbooker is happy with the result. I love sharing my work with others, too, especially when the ones I'm sharing with are in the photos! It's a nice distraction that helps clear my mind while I work at creating something beautiful.

My only problem is, I don't have the luxury of a scrapbooking room. Whenever I scrapbook it's in the dining room, so that I can spread my materials out on the table. I didn't have a whole lot of supplies, so I kept them in a couple of boxes: a plastic container with all my tools, stickers, ribbons, etc, and a wicker basket for my albums and papers. Unfortunately it wasn't very organized. Every time I sat down to do a page, I'd have to rummage through my plastic container looking for scissors, tape, punches, or any number of tools I needed. It was also a hassle getting all the papers out, going through them, trying to figure out what paper would look nicest against the colors in the pictures. It got to the point that I dreaded doing any scrapbooking because the set up, preparation, and clean up took longer than the actual page. I would think about it, then shake my head and walk away. I knew I needed to get my supplies organized, but I just kept putting it off.

Then my kid sister sent me two boxes chock full of scrapbooking supplies. One box had just paper and cardstock - some of the most beautiful designs and a wide variety of colors. The other box had papers as well; plus ribbons in all shapes and sizes, different types of fasteners, pens, pencils, paints, rubber stamps, you name it, it was there. I was in scrapbooking heaven! Or at least I was, till I went to the dining room to put everything away. There was no place to put anything! This is how my scrapbooking corner ended up looking:

Now, anyone who knows me, knows I absolutely hate clutter. I can't stand to see things thrown around. I actually feel as though I can't breathe if things aren't where they need to be. So you can just imagine what this bunch of boxes was doing for my nerves! I had to get this organized, and quick.

I had been to Big Lots and noticed that they had some large tower sized containers that would work well for my supplies, but I wasn't sure the $18 they were charging was a fair price, so I decided to shop around. First I tried Bed, Bath and Beyond. The cheapest item I found was a 3 drawer plastic filing cabinet on clearance for $27.99. Everything else was $35 and up. No thanks. I knew better than to try The Container Store. I know they have everything, just not at the price I'm looking for. Walmart has no selection; they only have storage bins, which was exactly what I was trying to get away from. I finally found this at Target:

It's 12X12, which is perfect for my papers and larger cardstock. The price: $11.99, and this was the last one they had. I decided the storage tower at Big Lots was a great deal after all, so I bought one:

This thing is great!!! It has 4 narrow drawers and 3 deep drawers. It's not as wide as the first container (which is now purched on top of the tower), but I was able to get all my 8 1/2X11 cardstock in the first drawer. The second drawer has all my pens, pencils, tape, glue, that sort of stuff. Drawer number 3 contains appliques, fasteners and rubber stamps, and drawer #4 has alphabet letters of all kinds: stickers, cardboard, pins, etc. Then in the first deep drawer I have all my larger tools, such as scissors, punches, and cutters. The second deep drawer has all my ribbons. The last drawer has stickers, cut-outs and stencils.

I can't believe how accessible everything is now! Why didn't I think of this sooner? Oh well, never mind that. I still have the large plastic bin but it's only about a quarter full with items that don't fit in the tower. I also kept the wicker basket to keep albums in. My next project is getting all my photographs in order so I can begin scrapbooking again. Now I can forget about the nightmare of set up and focus on just being creative. I love being organized!