Organizing.....

January has spurred everyone to make changes and the big thing right now is organizing your space and home. I am happy to see everyone is getting on board with this idea, but it is something i have done everyday of my life. Why? because I can't stand to be in a cluttered room and I was raised with a cliche, "Cleanliness is next to godliness" and taught the devil loved lazy people. That and dad had always said, hard work will allow you to reap many rewards. Raising a family, I learned that being unorganized drove me nuts...looking for something that was needed for hours was precious time spent wasted. It has always been one of my pet peeves  So I have ALWAYS been as my daughter always said, 'Anal' about my home. It always made me laugh but I never wanted ANYONE to think of me as lazy. In respect for my dad's upbringing I think. 

So, as I have finished up all but one item in my craft room, (cleaning out my file cabinet was main project) I thought I would post my photo's of my organized room. It is what works for me, using things I have around the house. People will go out to the Container store, and or Walmart, or Target and spend money they really do not need to spend to organize items in there room. Yeah, it makes it look all pretty but, I live in the country, miles or hours away from the city or shopping areas, and I have always believed saving money was more important then...and living on a retirement, you tend to be alittle bit of a miser. Truthfully, I have always had pride in doing it myself with as little money as needed as I would rather spend it on other things more important. So...here we go.....

 First, my room is so small, it is hard to get far enough away with my camera to show you more details. So it is going to be done is small bits. My crafting table is an old square solid wood table my parents wanted to get rid of, and so I snagged onto it and refinished it myself and with the help of my brother, added earth colored Formica on top of it. And my husband added 4x4's to the bottom of the legs and it stands at about my belly button, exactly 1 ft. taller then a normal table, so I do not have to bend over to craft. The legs are visable, but it does not matter to me other then the fact it simply works. So while I craft, I can stand. Bending over is hard on the back and it is what I desire to do. I have a stool we bought, so if I have my grand-daughter over so she can to sit in order help and reach everything, and I admit I use it upon rare occasion writing.

I placed my drawers on top together and organized inside and labeled them all, (they fit perfectly underneath the table, shelf and floor, but found it a pain to continuously be bending down rummaging thru them to find what I wanted to work with) so when my grand-daughter comes over and needs something she can find it faster with out sorting all the drawers. Here is how my drawers are labeled:
1. Tools (fancy scissors, magnifying glass, wooden rulers, measuring tape, punches, various odds and ends)
2. Stamp Inks
3. Embossing Powders
4. Wooden and Sponge Stamps
5. Chipboard Alpha's and Words
6. Glitter Glue
7. All Felt
8.Templates (plastic, paper, homemade for sponging etc)
9. On Going drawer (Stuff I have started but need to put aside to dry or otherwise leave for awhile)
10. My grand-daughters own drawer
11. Crayons, Crayola markers, Fabric Markers, water Color Paints, chalks, and kids craft paper)
12. my whatever else drawer.....
13. In Process Craft Drawer.
And see that spice rack in the corner? My sister didn't want it anymore and I cabbaged on to it and use it for all my itty bitty stuff....brads, photo fasteners, bling-bling, fancy buttons, fancy wired paper clips, assorted beads, and embellishments I have bought for scrapping. It is nicer to have it there and easy access. And on top of that? I had this heart shaped wire basket I got as a gift long time ago filled with bathworks, and it sits up there perfectly and inside are things I use regularly....a old cologne bottle with fine sprayer and full of plain water, my alcohol Inks, my Stickles, Glossy Accents, my misters, some 1/2 full of homemade glitter sprays....nothing fancy but quite handy for me.

 Here is where it gets better for me. Fighting for years how to store my ribbons. I have tried everything...even seriously looked at the ribbon boxes but knew deep down that it would not work for me. I even wrapped them laboriously around my clothes line pins...not liking that idea at all, I decided to reuse...and this method works well for me. My storage jars? recycled various Nut jars (mostly from Costco) and all my ribbons are sorted and inside of them....blues/greens/yellows, whites/creams, browns/blacks/orange/reds you get the idea. And in another I have all kinds of various shaped buttons. Easy to see and grab. The clear shoe boxes (picked up every so often for .99cents each) are for storing my glue guns, heat gun, sponge brushes, various larger accents or tools for scrap-booking, and stocked up on extra glues for my tape runner and glue spots, scrapbook paints and acrylics. It is not so fancy or pretty like everyone else's, but it certainly works.

 With the legs added to my craft table, it provided an area to have a shelf under it so it is where I store my yarns, Big Shot, small bits of card stock and various other tools, that gets it out of the way and yet handy to grab when needed.

 Here is my desk.....where I am sitting now writing my blog.

I have two book shelves, side by side...one full of my books on the farthest end, and this one is next to my craft table which is stuffed several shelves with my craft supplies.12x12 papers, 4 plastic files folders 12x12 with zip tops (4 for $1.99 at Wal-Mart long ago) full of my stickers and flowers, and various items for card or scrapping with. Sorted in holidays, Outdoorsy, Tags and what-nots. Also, I have in that container with the lid half off, all my colored larger pieces of scrap papers.....as I throw nothing away. Sorted in file folders with alike colors. So I do not have to leaf thru very long when I need a certain color for my crafting ideas. It's much better then all in one drawer.You can see  my folder for my stamps and die-cuts and all my scrap albums I add to often below that. And beside that, is my score board and cutting pad. Everything close at hand.

  I had some baseball card folders, for who knows what I was going to use them for, so I just used them for my smaller Clear stamps and they work perfectly for storage.

 My biggest pride and joy is purchasing some Stamp Storage sheets from Stampers Best....5 clear and some rose colored. I was sick of all the storing my clear stamp ideas til I was blue in the face cuz nothing EVER worked. So I decided I would try these and am so stinking tickled and hooked with this product, bcuz they really really do work.  Here, I bought a package of magnet tape at Walmart for .99cents and stuck it to the rose colored sheets and added my Die-Cuts to them. I can pull up the magnet tape at anytime and redo them and it never ruins the sheets adhered t them. Best purchase I ever made.

  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea.....and it really really works well. And it is more fun to create when they are readily at hand and not getting bent up.

And here is my clear stamps...and altho I didn't have too, I slid them into a sheet protector in hopes to keep them free-er of dust and my grand-daughter rummaging fingers etc.  But I seriously love using my stamps now. And they DO NOT FALL OFF those sheets....and keeping them in good condition without bending etc. makes me happy. All of the Die-Cuts and stamps are together in one binder. Important to me as I use them both usually at the same time. I will order more of this product as well and some of their stamps they offer.

 And I can't do anything with out my lil helper. She will be 6 months old end of this month....and the black tape on my computer camera is for keeping the dust off the lens. NOT for any other reason!

 Don't laugh at this...but our dishwasher died....and when we were disassembling it, I grabbed the silverware basket. I added my Gel Pens, felt markers, colored pencils, Vellum markers in to it. Then I cut paper towel cores, and placed it inside a couple compartments and added my small paint brushes, scissors, wooden ruler and skewers all on a lazy-susan. So it sits on my table all the time, everything upright and I spin it to access all of my desired tools as needed while I craft. The extra room on the outside of it, holds my stamps cleaner bottle (I make my own stamp cleaner) and extra itty bitty things I use daily. Also, I have a small bucket hanging off of the skewers, and in it is my glue runner, writing glue and 3way glue stick. Readily at hand. It works for me and it's nothing fancy, but it is perfect for me.

 Here is my heart shaped wired basket mentioned earlier....which sits perfectly onto of the spinning spice rack. It is everything little that is too tall for my drawer storage. And it makes it so handy to use...my water bottle is an old body spray bottle with a very fine mist sprayer. I just cleaned it out well and I still like smelling scented water occasionally. But it works and it never cost me a dime!

Lastly, is my little basket with smaller card stock which sits under my table top next to my Sizzix and for my wee small paper pieces, I added them into my clear photo storage boxes, which for me is a better idea. I can readily see what is in there for colors etc. and I go to this before cutting a bigger piece of card stock first.....it saves so much in the long run, utilizing as I go.

Well, there you have it My craft room, the view from the entry door in. I have a spring rod with a valance curtain I had in this room, stretched acrossed the inside leg of the craft table, for merely hiding all my stuff underneath out of the way. It is a small room, but I still have alot of floor space so when I want to get out and do my scrap books, the old fashioned way, I bring out my folding table and it sits in the middle of the room so I do not have to put anything away until I am through. And having such a small room for my craft/computer room makes it even more important for me to keep organized. The thing I didn't show you is, I have a closet in here as well. and I have added several boards inside for now as temporary shelves....for extra storage. My dream is to eventually make shelves at one end to store my DH's fishing gear all the way to the ceiling and the rest will be for all my other things, like camera storage, tri-pods, blah blah blah. You get the picture.But only after I get my room painted....by this summer, I hope! Hope you enjoyed seeing my space and gave you inspiration for your own craft area. Remember, make it work for you, make it easy access so it is within reach so creating is more fun! I hope you have found some good ideas while peaking in my craft room. Until later..........

Happy Scrappin!.