Project Progress: Crafty Organization Week 2

Well, it took a lot longer than I was thinking to organize my papers. It's been a really long time since they were all put away all in the same way. I have a paper problem. Not only have I designed for several companies which make paper, but I also have an slight buying problem. I somehow feel more justified in buying a few sheets of paper than buying pretty embellishments or stickers. I love patterns. When I get a new piece of paper, I want to smell it and rub my face against it and love it forever. Basically, I'm like a cat with catnip.

Look! All in one spot:

It's been a long time since my papers have been all in one place, like I said. Maybe Xander was a baby and I only had a hundred sheets or so (a long, long time ago in my scrapbooking career). One reason for this is that I ran out of space in my storage and hadn't a clue what to do with all of it (read the above explanation of my paper addiction). I also had about half of them sorted by brands, in alphabetical order, but I didn't have any way to tell when one brand ended and another started, so it was a pain to put stuff away. I just don't have that kind of dedication to organization. Big surprise, right?

First, I pulled out all my papers and grouped brands together. This was mostly already done, but I had stuff that wasn't sorted (remember that large box of papers from last week?). So, I alphabetized all of that within the box, then I integrated to the ones already sorted. While I was doing that, I made some dividers out of file folders I pilfered from my mom's house--lots of them were used, which is great. Love re-purposing things. I unfolded the folders and cut off the bottoms so they would peek up through the paper, like little happy prairie dogs. I can't believe how easy it was to sort paper this way. I may actually put new paper away, although I can't imagine that I would ever need to buy another sheet. But, since when does need factor into any of my scrapbook supply buying decisions? Just about never.

Look! I can see what's where:
After that was all done, I still had to deal with my scraps. I scrapbook quite a lot from my scraps, because whole sheets of paper are nearly sacred. I feel like an executioner when I have to cut into one of those beautiful, whole sheets. I try to let go of the small ones (like less than 4x6), but the larger ones, I feel compelled to keep.

I use beat up sheet protectors to keep scraps together. I didn't actually have that many unsorted solid scraps, but I spent about 2 hours sorting the pattern paper ones. I luckily had kept the file for the labels, so I printed out another set of labels and slapped them on the front of the protectors as I came across scraps of that brand. After all that was done, I filed the page protectors with the whole sheets. I'm still not sure if I will like that system, but it works for now. I'm used to having the scraps all together, but I didn't want to make another file folder system, because it was surprisingly time-consuming to put together.

Now, I have a huge plastic bin stuffed with paper and not a clue how I'm going to do permanent storage for it all. However, since I have the actual organization done and all my paper together, that is a huge step in the right direction. I'm thinking about having David build me a huge storage system with desk space, but that is going to have to wait for now.

Since I freed up space from my "magazine" holders that used to hold pattern paper, I had enough room to sort all my full-sized sheets of cardstock. I think it looks so pretty on my shelf in color order. I think I like this for cardstock, but for pattern paper, I like to be able to flip through it more. Plus, I couldn't find any more of the holders at the scrapbook store.

Look! Cardstock is pretty:Step one is done. This next week I think I'm going to focus on my scrapbooks. I have dozens of layouts that don't have homes yet and the completed books are a bit jumbled--plus there are a few layouts here and there that need repair work. I'd love to have some company, if you need to work on the same thing!