This is article 2 from our organizing expert, Megan Spears. She’s giving us the inside scoop on how to get our space, our stuff, and our images organized once and for all this year! Make sure to review the first article in the series about how to get your creative space organized. Remember that she’s talking specifically about crafts and scrapbooking, but her tips can easily be applied to nearly any hobby!
I hope you had the chance to implement or think about a few of the suggestions I made! This week, we are going to talk about the stuff. In reality, the work we do with our pages has everything to do with the pictures and even more to do with the stuff. So much of our personal creativity comes out in the pages that we create, that we can’t help but get sucked into all the great paper and supplies that are out there.
There is hope… getting your stuff organized doesn’t have to be hard or even time consuming! It can be as simple as 30-minutes a week!
Here is what I mean…
- One at a time! Often if you look at the whole picture it can be extremely overwhelming. Start small. Pick paper, pick ribbons, or pick pictures. The point is to just start. 30-minutes a week working on one item. Walk through your space and corral your “one item” together. All the paper in one spot, all the ribbon in one spot, etc., you get the idea. This gives you a starting point.
- Sort-Sort-Sort. Sorting is the key to getting organized. If you have all the like items together, you can the sort out what you want to keep, what you want to toss, or what you want to donate or recycle. Deciding what to keep can be challenging. Be sure that you really love it, and you can say without question that you need it.
- S-M-A-R-T Storage! We talked a little bit about SMART storage in the last segment. SMART stands for Simple, Modular, Affordable, Realistic and Transparent.
- When picking storage items keep in mind that it should be easy to access (SIMPLE).
- It should be easy to stack, store, or pack up (MODULAR).
- It should be inexpensive so you can spend more on the product rather than the storage (AFFORDABLE).
- Let’s face it we love our stuff, so be sure to really consider if you need to buy another box for your paper or could you pare down what you already have (REALISTIC).
- Clear containers are so much easier to see what’s inside when considering storage (TRANSPARENT).
- Recycle or Donate! When you have sorted through your supplies, you might find yourself with a pile of items that you no longer need or like. Rather than tossing it in the trash, consider a few other options before you dispose of them. Ask your local school, preschool or senior center if they might like them for crafts. Sometimes it feels better knowing that your stuff is going to a good cause, plus it might make it easier to part with!
Getting your stuff organized and down to a manageable state doesn’t have to be hard, you just have to start! A few great resources that I love for storage solutions are Craftmates for those small embellishments and Addicted to Scrapbooking for just about everything else. Of course, you can’t ever go wrong at your local craft store or maybe even a garage sale! Again, be creative! Next week, we are going to address the ever important PHOTOS!
Megan Spears, Disorder2Order, LLC, has been helping families and professionals get organized since 2004. She is a member of the National Assoc. of Prof. Organizers (NAPO), the National Study Group for Chronic Disorganization (NSGCD) and has been teaching scrapbookers to get organized from the beginning!
