Paper Storage - An Evolutionary Process

My paper storage has been just that, an evolutionary process.  Much like any kind of organization, it evolves, changes, and gets better (or sometimes worse).  Depending on our needs at the time, our storage and organization can take on many forms.  I am really happy with my paper storage in its present state of evolution.

I will take you through my paper storage journey.

My first way of storing paper was in a 24 cubby paper storage organizer. The kind you find at office supply stores.  Since I had all 48 SU colors plus the neutral colors, I had to double up the papers in each slot.  It worked, but I wanted something better.  Back then I didn't think to take photos of my storage - who does that sort of thing?

Then one day, my husband came home with two of these metal storage shelves from a friends office that was closing down.  The were free!

I now had enough room to put each color paper in its own slot.  Hurray!  I had more than enough room for this shelf in the closet of my craft room.  This was very early on in my crafting days, hence all the storage space, and it was important to me to keep my paper out of the light to reduce fading.  I used the second shelf to store my stamps.

Then we moved.

And I lost half of my closet space.

I had to find a new way to store my paper.  Or an old way.  I went back to the 24 cubby system, but ended up with two of them.  I still had to double up some of my paper, but it worked for the time being.

Then I decided to store my paper by color families in magazine holders.  This was a much better system for utilizing my space - something I was losing at an exponential rate.  (Crafting hoarders know what I mean!)

I layed the holders on their backs so I would have full access to pull the papers out, and it also lessened the space between my shelves in my closet.  Each color family had its own holder.  My 12x12 paper was stored in Cropper Hopper storage units in no particular order.

I haven't mentioned yet how I stored my scraps.  At first, I had a binder for each color family and a page protector for each color.  Boy, how I was organized!  But if I needed access to more than one binder, it became quite a mess pulling out scraps all over the place.  I decided to use a portable file box and used a hanging file folder for each color.  (Still sorted by SU color families).  This was a great method to keep all my scraps together, and I do use them.  I always look at my scraps first before cutting into a new sheet.  You know how I hate to waste my supplies!

This is my portable file box with all my scraps.
Then one day, my husband came home with a modular wall storage unit he got at a garage sale that he thought I could use in my craft room.  He is always looking out for me!  One of the units was a file cabinet, and perfect for all my 8 1/2 x 11 papers.

All of the SU colors fit in one drawer.

And the neutrals and other misc. papers fit in the other.

I still had to keep my scraps seperate because there wasn't enough room to combine them like I really wanted to.

Then my room got a make-over, and ScrapNcube had just what I needed.  I wanted to put my scraps with my full sheets, and their file drawers are much larger than the ones I was using, so I was able to put them all together.  That is one of the best decisions I have ever made.  No more going to two different places for the same thing.

I decided to abandon the color families and organized by ROYGBV.  That is the second best decision I have ever made.  I'm still trying to figure out why I didn't do that sooner.

The top file drawer has all the SU colors including the neutrals and In Colors.  Each color has its own hanging file folder.  I keep my paper in the plastic wrap (no, I don't know why) and the scraps live in front of the full sheets.  These drawers are huge - I have at least a full pack of each color plus scraps, and they all fit in one drawer.

The bottom drawer has misc 8 1/2 x 11 papers and all the retired papers that I now keep in the portable file box.  I just stuck the whole thing in the drawer.

Now for my patterned paper storage.  ScrapNcube's hanging file drawers are perfect for all my 12x12 papers.  I purged a lot of my patterned paper when I was putting my room back together so I would have room to store what I really wanted to keep.

The first drawer has all my SU patterned paper, and the second drawer has SU solid/textured 12x12 papers and misc patterned paper from other companies.  If I ever get back into scrapbooking, I'll use some of this paper.  I find it very challenging to use it on my CAS style cards.

I think I have finally found the perfect paper storage for me - file drawers with a file for each color, scraps together with full sheets, protected from the light, and very accessible.

If you're still with me, I hope you have found some inspiration for your paper storage needs.

K

Ribbon Storage - Before and After

You may or may not have noticed how my ribbon was stored in my before picture.  I picked up two cardboard ribbon display holders from JoAnn's one year at the end of the holiday season.  They just gave them to me, and they were great for storing my ribbon.

Until I ran out of places to put them.

I could have painted them a pretty color, but that would have been too much trouble, and I always viewed them as a temporary storage solution.  They were fine until I could figure out how I wanted to store my growing supply of ribbon.

This was the old way.  I put SU ribbon in one holder, and all other brands in the other one.  Once I ran out of room, they ended up stacked in front of each other.  No matter which one ended up in front, I always needed what was in the back.  Ugh!  I had the cardboard holders, SU ribbon storage thingys, and jars with ribbon in them.  Nothing but a big mess!!  My ribbon needed some serious help.

When I use ribbon, I like to have the whole spool out.  Once I decide what ribbon I am going to use, I tie it to my project and cut it from the spool.  I hate to waste ribbon.  Almost as much as I hate to waste paper.  For that reason, using a dowel system would never work.  I would be forever removing and replacing spools.

I considered using a gutter (or three), but didn't have the wall space.

The pretty little boxes with grommet holes wouldn't work for the same reason as the dowels.

I even tried wrapping my ribbon around clothespins that was all the rage a couple years ago.  Boy am I sorry I wasted my time on that!  I didn't like that system at all.

I tried wrapping the ribbon around large flat spools like the ones you can use for embroidery thread.  Even though the ribbon wasn't wrapped tightly, it still came out with creases.

One option that was left was to go back to storing them in drawers like I did when I first started accumulating ribbon.  Sometimes you don't know how good a system is until you try everything else.  Since I was planning my own storage, I made sure to include what I needed for my ribbon.

One thing I like about storing them in drawers is that they are protected from light and dust.  With the ScrapNcube drawers, I can organize them by color, and I put a divider made out of foam board between the rows to keep them tidy.  This is a QB3 drawer.

This is what my ribbon looks like now.  It's so much nicer this way!

I underestimated how much room I needed for my ribbon, and need another drawer or two, but I love this way of storing my ribbon.  It is all together, protected from light and dust, and I can get to it very easily.

I put tiny tags of each color of ribbon on the drawer handles, so I can tell at a glance what drawer I need to open.

Since the SU grosgrain spools are so large, I have all of them stored in one of the larger drawers you can see in the above picture.

All in all, I am very happy with this way of storing my ribbon.  It is everything I want and nothing I don't.

Hope you have a great weekend!

K

Getting Organized

A couple weeks ago, I passed a garage sale on my way home from work.  I found an old '70's dresser that was exactly what I was looking for to use as a sofa table.  It was in pretty good shape, and since it wouldn't fit in my car, I sent my husband back with his truck to pick it up.

He came home with TWO truckloads of stuff!  What?!  I thought we were trying to get rid of stuff!!!  But he was only thinking of me, and since he knew I wanted to get my craft room reorganized, he thought this massive sectional piece might work.  Isn't he awesome?

I finally got it moved in to my craft room, and it is, well, massive.  Not exactly what I was looking for, but the file drawers are just what I wanted to store my massive paper collection.

Shall I say massive again?

Massive.

Okay, I promise I won't say it any more.

Up until last night, I had all of my full pieces of cardstock stored together by SU! color families in cropper hopper bins in my closet.  All of my scraps were also stored by color families in hanging file folders in a file box that used to live in my closet.  I save all of my scraps, so the box was full!  This was a huge improvement over the 3 ring binders that I used to keep my scraps in.  But since there is no light in my closet, the box was on the floor and under a shelf,  I always had to pull the box out to see the color I wanted.  The file box eventually moved to a new home in the middle of my craft room.  And that wasn't working.

I came to the conclusion a while ago that it would be best to store my scraps and full sheets together.  Why go to two different places for the same thing?  Duh!  And it wasn't until hubby came home with that massive storage unit, that I could finally execute my plan.  I haven't even used any paper from my new system yet, but I know I am going to love it.

The top file drawer contains the brights, subtles, and regals collections.

The bottom drawer has the In Colors, neutrals, GKD and PTI cardstock, and all the other SU! cardstock.

Almost every hanging file folder has a full pack of cardstock plus a few full sheets and all my scraps for that color.  So there is more than enough room for my massive collection.  Oops, there I go again.  Sorry.

I used the file box to store all the retired SU! colors.  Each color already had a file folder with scraps, so I just slipped the full sheets in, and now I have them all together.  I am going to keep them for a while because I still like some of the colors.  I'll treat them like my clothes, though, and if I don't use them in the next year (or five!), they're gone!

Here is the space that I freed up in my closet.  I think I may use my empty bins for some of the craft magazines I save but never look at.  I do need a nice place to keep them!

Now I need a good way to store all my 12x12 papers. They are in the larger cropper hopper bins in my closet begging to be used.  You can see them peeking out at the bottom of the last picture.  How do you store your 12x12 papers?

I'm off to try out my new system...

K