Tiffany Spaulding inventor of The ScrapRack has changed my organization life!! I've been taking her get organized challenge (via recorded sessions from last spring) so that I can permanently and definitively organize all of my craft supplies. I'm so excited that her next live 8-week online seminar for organization starts Sept 11 2012! It's free! Sign up and use whatever you have to get organized. I have found that the ScrapRack is definitely worth it and is very useful for storing all kinds of craft supplies.
In my last post I showed a picture of my empty ScrapRack as I organized my paper stash. Here's my ScrapRack full to the gills with my organized embellishments. It is so full that I need to purchase an expansion base. Free shipping comes up again for black Friday so that's when I will make my move!! OK, so how did I get all of my embellishments from drawers, boxes, bins, bags into this one spot??? Well I started out by putting all my ScrapRack pages sorted by number of pockets in one of the spinders that comes with the set.
This way I was able to easily locate all my pocket pages quickly and neatly. I then used my sorting templates on the floor as I did when I sorted my paper. Tiffany warns not to try to do all the sorting in one sitting if you have a lot like I do, but I am obsessed with getting one job done before moving on to another. So against all better judgement I pulled out every embellishment I had and sorted it. Now this came with great peril. I have young children and a dog who lived for trying to mess up my piles. So I had to work hard to get everything contained within a day. That meant long hours and sleepless nights (don't do it the way I did!). But I am happy with the results.
I sorted into the 4 sections - alpha/numeric, themes, calendar and rainbow. Most of my embellishments are in the themes section. Using the ScrapRack dividers gives the pages stability and really helps to categorize everything. When I ran out of the dividers I marked the sections with message flags. Later I replaced those with Post-it Angled Filing Tabs (durable, writable and repositionable). 24 come in a pack with 4 colors to choose from and 2 different color families available at Staples.
After organizing and filling my ScrapRack, I was left with only a small basket and a drawer of embellishments to sort at a later date. Astonishing!!! Note, I did not yet attempt to organize all my smaller embellishments like brads, eyelets, buttons etc. These are only the larger items and bling.
This is all of the stuff that didn't belong in my craft room that I got out and all of the containers I had previously purchased for organizing that did not help at all! Just about everything that was in these containers is in the ScrapRack now!!!
And now for the big reveal.... my craft room is starting to look much better! I can actually see the floor and my desk is clear. If I need something I can find it instantly. It has fueled my creativity big time!
Organizing my embellishments has given me more time and time is money! I can quickly find all the options for a project and be done lickety split! I am LOVING it!!
For the next step... on to mounted and unmounted stamp organization.... the toughest, but most needed job yet! This is going to revolutionize the way I am able to locate supplies and create on the fly. So excited!
If you'd like to see where I started and the things I learned along the way, check out:
And here's some storage tips:
Embossing Folders -http://cestla-viedesigns.blogspot.com/2011/04/cricut-circle-magazine-march-spring.html
Ribbon storage - http://cestla-viedesigns.blogspot.com/2012/06/crafting-storage-my-ricracroller-is.html
La-Vie
