Crowded and Cluttered Scrapbook Room

When we decided to finish our basement five years ago, I requested a scrap room. At the time, I was working at the dining room table, using a large locked cabinet to store my supplies. Unfortunately, one of my young sons had managed to get into the cupboard and had used inkpads to change the color of my dining room carpet. I wanted a space of my own where I could keep things out of reach of my five sons.

My wish came true, and I now share my space with the boys' toys, as well as our home-schooling supplies. There is no window in this little room, but I have plenty of counter space. I thought I had plenty of shelf and cupboard space, but as everyone knows, the amount of stuff you have will grow to fill all available space. Someday, I won't need the home-schooling supplies and the boys won't want their toys any more, and then I can take over all the shelves.

On the floor to the left of my chair I have my 12" x 12" cardstock. The wire cube on the left holds my Die Cuts With a View stacks, organized by season, while the one on the right holds cardstock organized by color. Just above that in Cropper Hopper vertical organizers, I store my 12" x 12" patterned papers, sorted by manufacturer. Next to the vertical organizers are my three sticker binders, sorted by category. I store all my pens, sorted by color, in the nine-drawer wooden organizer next to the sticker binders.

On the shelf above that, you'll see my light table with a tilted bin on top of it. That bin holds my paints, brushes, and foam stamps. Next to that is my punch storage. Each drawer is labeled so I can tell what punches are inside. In front of that are my bottles of Mod Podge, UTEE, spray adhesive, photo-preserving spray and so forth. You can see my stack of Sizzix dies, under a bin of embellishments. Above all of this is another shelf with a basket of embellishments, my Xyron 850 (I would love to have the 900 instead!), unused albums, and embroidery floss organizers.

Turning the corner, on the top shelf are all my magazines and books. I only keep as many issues of a magazine as will fit in the magazine holders. As you can tell, that's still too many magazines. I need another bracket at the end of that shelf! Below that is a dowel holding ribbons, balanced on the brackets. From left to right, you can see my Sizzix, Xyron 500, Xyron refills, a basket with ribbons, an organizer with tags and clear alphabet stamps, and various organizers holding fibers, eyelets, brads, wire, and the like.

Below those shelves is the counter space where I create my layouts. You can see the papers and photos for a Disney vacation album I've been working on. My TV sits in the corner to my left, right next to two organizers. The one nearest to the TV holds all the tools I use most often, such as scissors, a pencil, a ruler, and a black marker. All my adhesives are in the basket next to the frequently-used-tools container. That way, the items I need most are easy to grab.

In the open cupboard hanging above the right end of my counter space, I store all my stamps and inks, my templates in binders, my stamp mat, and album refill pages. The three-drawer organizer holds punches that were too large for the other organizer, as well as my circle cutters. Up on top, you can see three photo boxes. I have seven more of these on top of the cupboards to the right that hold home-school books.

My 8 ½" x 11" papers are in hanging folders in my Cropper Hopper cart to the right of my chair. I also have rub-ons, vellum, number and letter stickers, and other flat embellishments in their own folders in that cart. I don't think that cart is available any more, but I remember that at the time I received it (a Christmas gift years ago) it was the hottest organizing tool around. If you look at the photo, you'll see a big stain on the carpet and on the chair. Even though I had high hopes for my space, my boys manage to get in anyway. When my youngest was two, he discovered my paints, and poured a bottle of orange paint all over the layout I was working on, as well as the floor and the chair. As you can tell, it didn't come out.

It's crowded, and it looks cluttered, and I don't get to spend as much time in there as I would like. It's a little embarrassing to share it! But it is my space, it's out of the way of the rest of the house, and usually my boys can't get in there because I've learned my lesson: I lock the door now.

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