Organization: Out in the Open

For over fifteen years I have been a rubber stamper and for ten years, a scrapbooker. I constantly wrestle with how to organize my supplies so that they will be used and easily accessed. Through trial and error, I have found that for me, if I can see it or can easily access it, I will be more apt to use it.

Punches:

I store my punches in two different ways. The first way was to hang inexpensive towel rods on the wall that my desk faces. I then put the punches over the towel bars. This not only shows me what punches I have but also serves as a functional decoration in my scrap room.

The second way I store my punches is in the two top right drawers of my desk.  Since I use my border punches the most, I chose to store them in the top drawer. The second drawer holds all the rest of my miscellaneous punches.

Markers and Pens

I have struggled to know how to sort and maintain my marker storage for years. I have stored them in cupboards or hidden them in drawers, but then I never used them. Recently, I decided that I needed to have them all out in the open so that I knew what I had.

All my markers sit in storage cubes that I bought at my local craft store. My Copic markers are stored in a display that I picked up at one of my local scrapbook stores when it was going out of business. I have two collections of markers that came in storage cases to the right of the Copics and then I have gel pens, pastels, and other loose markers in the five-drawer organizer. Each of these storage units can be picked up and carried to my desk with ease for easy use.

Rubber Stamps

Due to the hundreds of rubber stamps that I own, I needed to find a way to see what I had so that I could use them. In my previous craft room, I had loose stamps stacked in drawers, sometimes three stamps high. I never used half of them because I didn’t even know what stamps I owned. When I designed my new scrap room, I decided I would store them in a single layer in huge drawers. However, this did not solve my problem of having them out to use.

I knew that I needed a space to have some stamps out in the open. I bought inexpensive ledges that were meant to hold picture frames and mounted them to the right of my desk. I now rotate my rubber stamps periodically and so I know what I have and this has made me use them more.

Little Embellishments

Over the years I have collected a plethora of little embellishments. I had them stored in their individual packaging in drawers and never used them. When I moved to my new craft room, I hung metal strips on my closet door. I spent hours taking many of my embellishments out of their packaging and putting them into inexpensive magnetic containers that I hang on the metal strips. Now I can see the small accents I have when I sit at my desk and I know that they are there when I need that little something extra for a scrapbook page or card.

My new scrap room is presently a work in progress. As I sort through old supplies and bring them to my new room, I am constantly searching for new storage ideas where I have easy access to my supplies but the storage adds a decorative element to my room. Function and form go hand in hand.