Creative Chaos

I’ve been struggling to figure out what to write about my “scrap space,” mostly out of embarrassment, but partly because I’m completely different from anyone else I know when it comes to my scrap supplies, and everything else for that matter. Not that I mind being different, but it’s not in a good way.

I’ve never been a neat person, choosing to be messy and paying for it by losing lots of time trying to find things. I’m certainly not proud of myself, but after 38 years, I realize I’m not going to change and I’ve come to accept it.

There are those who can scrapbook only by knowing where everything is and having it organized by brand or color, etc. -- and then there’s me. I can only create when things are a mess. If I have by some crazy chance cleaned up my scrap space, I can’t find anything and I stop scrapbooking until I can get everything messed up again. If I’m not sitting down on my floor, surrounded by all my supplies, I just can’t scrapbook. It’s a fact. I make it even harder by never planning my layouts. The only way I can make them is by having everything out and just picking things that might go together.

I was going to clean it all up for this article but then I realized that by doing that, this article would be untrue and not tell who I really am. You might as well see me for what I really am - a slob. It’s who I am, take it or leave it. There must be someone out there who can relate - who can’t stand for things to be in any kind of order. I refuse to believe that I’m the only one. Obviously I must be doing something right, since I seem to get a lot done.

There are so many shows like “Clean Sweep” telling you how to get rid of clutter and keep things organized, but I’m here to tell you how to collect it. I’ll give you my best advice on how to be as messy as you can be. Here are my secrets:

Organizing Sherrill’s Way:

• Make sure you have all the right storage equipment - shelves, bins, containers, a desk, etc., but don’t use them.


• Use your desk to pile things on top of instead of working on.


• Buy whatever supplies look good, whether or not you plan to use them.


• Tell yourself and your family that this time you promise to clean up after you’ve made a considerably worse mess.


• Pile patterned paper upon patterned paper until you have a stack that’s two feet high.


• Keep all your embellishments in 100 different containers and baggies, in no particular order, so when you need that perfect thing for a layout, you have to search through each and every bag and container, sometimes for hours.


• Keep bags around from scrapbook stores that are still full of the stuff you bought months ago that you completely forgot you had (sometimes it’ll feel like Christmas!).


• Have none of your layouts in albums. Just keep piling them up on the couch and risk the possibility of ruining them.


• Make sure you work at a scrapbooking store so you can at least get a discount on the supplies you collect.


• Don’t forget to leave half-empty water bottles all over your scrap area, just in case you get thirsty.


• Keep your pictures in five different containers and different areas in no particular order so you spend hours going through them.


• Make sure you mix up all the full sheets of paper with scraps so you can never find the scraps again.


• Mix fiber, ribbon, embellishments, paper, stamps, etc. all together to make everything that much more hard to find.

With these tips, you can’t go wrong. Take my advice and you too can become a messy scrapper! You gotta be a little crazy sometimes. Good luck!

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