Much ado about stuff

Are you ready for a little DIY Day organization?

You know that room in your house where all your junk goes to die? The room you close off the second surprise guests walk in the door? Ok, maybe some of you are too neat to have a room like that, but Brad and I definitely did. If you would like to feel better about your own clutter, take a gander at our office/craft/sewing room:

Note the box full of other empty boxes and containers I might need someday for some unknown project.

Pillow and picture frame destined for crafty makeovers.

Drawer full of scrapbook paper, actual scraps of paper, and tissue paper.

Ridiculously awful drawer of stickers, brads, and other miscellaneous scrapbooking junk.

Pile of fabric with no home to call its own. Not shown: drawer full of duct tape and ribbon bits.

Clearly I have a problem. I. could. Not. Stand. It. Anymore. Notice the visible areas weren’t too terrible, but the drawers were in serious disarray. My tendency to shove junk in drawers rather than deal with it probably reveals some deep and disturbing psychological trait, but I’m not going to think about that. Anyway, I knew any organizational solution was going to have to include a plan to keep the drawers in order, or this room would only stay neat for about two seconds.

This area doesn’t look that different, but I did deal with the box ‘o boxes.

My desk is all orderly now.

I tried to fit as much of my spool ribbon as possible on these little shelves.

I used these retro bird mugs to hold all my sharpies and scissors. Does a girl really need eight pairs of scissors? Yes. Yes, she does.

On to the drawers! First, I took everything out of the drawers, piled like items together, and got rid of a ton of stuff.

My dad heard me complaining that 12x12 scrapbook paper is too tall to fit in a normal filing cabinet, so he surprised me with this handy little expandable tote, made just for over-sized paper.

The rest of the paper got sorted by color, holiday, etc. and filed in regular folders. I also made files for stickers and various bits of paper memorabilia. For instance, I have a folder labeled “summer 2009” and another labeled “wedding.”

The rest of my scrapbooking supplies and those empty containers are organized in two boxes at the front of the drawer. Just by organizing things and throwing out tiny, random scraps of paper, I managed to fit two drawers worth of craftiness in one drawer.

This left the bottom drawer open for all of my fabric.

Here is my new and improved ribbon/duct tape drawer.

Most of my vintage trimming was already neatly wrapped on cardboard, while the rest of my ribbon scraps were just shoved in a plastic bag. I decided to cut up some cardboard and make “spools” for that ribbon as well.

The best thing about tackling this project is that I now know exactly what supplies I have on hand. I also created a “home” for every item, with extra room for any new items I might will acquire in the future.

I hope this inspires you to tackle your own organization project! If you’ve posted about organizing lately, be sure to put the link in the comments, so I can check it out!

<3
Hattie