Organizing Your Craft Supplies

It’s January and that means many of you are trying to get organized, like myself. I wanted to share some tips I have to keep my craft supplies organized. I wish I could say I do this all the time, but we all know that’s not true.

• Free yourself of your crafting stash Yes this means getting rid of some supplies. The set of 50 colored pens you got 10 years ago when you started scrapbooking might need to go. I think of it this way, if it’s easier to get rid of it than find a place for it, it’s OUT!
• Put like with like This may be a no-brainer for some, but put all of your sewing stuff in the same location. Gather your beading tools and beads and store then close to each other. I have some miscellany items like felt and twine that I store together as well.
• Only keep out what you use the most I made this little caddy for my desk with the items I use the most frequently, including: adhesive (including Glue Dots and Crazy Glue), scissors, crafting tweezers, my glue gun and glue sticks.

• Keep a box of current projects Do you have a project you are working on that you just can’t seem to finish but you need to things put away? I got this box for Christmas which is perfect for the cards I’m making and my Silhouette Cutting mat. Now I don’t have to get out my big tub of scrapbooking stuff when I’m working on a smaller project.
• Start Fresh When I start a project, I find it’s easiest to start with a fresh, clean working space. My mind isn’t muddled by the last project I was working on and I have the space I need to spread out.

Before you hate me, I cleaned my desk off for this picture.

What are your crafting organization tips?

Freeing Yourself of Your Crafting Stash

A while back, I read a blog entry about someone who said they needed a truck to move all of their scrapbooking supplies. I laughingly told that to my husband. He said, “Well you do have a lot of scrapbooking supplies,” That’s the first time I started actually thinking about the amount of stuff I was accumulating. How did I start collecting supplies rather than using them? How were my buying habits affecting what I was actually using?

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Here are some tips for making the most out of your craft stash:

1. Buy what you need. Makes sense doesn’t it? But really examine your needs. How many brown ink pads do you really need? I say 1. Your number may be 4, but stick to it! Think very carefully about what you NEED and what you can reasonably do---aka don’t make it overly Wayward.
2. Use what you have. Again, this seems obvious, but think about that beautiful paper or paint you bought for the perfect project. Has that project ever happened? For me, that’s a no. Use your supplies, that’s what you bought them for!
3. Purge what you don’t need and donate/sell it. Remember when you bought that huge cork board from Goodwill because it was only $2 with great plans to make an amazing craft? Then you got home and got distracted and then wondered how you could actually cut cork board since you don’t have a rotary cutter. Your cork board got put on the back burner and that was 8 months ago. Where you are now, is it likely you will ever get around this craft? Or should you let that cork board go? This goes for all craft supplies. If you’re not going to use it, give it to someone who will. Schools, Girl Scout Troops, and other crafters would love to use your supplies if you are generous enough to give them up. Think about it! If you have items like Cricut cartridges you never use, you could sell those on ebay.

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Having just moved, I have done a LOT of number 3. I asked myself “Is this worth the storage space? Am I really going to use this? What purpose would this finished craft serve?” And so, I got rid of a lot of stuff that just worth storing to me.

What supplies could you free yourself of?

**I should mention, I kept that cork board. I want to make a jewelry holder.