Scrap Paper Organizing Sunday!

We all love seeing pictures and videos of other peoples craft rooms.  When I see the pictures and videos of the beautifully designed and very tidy craft rooms, I am always left wondering if anyone actually crafts in those rooms.  I also wonder how they manage to say, “Yes, I have a pile of spare cash that I can spend on my dream craft room. I’ll take the granite counter top with that.”  And…doesn’t it always seem that they have tons of unlimited space to create the world’s most perfect craft room?

I don’t fall into that category.  I did buy a lottery ticket yesterday, but I’m reasonably certain that I didn’t win.  I haven’t checked yet, but I just know.  Needless to say, my craft room is a bargain hunter’s dream.  I am the queen of finding a deal.  Luckily, I don’t care if everything or anything matches.  My sister cares about the matching thing.  She doesn’t think a room can ever look tidy and pulled together if every detail isn’t matching.  I don’t care what it looks like.  I want my room to be functional and inspiring for me.

Today, I want to share my scrap paper organizer.  The biggest mess in my room at the end of the day crafting, is that pile of scrap paper on my desk.  I try to clean up my desk each time I use it.  I like to be able to sit down the next day to a tidy work surface.  I do have to admit that I don’t like to throw away even the tiniest scrap of card stock or DSP.  You just never know when you will be able to use that piece!

I use a snap together box that holds hanging file folders.  I don’t use hanging file folders.  I like the expanding files that regular file folders fit into.  I have a file folder for each color very clearly labeled.  I have the papers organized by colors in the expandable file folders.   All of the reds are in one expandable file folder and the greens in another.

I like this system because it is portable.  I can carry it to another room if I want to use it somewhere else.  This is only for my scrap card stock.  My packages of whole card stock and DSP are stored in drawers next to my desk.  The DSP scraps go back into the DSP package that they came from.

I have two of these.  They came from Ikea for Christmas!  (Thanks Mom!) They are huge and hold all my DSP and uncut card stock.  There they are right where I work so I can just reach down and grab what I need.  I try to always use up the scraps before I cut a new sheet of card stock.

All in all, this system works for me.  You have to find something that works for you.  I asked several demonstrator friends what systems they used for scrap paper.  Most use some version of this system.  One friend used the large cello bags sold by Stampin’ Up!  She uses one for each color and keeps those in the plastic file organizers that are also portable.  Several people use large ziploc bags in some kind of plastic file organizer box.  Everyone seems to like to have a separate file folder or plastic bag for each color.

In the dream craft room, we’d all have those fabulous craft store shelves that stretched across one entire wall of our spacious craft room, wouldn’t we?!  We’re such dreamers!

Thank you for visiting!

Enjoy playing with paper!