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I figured I'd get started on getting organized today (note I said started :lol: ). I thought I'd get my demo planner all put together and start working on it with dates, goals, etc etc. Well, that was a nice plan but my stamp room is such a disasater I can't find the stupid thing! AAaaarrgghhh!!!! I have no idea where it is! I had to do a quick clean up for stamp club (awhile back) and must have "put it away" and now I don't know where! I did this same thing with my inspiration sheets, ya know, "putting them away" and couldn't find them either when I needed them!!! Did finally stumble onto them looking for something else. How sad, trying to be organized and am such a mess that I can't even find the stuff to get organized
I have gotten quite a bit of cleaning done in here today so that has helped but I don't even know where else to look Ok, I'm done whining, just had to vent how once again my disorganization and clutter is driving me nuts! Maybe I'll find the planner before 2005 is over!!! :shock:
I feel your pain! I put my "new" labels from B2 in a "safe" spot so I would remember where they were, and I can't remember where that safe spot was!!!!
I'm the worst with organizing and I forced myself to start Resolution #1--organize my stamp/scrapbook spot! Well, I'm proud to say, it took me 3 days off and on, but IT IS DONE! It's such a good feeling to actually accomplish something and I can find everything (except those labels)!
I hope that planner turns up soon (it's probably with my labels).
Oh gosh girls, I hear ya! My stamp room is such a pit right now, I can hardly stand it. My question is, how do you all of you that submit these photos with immaculate craft rooms do it????? I try to stay organized and then it just creeps back on me. I try to work on only one project at a time but then I set out a set I want to work with so I won't forget about it and then another, then I'll buy some more stuff, then my kids will come in and make a mess, etc. I have small piles of "organized clutter" as I call it......and it's like this elsewhere in my house also. Little neat piles of magazines, or paid bill stubs, etc. I guess I'm just a messy person in general. Most of the time, my house is presentable and clean but the little piles and crammed drawers of hidden junk is really getting to me. ACK......no help in sight!!
I'm soooo glad to hear it isn't just me!!! I am starting to feel like I'm losing my mind!! Maybe there is an evil stamp fairy taking all of these things and hoarding them away from us to make us crazy!!!
Michelle we must be one of a kind!! I have "organized clutter" too! Like when my planner was in all the piles, I knew where it was, then I "put it away" and now have no clue. My hubby hates the clutter, although it is much better than it used to be! But I KNOW where stuff is at even though there are lots of piles around. The house is clean (for the most part) but we or should I say I, have a clutter problem. Oh well, maybe someday I'll unclutter :lol: :lol: :lol:
Ladies, I feel your pain!!
I can get my room somewhat organized & cleaned up, then as soon as I work on ONE project, it looks like a tornado went thru the room. I get a kick out of the stamp rooms that you see in magazines that are all clean and organized. Obviously those are unused stamp areas!! (lol)
Some days I feel like Pigpen in the Charlie Brown cartoons.
One thing I always keep in mind is that a messy space is the sign of a creative mind. My husband says it's the sign of someone who is too busy but since my area is usually neater and less full of piles than his, I go with my little thought!
I love those moments when I can't find anything......
Last night I was looking for my CD's. Since I travel a lot, I have a large wallet I keep them in. When I didn't find them in the house anyplace I looked in my car. They weren't there, so I searched the house again, and nothing. So I checked the car--- thinking, did I leave it unlocked and someone take them????
Lo and behold, I went back in the house and looked in the same spots again, for the third time, and found them hidden in the dark behind something!!!
The fun part is, I am doing this to myself with all sorts of things anymore-- and quite often.... I wonder!!!!! Don't sweat it--- keep looking, it will pop out of the strangest place!
__________________ Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.
William Wordsworth
Not to delight in this, but man am I glad I am not the only one!!!!!!!! :oops: I rarely put things away for this very reason! My family thinks it is because I am lazy - I try to tell them, once I put it away - it is lost. They don't believe me! My sisters swear they are going to call Clean Sweep on me - I have warned them though!!! If they want to come clean fine, but nothing gets tossed - I am sure I will need it someday!
I too live in organized clutter!
__________________ Karen Madison (6/7/00) & Mackenzie (8/22/04) & Trenton Joshua (3/30/06) My Blog WatercoloredDreams
Can I join in the club? I'm the same way, I get so well organized that I cannot find my supplies when I need them. My DH also dislikes "clutter" but he's gotten used it. He said as long as the clutter doesn't take over the bed we're ok. A little while ago for a few days all you could see was two pillows, so he got a little worried. To fix the problem he bought me a storage organized but that only helped for a little bit. So I can relate to you all, agghhhhh!!!
I can feel for you all. I live in a 3 bedroom mobile home with my DH and 5 kids :shock:. talk about pile up,and I'm a big packrat to boot :lol: .
Never know when you can use something. Having a small place to keep all my accumulating stuff since becoming a demo had been a real challenge.I have a wordrobe in the bedroom and my desk and a filing cabinet, and I'm running out of room for my stuff :shock: . Oh well I will always find a place for stampin up!!!
Shelly
I truly understand your situation....I'm currently in the same one. I lost my gift certificates somewhere in this mess, two weeks ago and still haven't found them. I just got a new customer yesterday and wanted to extend a special offer to her with a gift certificate...I had to make one up on my computer. I'm not great working with these things and it took me forever to get it right and look professional. Today while moving a box from one spot to another I found the darn things. Now if I could only find my catalog....I'm using one from my customer supply in the mean time. :oops:
__________________ LeAne SCS#2819 & Grandma to Lindsey! [email protected]
It was inherited from my mother's side of the family. It did not begin as an evil thing, but rather a sincere desire to keep things that might be useful or save money someday in the future.
It turned. It turned evil. STUFF was everywhere, and yet nowhere to be found when I wanted it.
I hit rock bottom. My family did a clutter intervention when I became a stamper. I even had my own room but it was so full of stamp (and scrapbooking, papermaking and soapmaking) stuff that I started spilling out into the living room. It is a serious disease.
I began with 3 boxes - they had to be small enough to still fit in my cluttered room. Pitch, file or give away.
When the boxes were full or 10 minutes passed, I would stop and empty the boxes, filing what needed to be filed. That way I didn't become overwhelmed with the task.
I still do "10 minute tidy" several times a week, although I no longer need boxes. I try to handle paper once. Open mail, pay bill, throw stuff away or file, for example. Make card, put scraps and pads away. I always used to think - but I'll come back in a minute and make another one ... but I rarely did. I had to be brutally honest. I have a predisposition for packratism/clutter/overall messiness. On the other hand, I also am happier and emotionally more healthy when my space is clean. SO, as difficult as it is, I am becoming more tidy! I am no longer ashamed for people to drop by and see my craft room!
Do we need a clutter support group along with the SOF groups?? LOL
Nancy
__________________ You can always tell a real friend; When you've made a fool of yourself, he doesn't think you've done a permanent job.
- Lawrence J. Peter http://community.webshots.com/user/neighbor_nancy
My husband keeps asking why my stamping business has to be so messy and all over the house. He is constantly reminding me to pick this up and put that away... My four year old had a hayday with my new mono, and he used my paper snips to cut pictures out of a library book! And what about all those paper scraps? I've got baggies here, a box with scraps there, and the itty bitty scraps that I use to make homemade paper (turned out really cool, by the way...) Hopefully I'll have it together by Saturday when I have my SAB open house.
On another website I visit, some of the ladies swear that the Prayer of St. Anthony will help you. There are several different versions but it goes something like this:
St. Anthony St. Anthony
Please come down
Something's lost and
Can't be found.
Good luck!! I still lose my keys and glasses...St. Anthony knows I'm trouble!!
I lost my pack of vellum paper and was on a rage (because I had to have it for a project in the works) so my DS who is 16 says, "Mom, I will help you look for it" what is it....I told him "it's vellum, you know like transparent paper".
He said, well you can't find something that is transparent!! Why don't you use WHITE paper!!
OH kids, I thought they outgrew goofy!! ha. (of course he thinks I'm the goof!!)
I sure love my warm comfy cluttered stuff!!! I told my DH it saves us on heating because we have extra warmth with the piles around us!! :lol:
Oh I'm so glad its not just me!
My packratism is also an inherited condition! ;)
I always think well... I might use that tiny little scrap of paper (really in 5 more years I might) ... my grandma used to save egg shells ( she lived thorugh the great depression )... so I guess i'm not that bad, but it doesn't appear go away with generations!
I have taken precauctions lately and all the stickers I don't use I take to work with me and give them to the kids. ( I work at a hospital) Their parents LOVE it ;) ha.
However, I'm still currently searching for my Inkworx Air Art tool thing (the one stampin up doesn't sell anymore :( ) So if anyone finds that Lost City let me know!
On another website I visit, some of the ladies swear that the Prayer of St. Anthony will help you. There are several different versions but it goes something like this:
St. Anthony St. Anthony
Please come down
Something's lost and
Can't be found.
Good luck!! I still lose my keys and glasses...St. Anthony knows I'm trouble!!
I'm not catholic so I don't pray to the saints. (Please don't take offense if you're catholic) I go straight to the man upstairs (God ,not my DH ) . He's helped me find everything from last keys to the stamp set I really need to complete that project. Prayer works wonders on everything, no matter how small :!:
I found it!!! I found it!!! I found my planner!! Why it was where it was I cannot say. Not a natural place I would have put it. I'm sure it made sense when I was "putting it away" at the time. Unfortunately, I didn't find any labels, wedding pictures, fibers, or the other items everyone else is missing in the Lost City . Sorry! I did figure all the SCS member lost items would be together. Maybe since I watched Dora rescue the prince 8,000 times today I was blessed with finding my planner! Actually, my 3 year old daughter kicked me off the computer to play Dora and that is when I found the planner. Things that make you go hmmmmm!
Although, had I read about the Saint before then I definately would have done that (I swear when we sold our house, burying St. Joseph and saying the prayer really worked, along with the tons of prayers to the big guy upstairs too)! :lol:
I did get a significant amount cleaned in the stamp room, including one of the many boxes still packed from when we moved a year ago UGH! A fellow demo called when I was doing it and she said, "Weren't you cleaning your stamp room the last time I talked to you?" :shock:
Thanks so much to everyone for letting me know I am not the only clutter bug around that has things go missing and feels like they are losing their mind! I really did feel tons better knowing it wasn't just me! The way my DH acts you'd think I was the only one in the world like this.
Thanks Nancy for sharing some tips too. Might have to try the box thing! I always get bogged on the putting away part of it but I think I can make it work. My desk is clean now I almost hate to stamp anything cuz I know what it will look like when I'm done but I'll be glad knowing mine isn't the only one that looks that way!
wrote:
well, the planner and labels MUST be with the packs of fiber I bought.
so now we just all need to figure out where they are-anyone, anyone?
And with the Pearl-ex I got for my birthday over a year ago!
_________________
Hahahaha Me too! Yet, I JUST accidently found my BRAND NEW in box from QVC XRON 510!!! Bah hahaha Ive seen the posts on people wanting to get them, and I thought I want one too!! Puttin away Xmas stuff, opened a box and EUREKA!! There it was!! Its been in the attic for 2 years!!! :shock: :oops:
Anyway, I saw an organizing mag at Michaels that was craft room/scrapbook organization. it was $15 so I put it back, but I may go back to get it!!
Tandra
Twice a month?!! Dang, you're good! I'm looking at more like twice a year HA! Well, now that I have people coming for classes etc I have to maintain a little better, alas the story of the planner :lol:
My stuff is pretty "organized" because I took over the dining room that we need to use a couple times a year. So things have a place! LOL Right now it looks like - well let's just say, we didn't need the table this Christmas, so everything that had to be moved for the tree, is on the table. (Tree is still up.)
BUT, there is a SMALL space for me to sit and stamp at! I actually got a card made!
But, - I have to admit, because the table is overly cluttered, I am not drawn in there to stamp. So as I get the tree down in the next couple days, I will spend some time every day decluttering. A little at a time. I would definitely like to be able to work on some Valentines!!!
__________________ Kathy Wrose "Fun must be always." - Tomas Hertl, San Jose Sharks "It was fun." - Kirk, Star Trek: Generations
My stuff is pretty "organized" because I took over the dining room that we need to use a couple times a year. So things have a place! LOL Right now it looks like - well let's just say, we didn't need the table this Christmas, so everything that had to be moved for the tree, is on the table. (Tree is still up.)
BUT, there is a SMALL space for me to sit and stamp at! I actually got a card made!
But, - I have to admit, because the table is overly cluttered, I am not drawn in there to stamp. So as I get the tree down in the next couple days, I will spend some time every day decluttering. A little at a time. I would definitely like to be able to work on some Valentines!!!
__________________ Kathy Wrose "Fun must be always." - Tomas Hertl, San Jose Sharks "It was fun." - Kirk, Star Trek: Generations
I can feel for you all. I live in a 3 bedroom mobile home with my DH and 5 kids :shock:. talk about pile up,and I'm a big packrat to boot :lol: .
Never know when you can use something. Having a small place to keep all my accumulating stuff since becoming a demo had been a real challenge.I have a wordrobe in the bedroom and my desk and a filing cabinet, and I'm running out of room for my stuff :shock: . Oh well I will always find a place for stampin up!!!
Shelly
Yep, I hear you! right now (until this spring, boy am I counting the days)I am in a 2-bedroom single wide mobile home with DH and 2 kids - yikes, I never have enough room for anything! Since Xmas I have been walking around with something in my hand looking like alost Alzheimer's patient going, "where do I put this?" I can't stand it anymore! Does it help that I have adult ADD big time?
One of my friends is actually coming over to help me tomorrow, since I have just lost focus on what to do, I need an objective mind!
DH just says "throw it out" and yes, he threatens to call Clean Sweep also, LOL. I cringe now between a newfound phobia of Clean Sweep and "What Not to Wear" -- my sister calling them and all, LOL! oh and now there is "Queer Eye for the STraight GIrl" -- that would cover everything, don't you think! HOw about Dr. Phil coming and fixing me up?
I used to have my own stamp room and it was always terribly messy and cluttered! I would just shut the door and leave it until the next time I wanted to stamp, then I would spend the majority of my free time cleaning it up so I could stamp VERY frustrating!
I gave up my stamp room when we needed a spare bedroom, and I took over half of the big rec room that is visible when you walk in our front door. There's no more door to close when it's messy, and if stuff isn't put away, the kids can get at it. What wonderful motivation to keep it clean and organized! I was so sad when I had to move out of my stamp room, but it was really a good thing, cuz now I'm cleaning less and have more time to stamp
Well I must admit that I was inspired to organize a little last night. With the help of my 17 DS we made a couple wheel hangers and a ribbon box.
He likes to build diffrent things and he too is a packrat :? , so between tbe two of us I have two boxes cleared out. Now to get my stamp sets more accessable. I too still have the Christmas tree up but have had tons of rain so getting everything out of the shed is a big chore but soon very soon........lol :lol: It does feel good to know that I'm not the only one.
Sounds like tachar and several others are finding inspiration! Congratulations!
Every little bit can make a difference!!! Try a 10 minute tidy today!!
All my best,
Nancy
__________________ You can always tell a real friend; When you've made a fool of yourself, he doesn't think you've done a permanent job.
- Lawrence J. Peter http://community.webshots.com/user/neighbor_nancy
I just think that highly creative people are naturally packrats. I also believe that ii is partially heriditary, my super neat sister (think Monica from Friends!), calls my Mom and I "Doctors of Pileology", as in we have PHD's in Pileology! :? I am fortuante to have a small bedroom which my DH and I converted into my "crafting" room. Most of it is devoted to stamping, but I also sew, sell Avon, do felt crafts, and use it as photo storage. Over the holidays it was my gift depository, so I could hardly move! It has since been cleaned ( I use the term loosely), but the piles of bills, magazines, catalogs, important papers etc is still overtaking my computer desk---which is in the living room! And my DH wants to move the computer into the craft room! I'm debating that move---but I'm sure he'll win---eventually. Becoming more organized is my lifelong goal. So keep the faith all of you Doctors of Pileology!
How sad am I????
Crazy! One think I have found that has helped is enforced the rule of NO ONE other than Mommy is allowed to touch anything on my desk or in my plastic drawer units. That way, if there is a mess (and there often is!), it's only my mess and I try to tackle the mess once a week so it doesn't get out of control! However, that said, I am still looking for the photos of my husband & I and our wedding rings (you know the ones I mean - his hand and my hand with the flowers next to them...) that I put in a special place so that when I found all the items I wanted to put on the page with them I could just grab them and assemble the scrapbook page in a few minutes. If any of you find those pictures, please let me know as they are the last item I need to assemble the page!!! 
