where do you store all your stuff?
 

I've been getting started since June and have one gung ho, jumping in and buying everything in sight. The only thing I am SLOWLY building is my stamp collection. They take up some room. For those of you who have tons of stamps, where on earth do you put them? (I am running out of room with just the few stamps and accessories I have). (small house).

Denise
p.s. bought some tall cabinets with drawers, but I would have them scattered all over the house! I wonder if I should start storing stuff under the beds?? And ribbon?? My hubby is putting up 2 dowels for me, but it won't be enough. I am a ribbon freak. I've been thinking of unraveling them and putting them flat into very small baggies. Then when I use them, I will iron them out on low heat.

I have a closet that has turned into Stampin Storage. The closet had the "California Closet" shelving unit installed years ago. A similar wire unit would do the trick and provide more storage with easy accessibility. A small C/D "bookcase" holds the small cases. I'll send a picture if you'd like.

I would caution against planning to iron all your ribbon before you use it. Putting it into baggies would make it a little more cumbersome to browse through and access, as well.

Is it possible to remove some existing storage pieces from your crafting area and place the large cabinets there instead? Right now I am making do with some pine shelving meant for a garage or utility room, some Iris carts, and a bunch of miscellaneous little storage and it is pretty awful, actually :) and very inefficient and awkard. All this is to say that for now my cobbled-together craft storage is not very good, and I am looking forward to when I have the budget and opportunity to get one or two large pantries by Rubbermaid from Zellers or somewhere and replacing my existing storage with something planned and adequate, with room for expansion or rearrangement.

I would suggest you sit down (possibly with your hubby) and make some plans for your crafting space so you don't have your things tucked into small crannies all over your home, which would be very frustrating and would interfere with your productivity and enjoyment of your hobby.

I would also suggest looking into unmounted stamping systems if you have space concerns about your stamp collection. There have been a few threads in GST on this topic, if you do a search on 'unmounted' that should bring up a lot of threads. HTH!

Not all crafters live in small houses, but I do too! We HAD 5 people in a 1300 sq. ft house with 1 bath and 3 bedrooms! How do I stamp? Let me tell you!


Okay, here's what I did...I bought CHEAP-plastic over the door shoe holders, (they have pouches to hold individual shoes). I stored my stamps in these. You can organize by theme-Christmas, Halloween, Birthday, Flowers, Collage, etc... As I got more stamps I just bought more holders. There are two on the door to my Bedroom, on the inside of the hall closets, etc. I even keep one on the OUTSIDE of the bathroom closet and keep stamping magazines in it!

Now that I am a SU Demo, I have the stamps stored in the cases on an OVER THE DOOR Closet organizer-Walmart- $9.96! My friends love it! I can see everything from my craft table! I also keep my tools in a trash pick up! It has drawers and compartments! Someone threw this away! I would have paid $300 for it!!!

Good Luck. PM me for more ideas!

Well I currently have most of my stuff in a medium two door white cabinet. But I am quickly out growing it and will have to soon come up with something else. I am hoping to one day get my own craft room but looks like that will be a long time coming.

I also live in a small home. My basement is my stamping/craft area. But I have to share it with my kids.

My husband built a desk and shelving unit for me. He took three of the two drawer filing cabinets and put an 8 foot piece of wood to make a desk with space for two chairs. The shelving unit is on top of the desk and has three shelves. He also built me a storage unit for my stamp pads. I've been blessed with a very handy husband who usually just happens to have scrap wood for the projects I need. :-)

So I use the three filing cabinets (one is designated for paper only), the shelving unit, and another set of shelves for my SU/craft supplies. It works out well except for when I have to get on the kids to clean up their toys so I can have my stamp clubs and craft nights.

Have you checked out the gallery for Stampin' Spaces? It has lots of good ideas for small and large areas!

http:////www.splitcoaststampers.com/...y.php?cat=3376

This is the main reason I went unmounted. How I wish I had done it from the beginning!

Here are some pictures of how I store my stuff:
pic 1
pic 2

I've changed my cabinets around a bit because I've bought more stamps. :rolleyes:

I need to upload new pics once I get my new wheel storage idea figured out.

i have all my stuff in our downstairs coat closet there is no place else for me and everything has to be out fo sight ( i have a 19 month old) and she loves to eat anything she can get her hands on . i put my ribbon in a fish tackle box thing and organize it by color family , i ahev a over the door shoe holder thing with the plastic pockets for wheels and glue etc .

This is my rubber cabinet. Got this cabinet at Target. I think it was like $29.99 or something. Not sure. This is in my craft room.
http:////www.splitcoaststampers.com/...sweetpea111403

My stamping supplies are no where close to the size of Kurtis', so I just use the Rubbermaid drawer sets that you can get pretty much anywhere. I am almost out of room, but for now, they will have to do!

My stamp storage
 

Hi, I decided as well to go to an unmounted stamp storage. Everyone has their own preference, but I pulled my SU rubber stamp off of the foam and attached to EZ mount foam then cut with SU rubber sicsors. I then put each set inside an empty CD case (some people use empty DVD cases) The stickers that come with the stamp then go to the outside of the box and I labled the end of the case. You can stack HUNDREDS of cases in a very small amount of space. I can send you pics if you would like-just PM me.
Randa

Right now all my stuff is in boxes. We're in the process of unpacking since we moved last month. But I have a dream that my office will work as my craft room too since it's large enough to be able to do something with it.

I have an entire wall of built-in cabinets and shelves in my bedroom (which is my craft space). Three of the cabinets have clothes, the rest are mostly empty (I'm working on moving my craft stuff around). I also have two tall sets of clear drawers that contain my supplies (until things get relocated).
My SU! stamps are all in the clear boxes they came in, and are stored on a shelf. My other stamps are in a set of small drawers. My inkpads are stacked on a shelf (though, I need a better system and found one on EBay). My embellishments are in one of the tall sets of drawers. If my room wasn't a disaster currently, I'd take pictures.. Maybe once things are settled.

Randa, do you have much experience with the DVD cases? I've been considering them because I'm running out of old-style cd cases, but the DVD case pack in Walmart is all sealed up and I can't tell if the DVD holding spindle is removable or not. Do just any old DVD cases work, or just the tin ones?

For my stamps, I got a cardboard bookcase - for free! - from the bookstore in front of my place. They receive those when they're selling the auto guide and once they're sold out, they're throwing them out. My sister was working there at the time and asked me if I could make any use out of it. Said yes, thinking I would figure out what for later. They're just the right size to pile up a bunch of our stamp sets. I divided my sets by themes : alphabets, sentiments, Christmas, minicatalogues, etc. I'm already out of place, so I'm keeping an eye out at the store to see if they have any more of those cardstock bookcase so I could ask for one once they're done with them.

HTH!
Cindy

I have a small space too, I am in the basement, so I use the cold air returns to hold my stamps. I have SU cases, so I put magnet strips on the back and stick them up, I also have spread out to the rafters...I used metal flashing, and screwed them to the ceiling rafters, and use the magnets too. It works great...my dad who is very handy, also built me a cabinet for Cropper Hopper little clear cases to store my thin ribbon. I unwind from the store spool,wrap around a pencil and put in the little case. The larger ribbon goes on dowels.
Hope this helps, if you would like pics, let me know and I can email them to you.
Happy Stamping
Rachel

I unmounted mine....so they fit in about 30 CD cases and I keep them in a plastic CD crate....which takes up so little room!