Need ideas!
 

I am finally moving out of my stamping closet (yes literally) to a whole room! I am in the process of planning for the final result. For those of you who already have a stamping room, what is your best advice and what is your favorite organization tool and the one thing you couldn't live without!!! Thanks!!

This thread: //www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/mission-organization-f256/looking-ideas-suggestions-t579960.html has lots of great ideas.

My biggest suggestion would be to carefully consider how YOU work. Are you an out-of-sight-out-of-mind person who needs to see all of your "stuff", or does that visual clutter make you crazy and you need things more or less hidden until you're using them? Do you look for items based on color or theme or both? Do you like flipping through files or notebooks? Do you prefer drawers or shelves? Are your stamps wood-mounted, clear, combination? Do you want dedicated areas for your cutter(s) and/or die cutting machine(s)? Do you need a place for a printer? a computer? a TV? Will you be working alone most of the time, or do you want room for a friend (or two or six) to join you?

By really taking into account what your unique creative process is, you will be better able to create a space that enables you to do that much more efficiently and joyously - and isn't the joy the point? Hooray for you on getting your own space, and be sure to share what you've done with it :)

Oh - forgot to answer your other questions: My favorite organizational tool is a closet with a door that shuts (I'm a "visual clutter makes me crazy" girl). The thing I can't live without is a tall four-drawer filing cabinet with fully-extending drawers (the full extension is VERY important) - it keeps my papers and catalogs hidden but organized.

My fave organizational tool? I guess I have to say any piece of furniture that keeps ALL of my supplies close at hand. I don't want to have to go all over the place to find what I need.

BTW, I have a smallish room (10x13) and have to incorporate space for quilting, for stamping, and for watercolors. I also keep most of my genealogy files in there. I can't stand disorganization!!!! So each area has its own space. My problem is that I also have piles in each area. Need to deal with that issue :oops:

Another thing I would say about organizational "stuff".

Buying something because it will deal with "item a" and something else for "item b" and something else for "item c" leaves you with a lot of uncoordinated, difficult to deal with storage items. The storage is as difficult to deal with as the items they are storing.

Decide on a storage system that you can use for everything. It might be the cubes. It might be an expedit and desk. It might be the sterilite drawer system to the max. If you have a hodge podge of different storage pieces, it will only look messy.

My friend/upline/demo has a wonderful studio where we have classes. She has a whole wall of the Sterilite 12x12 drawer units. There's probably 80 sets of three-drawer units in it. It looks wonderful because it matches! And it stores a LOT!

I found a picture on her blog. You can see those drawers in the background.
http://astampersperspective.typepad....26b7970c-popup
We were having a party that day!

Patience!! I have rearranged my room many times and ultimately ended up with basically the same layout I'd started with but I now know it's what I want.

Something else to consider is lighting. Not just what types of lighting but where windows are and how the shadows they create will fall across your desk. I love the natural light I get but when I tried to put my desk sideways to the window I could never see what I was doing without turning on my desk lamp. So frustrating since that did away with the natural light, darn shadows. lol


Have fun setting up your creative space!

Rolling carts that will roll under your work surface. And towers with slots that will hold your paper.

Personal recommendation is for Expedits! I did my new room a year ago, and went for them, and Ikea tables.
Attachment 289348 Attachment 289349
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Pictures of the whole room here.
Basically, an Expedit 5x5, a 4x2 with desk attachment for a cutting station- plenty of room for my bug and BSP, cubes hold all the plates, dies etc.
An Ikea table for my desk, with an Alex drawer unit as the legs one end, then two more tables, with drawer units I already had underneath. One of these is along the wall behind my desk, so I can have a lot of stuff to hand.( tapes/glues/etc etc.
On a smaller scale, Ikea hanging rods and plastic cups for pens, etc, and two metal hanging trays for sprays. Pictures are from when I was moving everything in- its tidier now, lol.

can't live w/o great lighting
best tip~plan ahead how you want to store each item cardstock, embellishments. because you will truly save time and mony.
remember you don't need to buy all your containers at once. think it through.

Thank you all - great suggestions and lots to think about. Looked at all the pics and links you provided. I must say to fionna 51 that " That's alot of sterilite!!" Wow! I am a stamper that does not like a lot of clutter and stuff. I will be using cupboards and drawers a lot to hide things. My lighting is done and I LOVE it!! I am also putting under counter lighting for additional. I have a sit down station and a stand up station - that was important to me.
Keep suggestions and ideas coming!! Appreciate it!

You've gotten some great suggestions already so I'll just say flexibility is key. Whatever system you decide on be sure you allow room for growth and change. I've always loved the look of cabinets, but I won't do it because my needs change. I have shelving and cubes because I can change it around when ever I want.

Organization! Organization! Like items must be together. When I first moved into my craft room I put things in pretty baskets on shelves. If it fit into a basket, that is where it went. The room looked absolutely gorgeous. That has now changed. All my inks are in trays in a hutch along with my blocks. I set up a die cutting station and the machine and dies are together. The Recollection cubes from Michaels hold all my papers. Smaller items go in other cubes.
My best tip however has to do with clear stamps. I had them in binders. As the collection grew I added more binders. This was not working well after awhile. I bought 12 inch plastic envelopes (Michaels) and plastic cases with handles. Each envelope got cardboard to divide them into 2 sides. Stamps sets were put on each side of the cardboard. I have different boxes. One for holidays, one for sentiments,etc... The Recollection boxes stack plus they are easy to take with me because of the handle. So far, it is the best idea I have had for my craft room.

Another HUGE vote for Ikea Expedit. I moved my stuff from the smaller extra room to the larger one (guests don't need that extra space.) BUT it's still only 11X13. The thing I did was make a graph paper outline of the room and the things I wanted to put in there were also cut out to scale on post it notes so I could move them around. I took into account the closet and doors and different pieces of furniture. I went round and round about what would fit where. I really wanted a counter height piece in the middle that would seat 2. No matter what I tried it wouldn't fit. Finally saw Gina K's room on her blog and WOW, that's it. IT works great for me. 2 people can still use the desk. I had to drive 400 miles to Ikea (twice) but it is so worth it. I had my stuff on shelves above a wall mounted counter top. It all looked so messy all the time. There wasn't space to have other people come stamp and everything was 'out there' looking messy. Now it's hidden in Expedit drawers and doors. Love my new room. When I get the pieces painted I will blog about it. I want it perfect!

Love my cubes...and love my ...whadayacallit?! It is round and stands tall and hold things that rotate around it on clips....all of my clear stamps are on there and are exposed. I have close pins between each category...IE flowers, phrases...etc. I have three of them on top of the cubes side by side.

My advice is Purge! Purge! Purge!. Best advice and I'm the worst at it! I have a whole closet full of scrapbooking stuff but never really got into it. I'm beginning to get rid of it. Then I can have it for my Stampin' Up! excess supplies. I have designated a spare bedroon as the craft annex for my knitting and misc craft stuff! LOL The upside to living alone.

Get a comfortable ADJUSTABLE office chair that you can roll around your big room on! Ergonomics is key to happy crafting.

Storage
 

One of the best ideas I came up with was to move an old dresser in from the garage into my craft space. The top is perfect for my Big Shot and Cameo, and I keep all my stamps, punches, dies, etc. in the drawers. I have little bins in one of the drawers for small stuff. It is right next to my work table so everything is within reach. You can probably get one real cheap at a yard sale or thrift store :) :)

I saved up for a remodel of my craft room. I could envision all the things I could buy with my saved up dollars, then my dear hubby rained on my parade. But, he was totally right, so I'll pass his advice on to you, LOL! His advice was to put in extra outlets and really good lighting. I spent the money on that and not once have I regretted being able to plug something in with ease and the good lighting becomes more important the older I get. For organization, I like things that can be rearranged. When I first started crafting I was a sewer then heavy into scrapbooking and now stamping, so it's been good that I can rearrange and reinvent the room with each need.
Have fun with your planning and take your time thinking about how you will use the room.
Kathy T

Kathy T....the lighting is a great suggestion. I just put in new light bulbs that are labeled outdoors and boy! What a difference!

I hung a power strip above my dresser so I could keep all my stuff plugged in and ready to use...embossing gun, Cameo, laptop, phone charger, etc.

I do not like clutter. I'm a "everything in its place" gal. My husband built me the huge file drawers for my paper and separate cabinets with many, many drawers for stamps and also for inks, markers, ringers etc. I think they are beautiful (all solid oak) and I couldn't live without them. One organizational idea was my own that I built after running out of room for ribbon and using a system that was not convenient and rather ugly. Attached is my back of the door guttering ribbon holder that has made my life easier looks nice and is so convenient.

Another question for you all..... debating on what to do with my cardstock. Right now I have two crammed hanging plastic file boxes that hold each color in a hanging folder. The boxes have covers on them. I have seen alot of people do the racks for their paper. Wouldn't this result in some fading due to exposure to the light?? I am worried about doing that.

I did the racks earlier on and didn't like them. I prefer the cubes with magazine holders holding the paper. I then pull the holder out to access my papers. It is easier to layer them by color shades too. I found that the other ones caused me to bend the corners from taking them in and out to access certain shades because they laid on top of each other. I have probably 10 or more different shades of green alone. So, when I tried to pull one out...I would have to take all of them out...and they would take wear and tear from being pulled in and out. But with the magazine holders, I pull that out and can flip through them easily.

But that is me. You might feel differently. We all have our own methods.

I bought two Best stamp cabinets, 1 tall, 1 short, and I absolutely love them for my stamps. Great product.

Cindy/CA

I separate mine by color in accordian folders and they are housed in drawers custom made by my DH. I live in a area that has sun almost every day and I have a large window for natural light. I'm sure mine would fade, in fact I know so, as a couple piece left out on my work table did just that after just a half hour! If I didn't have a handy hubby, I would buy file cabinets and do the same thing. I have attached this picture recently on a similar post, but here it is again.

Definitely purge to the max, and then continue to purge frequently. That's easy for me to say but not always do...

I went from one whole smaller craft room to half of a larger room. Boy was I surprised at how much stuff had accumulated in that room after ten years of stamping! And I do periodically purge my stash -- but that doesn't really do it if you keep buying and buying, so my other advice is to slow down the accumulating as much as possible. If the input is always less than the output, your stuff is less likely to get out of control.

In my old room I was lucky enough to design built-ins. I had an L-shaped desk with cabinets above and drawers underneath on the ends. Well after a couple of years, I discovered that the drawers were working stupendously well for me -- adhesives in one, punches in one, cutting stuff in another. However, the upper cabinets were a total bust. I just couldn't keep them organized, first of all, which is a sign that I hadn't created the right storage systems in there for me. Remembering which cabinet door to open, finding a box (albeit a super cute one) within the cabinet, taking it down to the desk surface, and opening it up were just too many steps for me. I tended to just cram stuff in willy nilly and to hoard certain supplies because I didn't know I already had plenty hiding in the cabinet.

So after a lot of thought I realized that closed doors don't work for me, and in my new room it's all cubbies, shelves, and drawers. Way better! My advice is to think hard about what worked for you in your old space and expand on that. I use an ALEX rolling drawer thing from ikea and it is fabulous. We keep the printer on the top -- don't roll it around really -- and my top drawer is adhesives, next is scoring/cutting, next is under construction but seems to be leaning toward 12x12 papers, and the bottom three are punches laid out oh-so-perfectly on that non-skid drawer liner stuff. Really those three drawers are so good looking I sometimes just stop, walk over there, and open one up and gaze at it. It's like craft porn. My point is that not only does it have to work for you, you have to like it too.

Good luck to you! Hope this is helpful.

I am retired now, but when I was working I attended a class on organization and what they recommended was that anything you use daily (often) should be within reach without getting up from your chair, the next layer should be anyhing you use in a week should be the next closest and things lest often farther away. It has always helped me organize my craft room.

Good luck.

Renee (RenT) - "craft porn"? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Love it!

pinterest has a ton of ideas for craft organization; that you can see with pictures and bring up on that blog. You have to be invited; but, I can send you the invite if you aren't using it. One great idea for misc single stamps is this-behind the door storage
Sharon's Scrappy Space: How to Develop a Scrapbook Organization System

I also love having stations: example, cutting, embossing/die cut, coloring

Your organization will always be a work in progress. The one thing that I have discovered, whatever you use, however you organize, simply putting a label on each drawer, box, file and container will be the single most helpful organization trick you'll use.

Just reflecting on the idea that the things you use most should be in reach without getting up. I tend to think differently. My work table holds nothing for storage. I get up from my chair for everything I'm using and TRY to put it away as soon as I'm done. With such a sedentary craft, I feel I need the exercise/stretching that getting up to cross the room for a stamp or ink pad is important. That being said, I usually have adhesives close by as well as applicators of all kinds as I don't tend to be good about putting them away.

I like this a lot!! Makes so much sense and I'm just getting ready to tackle 'the organizational deed'. My spare bedrooms are not very big, so I will have all of my stuff spread out into three rooms and one thing that has been preventing me from getting started is trying to figure out 'what to put where'.

This layering approach will be a BIG help to me to figure out where things should go.

Thanks :)

Does anyone have either the Stamp n Storage ink pad/marker organizer or the Organize More unit?? Would love to here comments. I want to buy one for my new room.

I was even satisfied with the foam board ink pad unit I purchased online; because the ink pads are not a heavy item. Here is another sturdy unit:
Pro Ink Organizer

I have everything I need within reach. My chair is on wheels and I just roll to whatever cabinet I need something out of. I tell myself that wheeling the chair around the room is good exercise!

My favorite organizational find is the Raskog cart from Ikea. It's surprising how much it holds, but doesn't have a large footprint. This is where I keep all my Copics, so I can roll them into my bedroom if I don't feel like working in my craft room, so I can just color.