Back at the end of December, 2017, I blogged about the mess my craft space was in, and how I hoped that, in 2018, I would make some progress in getting it all put back together and neatened up. I posted my January progress here. This is my February progress report on that organization.
On February 2 and 3, I started in on the rest of my unmounted stamp storage. As I showed in my January post I had used a bin recommended by Jennifer McGuire in her year-end "Favorite" post about organization (the InterDesign FRIDGE AND FREEZE SPLIT BINZ 70630) and sorted out all the clear stamp sets (and in some instances, coordinating dies) from my temporary holding box AND from some Iris Cart drawers where older ones had been "stuffed". I sorted, alphabetically by maker and filed the narrower envelopes of stamps, using card-stock dividers for each letter of the alphabet. I made labels for each divider, identifying the makers.
But that left stamp/die sets too wide to fit in that bin, and also a large number of cling rubber stamps still in that holding box and in Iris cart drawers. So I ordered more bins --- another of the InterDesign Fridge and Freeze Split Bins that I used in January and two InterDesign Fridge and Freeze Bins 70530 for the wider stamp/die sets.
I set about sorting, filing and labeling in the same way as I did in January and ended up with all three bins chock full!
On February 2 and 3, I started in on the rest of my unmounted stamp storage. As I showed in my January post I had used a bin recommended by Jennifer McGuire in her year-end "Favorite" post about organization (the InterDesign FRIDGE AND FREEZE SPLIT BINZ 70630) and sorted out all the clear stamp sets (and in some instances, coordinating dies) from my temporary holding box AND from some Iris Cart drawers where older ones had been "stuffed". I sorted, alphabetically by maker and filed the narrower envelopes of stamps, using card-stock dividers for each letter of the alphabet. I made labels for each divider, identifying the makers.
But that left stamp/die sets too wide to fit in that bin, and also a large number of cling rubber stamps still in that holding box and in Iris cart drawers. So I ordered more bins --- another of the InterDesign Fridge and Freeze Split Bins that I used in January and two InterDesign Fridge and Freeze Bins 70530 for the wider stamp/die sets.
I set about sorting, filing and labeling in the same way as I did in January and ended up with all three bins chock full!
This left me with three stamps too large to fit in ANY of the bins ("decor"-sized background stamps), some dies that did not coordinate with any stamp sets and seven empty drawers! YAY!
But I couldn't leave those bins on my cutting table --- kind of defeats the purpose of de-cluttering, so I rearranged a small bookcase to make room for the bins on top:
I had issues with the labels pealing off my dividers but I added a few drops of Tacky Glue and problem solved.
Now you may notice two CD racks on that bookcase picture above. That was another project to be tackled as they contained small single clear stamps, most having been magazine cover freebies over the years. To make room for the bins, I moved these CD holders to the top of a stacked Iris cart:
Now you may notice two CD racks on that bookcase picture above. That was another project to be tackled as they contained small single clear stamps, most having been magazine cover freebies over the years. To make room for the bins, I moved these CD holders to the top of a stacked Iris cart:
But that caused additional issues. There were two large 3-ring notebooks which contained tutorial notes and equipment instructions and they needed a place to go. That is still to be determined.
My next task was to clear my paper tray on my desk/workspace, which had been accumulating paper scraps, project notes, and other "stuff" over the past year - as you can see from this before picture, it was overflowing!
So, on February 4 through 9, I emptied the tray and sorted the paper scraps in it and placed all project notes adn equipment instructions in the binders shown above. Ialso emptied my accordion file which also contained paper scraps and had gotten out of control.
Again, using Jennifer McGuire's tips and trick, I located some Job Ticket Holders (I bought several packets from Amazon and LATER located more at our local Staples Office Supply Store) and got busy sorting paper scraps by color and preparing a ticket holder for each color family. The paper tray now contains three unfinished class projects, some Ranger color labels and two duplicate die sets...quite an improvement! And the paper scraps are much easier to access as the job ticket holders pull out (and slide back in) of that accordion file easily, allowing me to see what scraps I may have that can be used in a project!
All this paper sorting got me thinking about my 12 x 12 papers. They occupied three drawers under my table, a bin under my cutting table (in the lower left corner under UFOs!) and a rolling file (holding only solid-color cardstock and a few collections of patterns like snowflakes) on the back side of my table:
In general, they were a pain to get to and so I rarely even tried. I left the rolling cart alone for the time being and concentrated on the drawers and the bin. On Valentine's Day, I pulled all the papers and sorted by maker (probably not the best was to find a particular pattern but much easier to corral all that paper. Maybe later, I will try to categorize within the files). I ordered five file boxes that would hold 12 x 12 and located a source for dividers (the seller of the boxes had dividers but they were out of stock. I found similar ones on Amazon). I arranged my papers, alphabetically by maker and emptied the bin and two of the three drawers! The files are currently on the floor beside my stacked Iris carts and the top drawer of has some patterned paper scraps/die cuts too small to be accommodated in the files:
The files need a better location and I hope to make that happen when I get to the mess under the tables behind the cutting table. But that will be a later task...
Now, back to those CD files and the single clear stamps in them. I had been removing the CD inserts from the cases and storing the stamps four to a case but the case holder was full and I was running out of CD cases (they are pretty rare on the market these days too, thanks to streaming audio!):
Now, back to those CD files and the single clear stamps in them. I had been removing the CD inserts from the cases and storing the stamps four to a case but the case holder was full and I was running out of CD cases (they are pretty rare on the market these days too, thanks to streaming audio!):
I had purchased some coin-sized pocket protectors a while back, thinking they would be good for color swatches but I never got around to that and they were the perfect size for these stamps! A new 3-ring binder, a packet of coin protector packets and voila!
I sorted by theme and indexed them for future reference.
The notebook is now stored on top of the stacked Iris cart behind the other CD holder which holds complete stamp sets --- these will need to be dealt with eventually.
So there you have my February progress. On to March!
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