I’ve outgrown my patterned paper storage. Again. It’s bad.Take a look while I turn my head away in shame.
This is piled on my counter, just a few feet away. Pathetic, right? More pathetic is the pile on the table behind me
, what’s on the shelves, what’s in the closet, and what’s waiting for me to pick up at my local scrapbook store. Ugh. I’ve even been using my patterned paper lately for some projects you’ll see soon, and that’s what has me in this predicament.
I really need to get it all sorted. . . . I used to have it sorted into Basic Grey, Making Memories, Foo-fa-la, 7 Gypsies, SU!, Scenic Route . . . . but now that’s not working for me. How do you sort yours? By season? By color combo? By kind of pattern? HELP, please!
30 Comments
I sort mine by pattern. I have a floral section, stripes, dots, etc. I also have seasonal sorted. Your piles make me feel good about my piles!
I use your same organization. Piles. LOL I guess I need help too!!
I used to do mine by color, then sorted it by theme, and now I do it by theme & company. I like to keep all my Basic Grey together, but if it’s a Christmas theme it goes in with the Christmas paper.
But I’ve outgrown my storage…got those wire cube grids assembled into a storage tower and now I’ve got patterned paper in there, I’ve got current SU! in the SU! paper holders and I’ve got some in one of those portable accordion scrapbook files…if you come up with something nifty, let me know!
BTW…new strip mall 2 miles away and guess what they are putting in? You guessed it, a Potbelly Sandwich Co. WOOHOOO!!!
sorting??? using??? I don’t understand!
I have soem sorted but lately I have been using those oversized zip locks to hold seasons-so as I buy fall colors, I have them and ribbons, cardstocks and the stamps I get all together. I just need to actually do something besides look at it.
I have a hybrid system. I use Cropper Hopper 12×12 sorters (sort of like magazine holders) with dividers. I keep all my SU in one; some key favorite lines (including Crate and Basic Grey) in one; and in a couple of others I have the papers sorted by themes I use a lot in scrapbooking – Christmas, Easter, beach, motocross (my nephew races), Americana. Then I have a couple that sorted by design/color – girly and masculine are separated, flowers and stripes are separated. It’s not a great system, but it’s better than my old one, which was like yours – piles! Good luck with your organizing.
i sort mine a little like yours. i will be reading all the responses. i also need help.
It would be funny to see your piles…if I wasn’t sitting right next to a few piles of my own. I look forward to seeing what people suggest because I need to do something different also. Right now I sort by company.
I use the vertical paper holders like the ones SU sells, and I have them sorted like this:
SU current
SU retired
Basic Grey
stripes
holiday
Chatterbox
misc
That about covers it. I gave a lot away to my mom. The clutter was not helping my creativity. Good luck!
You can ship the paper to me and I’ll store it for you! Seriously, I use plastic scrapbook paper keepers, which are stored vertically. I like them.
I store all mine by color. If it has 2 or more main colors, I just have to buy a sheet to go with each color! 🙂 I have a vertical storage unit that holds 12×12 papers, then have all my smaller scraps in the 12×12 decofile organizers from Creative Memories. I love them.
head over to debbie olson’s blog, ; she posted about this very issue at this link: http://debbiedesigns.typepad.com/muse_and_amuse/2007/11/need-paper-stor.html, and provided a solution! i’m trying to decide whether or not to pull the trigger this close to Christmas. i’m not all that into gifts, but a few of these racks would make my life so much easier!
I use those clear plastic 12×12 scrapbook keepers for storing paper. One is for Christmas, one is for SU DP, one for store-bought papers, one for plain Card Stock, and one for all cut left-over pieces. I stack them all up side by side on a low cabinet. I keep my SU 8.5×11 CS in a small plastic drawer compartment right next to my work space. SPeaking of work space, yours looks very organized to me! What paper crafter doesn’t create a mess everytime they’re at work?
Unfortunately, I can’t really help because I’m in the same boat as you! LOL
I use the Iris 12×12 plastic cases and sort according to theme. ie, Winter/Christmas, Fall/Halloween/ Camping, my kids each have one, Sports, SU, etc. I also have one for misc – inside it is sorted by color.
Then they are stored in the wire cube system with extra wire cube pieces creating shelves. I lable the front and it makes it super quick and easy to access and keep things put away! Hope this helps!!
Girlfriend, this space is better than mine! LOL! I need help badly. Someone please help me PURGE! LOL!
Wow! Sorry, but Wow! I love patterned paper too! Can’t stop buying it. I purchased three-drawer 12×12 organizers from Wal-Mart. They’re made by Sterilite. 12×12 sheets of paper fit in them beautifully and I just label each drawer with it’s contents. As for scraps, because you never know when you’ll need that microscopic piece or paper, I put them in zippered pockets that normally go in a binder. You can keep one in each drawer and they’ll be organized too! Good luck, ’cause I know how hard it is to get creative when my craft area is a mess!
I’m not great for organization. I have a box that I put all my smaller pieces into and then for the full size sheets, I have a “few” of the 12×12 Iris cases from Michael’s and I just have them stacked in there…no order…a real pain because I have to through them sheet by sheet when I am doing a project and want a particular color/pattern. I’ll be checking out the other comments for ideas!
When did you come over and take pictures of my craft room?? LOL Patterned paper is my secret hoard. I just recently went through and sorted it all. I do the 12 x 12 SU vertical storage for the full sheets and a cut basket on my dest for the scraps. I separate it by company I guess….Mostly just SU and Non Su. I put my vertical storage files on my book shelf on their sides so I can pull the paper out easier. Good luck to you!
I’ve just recently bought a swack of 12×12 paper holders and used a labeller from work to ID them by company – semi alphabetical.
Carey *is* working on building me 12×12 storage….but other things come first apparently…..like hunting, fishing, woodworking, lounging on the couch, quading……you know….ANYTHING takes priority??!!! LOL!!
PS – Adri *NEEDS* a Rosie! FO SHO! She’d have made a perfect Toto to her Dorothy! 🙂
I too have outgrown my storage for 12×12. Right now I store my patterned paper either by SU which is then just kept in their own paper packs…don’t want to seperate them. Then the non SU paper is sorted by color. The lines I really like…which means I can’t get myself to use the paper I have in a Cropper HOpper to themselves! So I guess I’m pretty much just all over the place! But for some reason, sorting by color works better for me!
Share with us once you figure out what you’re going to do! 🙂
Those stacks look like my problem too.
I store mine by pattern – dots, stripes, christmas, textures etc… Most of the time when I’m making something I’ll have a specific paper or pattern in mind. When I need to coordinate papers then I go looking for another pattern to go with it. This system seems to work for me for now.
I don’t really care about who made it – it’s the theme that drives my creativity. Although I do keep my SU! stuff separate for Demo only swaps.
I sort by themes- Halloween, Xmas, Birthday, Fall, Floral, Water, etc
Plain by color, patterned by color. Christmas by itself. I use a wire rack with lots of cubbies in it that I got at Costco. Each cubby is lined on the bottom with a 12×12 piece of cardboard so I don’t get grid lines 🙂 Big box for scraps that I go through and cut down into good sizes (6×6 is a fav) about twice a year. Keep my SU by itself by color name in a portable hanging file box with Pendaflex folders.
I love that you have a paper mess! I first sort by season. Then my subject. Such as polka dot, striped, circles, squares, florals, and all that stuffs. It isn’t perfect, but it has helped!
I have piles and piles too!! Whew! You made me feel so much better Jen!! heheheh!!! I have them on chairs, on boxes, on tables, on stacked boxes of stamps, on open drawers and more…yep, I’ve got piles….
I actually have all of my SU designer paper in clear pockets in an SU album. Clients and I can see both sides just by turning the page and they stay nice for when I want to use them.
Non-SU printed paper is sorted by the predominant color in vertical paper holders.
I sort my patterned paper divided by colour, and have specific themes as well e.g. Christmas, masculine, school, etc. Mine used to fit in a wheeled tote, but it’s now overflowed into 12 x 12 magazine holders by Cropper Hopper. I create by colour so this organisation works for me.
THANK YOU for posting these pictures I don’t feel so alone in the chaos of paper. I sort by manufacturer. More specifically by SU and not SU. I have two 12×12 Iris cases of non-SU and they are sorted by – I like these and I don’t particularlly like these anymore. As you can see I also need a new system.