For Donna

Ok... so it has been A LONG time since I first posted my amazing and wonderful Scrap Closet Conversion.  A lot has changed as well.  Since I first converted a tiny closet into a craft space, my family has moved and I NOW have an entire room devoted to this wonderful hobby.  Furniture has been added and I've been able to expand quite a bit (check out my new craft table... thanx Cindy).  Sometimes that serves me, sometimes it doesn't.  I find that I need to be WAY MORE DILIGENT to keep my spaces clean and organized, more than I ever did in my beloved craft closet.  Unfortunately, when you spread out, so does the mess!!!  But I'm doing well with it and still employ a lot of the storage solutions I discovered way back when.
Recently, my new friend from Idaho, Donna,  asked me about MY storage solution ideas, so I thought I would share my favorites!!!  I'll start with the one that I'm personally challenged the most with... let's check out ribbon.

I REALLY hate knotted and wrinkled ribbon.  I mean I REALLY, REALLY hate it, so my solution was to hang it.... like a curtain of ribbon.  I actually separate my ribbon by color, pin all the same color ribbons to extra large safety pins and then attach the pin to a large key ring that I then slip onto hooks that I have on the back of my door.  You can also slip the rings onto a curtain rod as shown below.  Make sure that you trim your ribbon so that it doesn't touch the floor.  That way, your ribbon will stay nice.  Here's a wonderful pic that was posted by Simply My Crafts.

For those who prefer to leave their ribbon on the spools... here's another idea utilizing pants hangers (I found some AWESOME ones at The Container Store).  I saw this idea in an article about organizing ribbon at Club Creating Keepsakes.

Isn't that just so brilliant!?!?  So next up is my all time favorite storage for punches.  This solution not only allows them to be displayed so they are easily seen, but by storing them vertically, they take up NO valuable surface area in your craft room.  Here's what Elizabeth's Craft Room posted:

Yep, that's my punch storage solution!!!  For anyone who has a large amount of punches, NOTHING beats wall storage rails from IKEA!!!  They can be found in the kitchen section of IKEA.  Can someone PLEASE tell me why IKEA doesn't have a scrapbooking section!!!  They would SOOOO clean up! 
Ok, so for today's final pearl..... PAPER!!!  I personally LOVE vertical paper storage.  I have actually condensed MASSIVE paper piles down to virtually NOTHING and where paper is often buried when its stacked or piled, with vertical storage,  the flick of a thumb means every sheet can be seen.  Here's how Dreaming In Scraps has it in her craft room:

The plastic storage containers I use for my vertical storage are from Cropper Hopper.  This single storage solution has saved me HOURS of frustration and the restricted breathing that comes with seeing mounds and mounds and piles and piles and being overwhelmed by the reality that you will have to SIFT through all of it to find the ONE thing that you are looking for.  If you are a scrapper... you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about and probably experienced the feeling just reading this. :)

So that's it.  That is BY NO MEANS all of my storage favorites, its only a few.  Hopefully my friend Donna AND YOU are inspired to organize your hobby space. 

Until next time....