Organizational Blog Hop!

Welcome to the StampingBloggers 1st ever Organizational Blog Hop. What is StampingBloggers? We are a Yahoo Group of people who enjoy 2 things - stamping and blogging. we are always looking for new members so if you want to join us, drop me an email at mbryt1@bex.net and I will hook ya up!

What's an Organizational Blog Hop? It's a hop put together by members that have something to share about how they store/organize/manage their supplies. Not that we all have the perfect way of doing it, but we might just have a solution that will help you!

I am the last stop on the hop so if you have been following along, you should have just left Amanda's blog. If you haven't been hopping along, then you will want to start at Leanne's blog.

Here's the complete list of bloggers in the hop:

Photograph Storage - Leanne
Embellishment Storage - Jo
Ribbon & Fiber Storage - Shellie
Stamp Storage - Wendy K.
Ink Pad Storage - Ramona
Pen & Pencil Storage - Jeanne M.
Sticker, Die Cuts and Rub-On Storage -Amanda
Tools Storage and Paper Storage - Mary   ---> You Are HERE

So let's get to it as I am covering 2 topics - the first is Tools:

1st off let me say that I can't live without Iris carts. I have 4 of them; 2 hold stamps, 1 holds misc. and the tallest one holds a lot of tools, adhesive refills, envelopes, etc.. This is one of the drawers in the tallest one and this holds all my sponges, brayers, and so on. This set of drawers is within reach of where I sit to stamp so it's convenient to get to. The drawer above this one holds adhesive refills and the drawer below holds....

....punches! All smaller sized punches fit here - at least so far.

The larger punches and border punches are in a clear shoebag holder that hangs over the door to the room. As you can see I have some space to fill yet and the bottom row holds some sets of stamps.

I also have a few pieces of this shelving that was purchased at Target - this is the table top swivel organizer and it holds a variety of odds and ends that I like to have at hand. I also have a piece from this line of shelving on my desk that holds all of my ink pads and a second piece that is stacked on top of the ink pad holder that has.....

....more tools! (The ink pads are in a similar shelving unit that is right below this one). This contains by chalks, stapler, Copic airgun, a plastic storage container that holds my Cuttlebug embossing folders and CD cases (on the bottom left) that hold my Nestabilities dies. Each case is labeled with the name of the die. I don't find this to be the best way to store them but so far it works ok for me.

It's important for me to keep a lot of things close at hand because I am frankly too lazy to get up and down while I'm working so all of the things shown so far can be reached from my chair (except the shoebag on the door). This small container holds the essentials that I use all the time - scissors, tweezers, a sanding block, an eraser, a pack of adhesive....and it sits right on my desk.

Last but not least, this is a section of the shelving that is built into my desk that holds my CTMH tool kit that is stuffed with more goodies and to the left of it, you can see the Cuttlebug plates (the C'bug itself sits on the top of this shelving) and also some small 6x6 DP paper pads. Which leads me nicely into organization of paper!!

One of the things I loved about the desk I chose was the hutch/shelving area it had on the left side (it's an L shaped desk). These sections you see above are the perfect size to hold 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock so I have (from left to right) the Spring and Summer color papers, the Autumn and Winter and Neutral color papers, packets of scraps of cardstock (4 of them - one for each color season) and the last section holds the basics - white, cream, black,.... and a little bit of PTI cardstock. The C'bug sits on the top of this section and the Cricut sits below this.

See the Cricut peeking out on the left there? Here is where I keep my DP (the non-CTMH stuff). It is somewhat color coordinated so all the primarily red papers are together and then the pinks, and then the blues and so on.

Moving across the room, you'll see another piece of shelving that matches the desktop pieces only this one is much larger and has three drawers at the bottom and four shelves at the top. The shelves fir 12 x 12 paper and are again separated according to color season, starting with Spring and working down to Winter and Neutral (I always put the Neutrals with the Winter).  I have all my paper sorted by CTMH season but my ink pads are sorted by color family - just a little FYI, in case you were interested.

This is looking into one of the drawers of the unit above where I store retired CTMH My Reflections papers, card kits, and things like sheets of rub-ons.

Next to this unit, I have a 3 shelf bookcase that holds mostly books but has one area devoted to specialty papers - vellum, glossy, metallic and so on.

We've now made a circle of the room and are back at the desk. This area is right below the Cricut and the other paper storage you saw above. Under the desk top sits a couple of those Iris carts I mentioned. Well here is where I store my more current CTMH paper packs. If you look closely, you can see that I have a curtain rod suspended by screws that are mounted right into the underside of the desk top. From these I hung curtain clips - they have a circle that hangs on the rod and then a toothy clip that swivels from the circle. The My Reflections kits are then simply clipped up, with the opening to the package facing forward so I can easily reach in, get the paper I want and never remove the package of paper from the clip. It's a fairly small space but it holds a lot of paper packs! Below these, on the floor, sits copies of Idea Books, a couple of packets of misc. cardstock and my E sized CTMH stamp envelopes.

Last but not least (again), I recently purchased this pretty basket that sits at one end of my desk that I can throw small scraps into to use up or file away at a later time. I try to keep the area neat and tidy all of the time because my space is pretty small and compact and I work better in a clean area.

That's it for me and for this hop. I hope you found some great ideas along the way!
Until next time - have a creative - and organized - day!