Overall Strategy:
- I concentrated on one shelf or drawer at a time, worked through to completion, taking only short breaks if any.
- I completely emptied the shelf or drawer of its contents, then wiped out the drawer before putting things back.
- I assessed everything in each drawer, opening jars, bottles, tubes, and ink pads to ensure the contents were in good condition, and tossing anything that was no longer fresh or usable.
- Similarly, I assessed my paper supplies, ribbon, bows, and embellishments, tossing damaged goods.
Oganizing Specifics:
- Group items by function i.e. all adhesives (which includes craft and white glue, tape, monoadhesive, and rubber cement) go together on the same shelf
- Group replacement parts and refills by the item (glue sticks by glue gun; replacement blades by paper cutter).
- Group accessories with the items they are used with, i.e. sponge daubers with pastels; embossing powders with embossing gun).
- Organize colors by color family or rainbow order: red-orange-yellow-green-blue-purple, with separate place for neutrals.
- Partly-completed scrapbook pages can tuck into page protectors along with the component needed to finish the page (i.e. pictures, embellishments, printed text or mementoes, etc.).
Details, Details, Details:
- I finally broke down and labeled all the the drawers according to content. No more opening one drawer after another after another trying to find where I put a particular supply.
- I've found the small, clear boxes that Stampin' Up! stamp sets come in are very handy for organizing watercolor paint tubes, as well as separately-purchased stamps from other vendors.
How Long Did It Take?
- It took 14 hours over 4 days to organize 4 shelves and 11 drawers (23" deep, 39" wide).
- It took a little over an hour to make the drawer labels.
- Least amount of time to organize: a shelf with storage boxes (9 minutes).
- Most amount of time to organize: the ribbon drawer (2 hours and 16 minutes).