#12 Clever Craft Storage Solutions

Hello … welcome to The Craft Room where we are going to be talking about some clever craft storage solutions.  In Episode 11 we talked about crafting in a small space, and we did discuss craft storage ideas. There is no denying that in order to work efficiently in a small space, you need to have some clever storage solutions.  But there was so much more I wanted to tell you, so this episode is kind of a sequel.

For starters, did you know that I have a craft storage Pinterest Board with over 900 ideas for clever craft storage?  Sometimes it's when we see what others are doing in their space, with their supplies, that we find a solution for ourselves. Some ideas are for small things, like sewing threads, and others are for full walls or rooms.  I have found a lot of inspiration in there for myself, and I hope you find something on that Pinterest board that sparks an idea for you.

https://www.pinterest.com.au/dawnlewis/craft-organisation/

In episode 11 I mentioned that I store my papercrafting embellishments by colour, and I wanted to talk about how my colour storage system came about … but I didn't want that episode to run any longer that it already did.

These days I store pretty much all of my craft supplies by colour.  I work by colour, and so it makes perfect sense to store my supplies by colour. It makes them easier to find, which saves me time on so many levels.  But it wasn't always like this.  In my last house, I had the luxury of a long narrow room where I kept my craft supplies. The beauty of it was that I could leave a project half finished, stuff all over my desks (yes, I had the luxury of 2 desks), and just shut the door.  However, when we moved to the home where we live currently, there was no hideaway room for me, as this house is very open plan! I had a small folding desk and a couple of kids bookshelves, and all of my papercrafting stuff had to fit on, under and next to the desk out in the open where all sorts of inquisitive little people, kitties and anybody visiting could see it.  It was incredibly difficult to keep the space tidy, and I couldn't just close the door on it. Eventually we did put an extension onto our home, which is where my new craft cupboards are located, but while it was still out in the open, I was coming up against the same issue all the time.

My embellishment stash was really a scrapbookers' dream come true.  I had little storage containers full of all sorts of fascinating bits & pieces.  But when I wanted to create a layout using, let's say, purple and green, I would pull out the ribbon box to find purple and green ribbon, then the button box to find purple and green buttons, the eyelet box, the fibres box, the sticker box … you get the picture! It took up heaps of desk space, and if I put them away after pulling out what I thought I wanted to use (so I had enough space on the desk to work), then I would need to get them all out again to put away the pieces I didn't use.  It was a hassle, and it was actually stopping me from crafting. I can't remember exactly what sparked the idea, but one day I'd had enough, and decided I needed a better system.  Clearly, I was choosing embellishments based on colour, because I work by colour.  I would look at the photos I wanted to use, choose my colour scheme, then create chaos on my desk.  So I decided it was time for a change … I was going to switch to storing my embellishments by colour.

I had limited space, and my only option was to go up.  I went looking for tubs, and hit the jackpot in The Reject Shop kitchen aisle. I found small 5L rectangular clear tubs with lids that allowed them to stack. They were perfectly sized, inexpensive, and readily available.  I put this system into place about 9 years ago, and those tubs are still available today.  I bought ten 5L tubs at $2.50 each, and I grabbed a 10L tub for my pink embellishments (because girls + scrapbooking = lots of pink stuff!). I also bought 100 small zip lock bags and a pack of sandwich size zip lock bags.  That was all I needed to start. There were some colours that could share. I had very little yellow and orange supplies, so they would share a tub, as would cream & brown, black & grey, and green & teal.  Gold, silver and other metal pieces also had their own box.

I laid out all the empty tubs on the floor with the lids under them. I grabbed the little clear caddy that had all my buttons in it, each in their own little section, sorted by colour. I opened a small zip lock bag … and just started bagging buttons by colour.  I bagged all the red ones and tossed that bag of buttons in the first tub.  The I bagged the orange buttons and threw them in the next tub, along with the baggie of yellow buttons.  I kept going like that until the button caddy was empty, and there was a bag of buttons in every box … in colour order … of course. Then