Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Organizing...it's good for the soul!

When I decided to get out of this funk I've been in I knew I needed to re-organize my craft room.  I have always loved to organize things ~ actually it's almost a compulsion.  My mom teases me about having CDO - It's like OCD but the letters are in the right order ;)  LOL!!!  To some degree she hit the nail on the head.  I hate things being out of place BUT when I craft it's like a Tasmanian devil from the cartoons....  My desk and surrounding area is a disaster.  I also like piles....  If I think of an idea, write in on a piece of paper and add it to the pile.  Find a great piece of ephemera, it goes on the pile too...  you get the idea.  After a while it gets to me and I have to organize. 
So, on to the organizing....  I finally got all of my stamps into 3 ring binders!  I use unmounted stamps for the most part so this works perfectly for me.  I had a pile of tags on my desk that I made from the leftover ink on my craft mat from various techniques (I can't stand to waste ink!).  I decided to use those as my labels for the binders.

organizing stamps

And I also started making tag books of the various stamps I have from each company....I stamp the image and wrote the name of the image and product number if I knew it.  It's going to be nice just to flip through the book when I need to find an image. 
organizing stamps 2

I am also organizing our spare bedroom.  This was my oldest ds's room which has been most recently inhabited by our kittens.  I kicked them out, bought some shelves and I'm organizing the heck out of that room as well.

I am already pleased by the progress I've made...
So, if you're feeling blah and need a pick-me-up
why don't you try organizing something...
It's always a spirit lifter for me, maybe it will work for you as well!

15 comments:

  1. thats so ironic I started organizing my stamps in binders too...may I please see a picture of the inside? I don't quite know what I'm doing, and are all your clear stamps in binders too? super cute tags for the labels!

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  2. Love the "CDO" - now that's a compulsize organizer. LOL I do the "piles" also. In fact, I have a few going on now. :(

    I organized all my Stampin Up stamps using a binder. Each set that I have is stamped onto a 8.5 X 11" sheet of paper and placed in a binder in clear page protectors. At the front of the binder I have different "categories" listed in alphabetical order. For instance, birthday, cats, flourish, flowers, etc. I numbered each set and under the categories I have written the number of the set where I can find that particular style of stamp.

    I don't have my unmounted stamps organized because I don't have near enough of the storage cards for them. But I do intend to get them organized also. Love your tag idea and will probably go that route when I finally get it done. I think I will number the storage card and number the tags with the stamped image to correspond. That might work...hmmm.

    Anyway, I'm very happy you are getting organized and your spirits lifted. I enjoy your blog very much. It's always a source of inspiration.

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  3. The "CDO" made me LOL! Love the tags for your binders!

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  4. I love the idea of the tags with your stamps. It would give great inspiration!! It must be that time of year. I have been organizing in my craft room, it always get me going.

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  5. I would like to see that also, since I've been wanting to find a better way to oranize my stamps (a smaller footprint).

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  6. Hmmm...I better get organizing. It always sounds so good but I get overwhelmed before I begin. Stamps in binders is a great idea. I keep all my brass stencil/embossing plates in a small photo album as they fit nicely into the clear sleeves. They are together and now I know just where to find them...with the light box. Happy organizing...

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  7. good for you roni..more mojo than me..lol..loves ya

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  8. Hi Roni -

    That's what I need to do. Organize. Its gotten to the point I don't want to walk into my studio. But every time I decide to work on it I get sidetracked - LOL! Wanna come over to my place, hmm!
    I love your idea of the tag book, great way to track your stamps and maybe get more use out of them. I will have to remember that. What do you use to mount your stamps on to use and store? Are they on cling? And what do you use to store them in the binder with? Curious because I have a lot of unmounted stamps that I have not used.

    Take care

    Elaine Allen

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  9. Hey, I started organizing my stamps too. I used to use CD cases, but now I can only find the slim ones so I have switched to binders. I love organizing when I get stuck on a project~ I find all the stuff I forgot I had and it helps to inspire me again.

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  10. LOL Roni! CDO! I have had to do a major re-do since Hurricane Irene, we flooded, from the roof. Heck of a way to find out the roof needs replacing!! I put my unmounted stamps in large manilla envies, cut in half. I index them on the outside, and file them in baskets I got at Staples. I really love this system, it works so well for me.

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  11. My stamps are on shelves, but now that it's cooling down I need to organize my craft closet!

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  12. Glad you are making great progress on your re-organization!! I did a major craft room re-do last month and it's already messy again...lol... but just shows I've been having a good time! :) We should always measure how much fun we have by not only ink on our fingers, but also by how messy our craft area gets!! I think the long hot summer made us all feel a little blah... It's cooling off now in NC and I'm getting my mojo back finally and have finished up some stamping projects. Completing projects always makes me feel good too. I'll be putting some blog candy up on my blog today so I can help make someone's day when they win.... kinda like a pass-it-forward thing. I felt great when I recently won 2 different candies. Hey, I take my spirit boosts wherever I can.... :o)

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  13. I understanding completely about the piles. Someone once told me I have a piling system instead of a filing system, haha! After awhile it just gets on my nerves and I have to organize. It's such a great feeling to walk into my craft room (or any room in the house) and see things nice and orderly. I have OCD and ADD...those two are always at odds with each other, LOL!

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  14. Goodness...I just started to organize my stamps last weekend. What a project this is going to turn into...lol I wish this organization had been with me from Day 1. For the most part, I am an organization freak---they even call me that where I work. But, for some dumb/odd reason, when I started crafting my stamps just ended up in plastic containers. As my collection grew, they still remained in the containers but it reached a point where they could at least be sorted by vendor. Still, it was not a perfect system. A couple of weeks ago I ended up purchasing two stamp sets that I already had...lol I knew then it was (overdue) time to catalog every stamp I have (yikes) =)

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  15. Good to know I'm not the only one who piles things up and then organizes them. I've also been making a 'stamp catalog'. Stamping images on pages in order of type of stamps (small foam, clear cling, acrylic, um and wood mounted, etc.)and subject with a table of contents. Of course, I do not have near the amount of stamps you have. LOL

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Thanks for your thoughts and comments!