Changes to Sticker Organization

It's no secret that I have struggled with storage and organizing all of my scrapbooking and paper crafting supplies for years. I have a TON. No seriously. Many people say I have a store in my studio. They're really no exaggerating. I've actually been to stores that have less of everything that I do.

One thing that has really helped curb my hoarding and buying was changing my scrapbooking style. I am now an exclusive pocket scrapbooker. Yup, I have officially given up traditional scrapbooking. Hey no moaning or groaning! I didn't make this decision lightly. I've been working on this for about a year. In 2014, I started pocket scrapbooking when I attended Crop on the Cape. I wanted to get my nephew's first year done and I did. Oh he's going to be 8 in April!!! So I kind of figured it was time to get the kid in an album....pretty soon he'll be off to college and have grandchildren at the rate I was going. I also have 2 other nephews now! On my harddrives, I have about 100,000 digital photos. Yeah, you read that right.....100 THOUSAND. I'd like to get them scrapbooked before I'm 753 years old.

With the switch to pocket scrapbooking, I'm scrapbooking way more often and actually accomplishing something! I get hundreds of photos scrapbooked at weekend crops. I have 4 weekend crops scheduled between this weekend and mid-March. I will be getting so much scrapbooked! I'm so excited about this. I'm finally able to look at photos that are old and have never been printed.

Since I'm scrapbooking so much more, I'm using up a ton of supplies! I actually have had to refill my cardstock organizers!! Seriously. I make a lot of my own cards using stamps, stickers, embellishments, washi, memorabilia, and photos. I have hundreds of sheets of cardstock cut down from 12x12 to 4x6. They are sorted by color family and stored in medium Close To My Heart organizers. This makes traveling with them so much easier. And a tiny side perk....the organizers fit perfectly in the RASKOG cart from Ikea. Here's one of my RASKOG carts on the way home from Crop on the Cape 2014. Don't you love how it's seat belted in?

My flat sheets of stickers are all in organizers from Michael's. I'll have to grab a photo of those some time! The project of sorting the flat sticker sheets from the chipboard, thick stickers, 3D stickers, etc was quite a project. I sort everything by category. My papers, stickers, and stamps are all sorted by the same categories. This way I know what goes together.

I spend far too much time at Lowe's....one of the perks of buying an old house that needs fixing up. :D Well, this Christmas they had tons of Christmas decor I needed wanted. Our living room is all decked out in the Adirondacks so of course I needed those mitten and sweater ball ornaments amongst other goodies. On one of my 453 trips to a Lowe's during the month of December, I noticed they had white and red storage bins that were stackable....that got me thinking.....yeah totally dangerous!

I had been wanting to organize my thick stickers.....They were previously stored in racks and wire bins from Ikea. They serve the purpose, but digging through so many items was a challenge. And the bins were so large that every bin except the Christmas one had multipole categories. The categories didn't stay sorted. Things got so jumbled up that it would take a good hour to go through the entire bin to get out all of the stickers in just one category. Not helpful at all when packing for a crop.

So with the brain in gear, I had made the executive decision to change how I was storing the thick stickers. Unfortunately, the change was going to have to wait for Christmas to be over. I had no time to make the change. I was totally swamped with 100 million things...aren't we all around the holidays? :(

So off to Lowe's I went around New Year's Day. This adventure took a few days. I had to go to 3 Lowe's stores! These bins were only for Christmas....sigh. And I'm not fortunate enough to live near a Container Store. I have plans to finally visit one when I go to Raleigh for one of my crops! I'm making a pit stop in Charlotte for Ikea, Container Store, Crate & Barrel, and who knows what other goodies I'll find along the way. I know Container Store has a website, but I want to be able to touch what I'm buying and make sure the measurements work for my needs.....picky picky I know.

The bins from Lowe's come in white or red. They also come in 2 different sizes. I went with white because my studio colors are white, black, and blue. My walls are a golden yellow. I like it kind of bright and sunny. I've actually gotten away from most of the black which is odd because I looooove black.

Filling up bins!! Each bin has a post it note in it with the categories listed. I need to make some labels. I haven't decided what I'm going to do about that just yet.

Here the bins are all put away....no more mess! I get stressed by messes piling up around me. I can't stand it! The wooden rack the bins are stacked on is a wooden baker's rack we purchased shortly after we were married in 1996....yeah it's old and has been repurposed probably 100 times. It's a great piece and so useful for so many things.

Let's recap.....I went from this heart stopping mess.....

to this well organized, tucked out of sight set up. I love how it's not all messy looking with things poking out. This also seems so much smaller and brighter. Watch for more organizing tips from me in the future!

Raskog Adventure Part 2

I've been asked about how I transport my Raskog carts. I drive a small SUV. It is bigger than a shoebox and does the job. I have a little thing for hauling stuff around. I'm always on the go.

Well, my Raskogs do travel well! This the carts all packed up leaving Crop on the Cape. This is the cart on the right side of my SUV. Yes, they are standing up on my backseat. Yup, they are seat-belted in! They didn't move an inch and they had a seven hour ride home.

The plastic bins you see are the Medium Organizers from Close To My Heart. They fit perfectly and they hold a ton of cards for pocket scrapbooking!

And the cart on the left side. The sun was shining right in my face as I was loading up. Sure beats the snow that started off the weekend! This cart doesn't have the organizers from CTMH. It has the Antonius bins from Ikea. They be ordered online as well.

Raskog Cart Assembly

Way back in March when I attended Crop on the Cape, I made a pit stop at Ikea and picked up a couple of Raskog carts. I went with the dark grey ones that look like graphite. They are also available in cream and turquoise. 

The are very reasonably priced. Assembly is required. They went together much faster and easier than I expected. I did bring a few tools with me because I was going to assemble them in a hotel room. Seriously. I did assembled them in a hotel room the night before Crop on the Cape. I left early because there was a blizzard - literally - hitting western New York and I was not about to miss the Crop on the Cape over some snow...ok a lot of snow! Over a foot of snow fell at my house in less than 12 hours. Good times.....if your'e a shovel. 

one of the carts still boxed up

I believe the only tool I needed that I brought was a screwdriver. I brought a flathead and a Phillips head just to be one the safe side.

opening the box

The box is kind of  funky shaped and not exactly on the light side. I wouldn't want to walk around an Ikea carrying one!

everything laid out from the box

Everything you need except for the screwdriver is included. The instructions are all photos.

very important contents!

In the photo above, you can see a cardboard tray inserted into one of the cart bins/shelves. It contains all of the important parts and pieces. I would could everything and make sure you have all of the pieces and parts before continuing on. The instruction book contains a list with photos and quantities.

more important parts

This photo shows the bars/tubes that hold everything together. They become the sides of the cart.

The huge (insert sarcasm here) instruction book.

Counting up my pieces and parts!

Double checking everything. That little wrench came with all of the little bits. The screwdriver is mine...well my hubby's.

Assembling what will become the legs at some point in the evening.

These are what I call the bottom or feet. They were kind of annoying to put together. I whacked myself in the face attempting to put them together. That step wasn't in the instruction book. I highly recommend skipping that step! :)

Hey the parts are starting to look like something! That hotel print on the wall is just as ugly now as it was that night. I wasn't even at a Motel 6! Hello 1983! hehehehe

Wahoo! The first bin is attached!

All three bins are attached. No idea why I skipped a photo after the second bin was attached.

And we have wheels!! We can zone around the hotel room.

The Graphite Twins! It took me about 40-45 minutes to assemble the first cart. The second cart took me less than 30 minutes. I was also watching a bit of HGTV while assembling. I don't have HGTV at home. Love those Property Brothers!

Oh and if you don't have an Ikea nearby, no worries! Neither do I. The Boston Ikea is over six hours away from my house. That's one way. You can purchase these carts online and the shipping is significantly less than a tank of gas.