Guest Author - Lawanda Kress

"I used plastic 25 or 26 quart storage drawers to store my 8 1/2" x 11" and my 12" x 12" paper in. I have bought all of my storage drawers and container at Dollar General--the most I paid for any one container was $8--and that was for the 25 or 26 quart storage container. Most of the other containers were $5.
I bought the plastic storage cabinet (with all the dividable drawers (32) at Big Lots for $8.....I use a big plastic storage cabinet (found in the tools section of a discount store) that has different compartments (kind of like a tackle and bait bin). I use mine to store different color brads, chalks, charms, and things in. I also use microwave containers (I got a box of 15 with lids) for about $5. I used labels and labeled everything."

----skirrel, read more of her post in the Bellaonline Scrapbooking Forum.


"...one of my favorite tools that helps me stay organized is a plastic kitchen tool caddy that rotates. You can get them from the fancy kitchen supply stores and I have a friend that found hers at a dollar store! Put your most often used tools in the caddy and keep on your desk top so you're not always searching while scrapping."

----LauraB, from a post in our Bella forum as well. She credited the idea to another person, but I was very happy that she posted it for us to read!

"You could use a plastic shoe holder that hangs behind a door of off of hooks to store your scissors, stickers, tape runner and other items that would fit in the pockets.
You may want to buy those plastic drawer units (target) for paper, album pages....
I would put up shelves, any type would work well or use a bookcase for the albums.
A coupon holder would work great for organizing your photos, you can use the tabs for identifying which event the pictures are for (halloween, play day at the park,.....)"

----Karen, bejaminsmom, from her post in the Bellaonline Forum.

"The rolling see-through carts you can get at Walmart, Target, etc. are great. I have two that are about 4 ft tall with two huge bottom drawers (sized for hanging folders), and 3 smaller drawers on top. Also have one with 3 large wide drawers. For 12x12 paper storage I use the Crop N Style paper taker(use the 40% off coupon from Michaels), and also got a package of the put-together wire storage cubes at the Walmart. I used the round attachments to make two cubes, and used the rest of the pieces to fill in the cubes and attached with zip-ties. See the web site below for an example.
www.scrappiness.com/file_storage%20ideas.htm

The CropNStyle PSB binder holds a ton of stickers & tags (another Michaels 40% off coupon). I was looking for a less expensive alternative to the tins for eyelet storage, and found tiny round emply plastic containers (that look like the little tubs the paints come in with paint by numbers kits), pkg of 24 for about $2. Across the isle I found a $2 clear plastic box with a snap lid that holds about 40 of the little containers. I use the little Art Bin type clear containers with several compartments for buttons and charms. The best buy I found on journaling Zig pens was through Currant.

I use a CropNStyle XXL when I go to crops. I kept all of my stuff in it for a long time before I expanded to the drawers. I buy the plastic 12x12 Craft Keepers from Create a Bag (Walmart, $2 somthing)to carry my paper, stickers, embellishments and pictures I plan to work on at a crop. For the other tools I'll need I use a plastic storage box like rubbermaid with a handle on the lid."

----ScrappinGrammy, from a post in the Bella Forum.


"I store my stamps in pizza boxes. I go to the local pizza restaurant
and ask for new pizza boxes they usually give them to me free or a
very small charge. I then cover the box with contact paper or fabric
that matches the type of stamps in the box (ex. Christmas fabric with
Christmas stamps). These stack together without slipping on the shelf.
I also use these for stencils and Scrapbooking paper."

----Tammi, admin, from a post on her Crafty-Ones Scrapbooking Message Board


I bought wire paper racks from Novelcraft; one for 8 1/2x11 and one for 12x12 which sit on one of my tables. I bought one sheet of 4x8' mellamine and my husband made 3 work tables from that: 1 is 31"x48" and 2 are 24"x66". We bought folding legs at Lowes, so they are modular and I can move them if needed. So I have plenty of room to spread things out. I also use 2 rolling plastic bins; 1 has 1 deep drawer and 2 shallow drawers, and the other is narrower and has 6 shallow drawers. I also have a small 3 drawer plastic bin on my work table for pens, sissors and embellishments. I also bought a Crop i Style PSB sticker album, which is terrific because you can organize and see them at a glance. I used to keep them by similar categories in page protectors in a 3 ring binder - but had to pull them all out to find which ones I wanted to use. For my scrap papers, I have a 12x12 expanding file keeper which has 30 sections. I separated my scraps by color and put each color in a 1 gal. ziplock bag and put those in the expanding folder. Now when I need a scrap - I just pull out the ziplock bag of the color I want. I used to keep them in a file folder and had to sort through them, which was time consuming. I also converted the closet into all storage shelves for supplies such as extra rolls of Xyron adhesives, albums, etc.

----Dale Everson, from an email.

See Dale's Workroom!


Thanks you all for the great advice!

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