There are several methods you can use to organize your paper, and many good products out there to help us with our organizational dilemmas. We will cover several here, taking into account both our 8 ˝” x 11” papers and our 12” x 12” papers.
Color is the most used method or organizing your papers, and rightfully so. We all use color as our main design element. Take all your plain colored paper and organize it by size, then color. Secondly, a lot us have a favorite designer, or designers. Separate out all your patterned papers by designer. This is usually helpful as designers tend to have their own styles, color palettes, and patterns. You will find that a lot of their papers can successfully be combined this way.
Take all your papers and separate them into piles in the way that makes the most sense to you. Be sure you set up a discard pile for the papers you don’t think you will use any more. As you sort, don’t be afraid to utilize this pile. Anything that goes into this pile will no longer be wasting space in your area. Then you can sell it on EBay, donate it to a church or daycare center, or even swap with friends or give it to a fellow paper crafter.
Now that you have all your paper sorted, you will need a way to store it that makes sense to you. There are several ways you can store your paper, and there are dozens of organizational tools that can help you with this. You can store paper horizontal or vertical, depending on your space and preferences. Put some thought into this before make any purchases. I prefer vertical storage, it takes up less space, and you can find your papers more easily, as you can simply “thumb through” the tops of the papers without having to remove the papers on the top as you would do with horizontal storage methods. When you buy your organizational tools, make sure you have room for growth. You do not want to have to reorganize a few months down the road because you have run out of room. You also do not want to put your papers in too tightly, as you can wrinkle or crease them. It will also make them harder to sort through when you are looking for “that one perfect paper” for your projects.
The last thing you need to do is label your storage bins. You do not want to go through all this trouble and end up still having to hunt for what you need. While this will not be the most fun paper crafting project you have ever done, it will be among the most satisfactory of them, and it will make all future projects easier and more fun.
