Did you know that how you craft affects how you should organize your craft room?

I am often asked how I do my Scrapbook Inventory Organization (since I have a very large craft inventory), and that is a difficult question to answer because everyone scrapbooks a little differently and my methods may not work for you and your scrapbooking style.

Your Creative 15 assignment this week is to take our SURVEY on what items you reach for after you have your photos collected.  CLICK HERE to participate and keep planning the perfect craft room organization for YOU.

Our first survey asked how you started your creative project?  An overwhelming 90% of participants indicated that they start with PHOTOS.  Now, what comes next?

Our survey results for how you start your scrapbook layouts.

The key to how you organize your craft room and actually using your Scrapbook Inventory (aka stash) is being able to find the right supply at the right time without spending too much time looking for it or organizing it to begin with. In short, you need to organize in the same way that you craft!  The key to an effective and efficient organizational method is to be able to locate your item within 30 seconds, can you do that?  If not, please read on for a few things for you to consider and think about.

I know it is tough not to go out and buy the latest and greatest of organizational supplies, bins and boxes when you start thinking about how to story your wonderful craft inventory, but there are a few steps that need to be completed first.

I, for one, am a very color and theme oriented scrapbooker, therefore, I organize my craft room by those methods.

For my color based organization (inks, pens, markers, cardstock, scraps, washi, twine, ribbon, brads, buttons, die cut binders, glitter, liquid pearls, embossing powders, paint, pocket cards, etc), I use a modified rainbow:

• Red
• Orange
• Yellow
• Green
• Teal
• Blue
• Purple
• Pink
• Brown
• Gray
• Black
• White

For other items that don’t really have colors, (i.e. our supplies such as stamps, patterned paper, punches, metal dies, pocket cards, etc) I organize by theme. Every person’s themes will be different based on the topics that you scrapbook. Here are mine that focus on daily life with my hubby and little girl, our travels, and the great outdoors:

• Animals
• Baby / Pregnancy
• Children / School
• Celebration (I also put my card making supplies in this category)
• Family / Home / Daily Life
• Food
• Love / Wedding
• Masculine
• Music
• Nature/Outdoors
• Sports
• Travel (Lots of subcategories here)
• Vintage
• Western

There are also some themes that are very broadly based by a calendar methodology:

• Winter (Includes December, January, February and all holidays associated in those months such as Christmas, New Years, Valentines day, etc)
• Spring (March, April, May and all holidays in those months such as St. Patricks day, Easter, etc)
• Summer (June, July, August and all holidays in those months such as 4th of July, etc)
• Fall (September, October, November and all holidays in those months such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc)

Overall, you need to take note of what you scrapbook and how you scrapbook. When you need a pink tag, do you go look for pink or do you look for your tags? For me, I would go to my pink die cut binder and flip through it until I found the perfect tag.

Overall, I hope this introduction helps you start to think about your organization. Just remember, buying supplies, organizing supplies and actually scrapbooking are 3 very different hobbies. Balance your time to make the most of all 3.

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Happy Scrappin!