So, I'm finally posting my "after" pictures of my stampin' space. And why yes, it still looks cluttered! I hate to break it to you, but it always will. There is 17 years worth of stamping in that little corner of my basement, and I am not very good about parting with things. I desperately need to cull some of my stamps, which has actually gotten easier over the past few years. Deep, deep down, there is a minimalist wanting to break out. :)
So while my space is cluttered, it's an organized clutter. Want to take a tour of my little space?
This is the area right behind me. These dressers were in my bedroom growing up, then were used for my girls when they were babies. Now they house things like wrapping paper, bows, and various stamping tools. The wrapping stuff is in the shorter one, and the stamping stuff is in the tall skinny one. On top of that you can see that I have some envelopes (because I'm not sure where else to keep them...any suggestions for storing them?), my Bind-it-All, and my Simply Scored tool and plates. The top of the shorter one holds a filing crate which is filled with business papers and forms, and another box which holds several in-progress scrapbooks. I think I'm on 2007. Yeah.
Moving right along...I didn't take a picture of my cleaned off desk, other than the one above. I know it looks anything but clean, but for me, this is a clean as it gets. And while looks can be deceiving, it's well organized in that state. To the right of my desk are several handy shelves, as well as my punches. I like to have my tools right at my finger tips, so ribbon, punches, and ink are on the lower shelf. I also keep scissors, my paper piercing tools, and my heat tool for embossing there as well.
Above that are shelves that hold my Stampin' Around Wheels, samples of some of my favorite projects (a couple of them even won awards), my markers, and all my DSP and 12x12 card stock, which is organized by color collection. Current DSP goes in one holder, and then there are two others for retired DSP. Three 12x12 holders of DSP...think I should use some of that up?
Here's a close up of my Color Caddy. Now, I realize that you can actually get a better picture by looking in the catalog, but you'll notice something different on mine. I have duplicates of some of the colors. As a customer, this is completely unnecessary, but as a demonstrator, it's nice to have two of the same color at events. So I put both pads of the same color in my caddy (which does have the old extension that's no longer available, so I have extra space to do this.) You'll also note that I still have some of the old clam shell style ink pads. I prefer to spend my money on more exciting things, and these still work just fine, so I haven't felt the need to replace them. The top holds all the refills, which I highly recommend getting if you haven't already. I held off for YEARS until I finally invested in getting the sets of refills, and now I'm finding myself stuck because I want to use some of the new color refills and I don't have them yet!
Underneath the lowest shelf, I store my card stock in two plastic bins on the floor. I am in a basement, after all, and while water hasn't really been an issue (it was once), I'm not willing to risk losing that much card stock. Each color gets a hanging file folder, and they are organized by color collection. I've done this different ways over the years, generally following the order listed in the catalog (why yes, I AM a type-A). However, the order bugged me all through the last catalog year, so with the new color refresh, I reorganized and put them in rainbow order, which just makes me happy.
My desk has 7 drawers...three on each side, then one in the middle. I love this desk. It was always in our office for my entire childhood. At some point several years ago, it was relegated to the barn for storage, and I eventually ended up with it. My brother is so jealous. I'm not sure he's aware that I have another one just like it for my sewing machine. These suckers are old and solid oak, not to mention huge. And awesome. Anyway, most of the things in the drawers are boring, like cellophane bags, glue guns, old, cheap trimmers, paint, etc. You get the picture. But my middle drawer holds old Simply Scrappin' kits (which I clearly need to get using, considering I'm 6 years behind on my scrapbooks). The most used drawer is the top right hand drawer, which is shown above. This is home to brads, buttons, eyelets (oh yeah, I still have TONS of those!), adhesive, other embellishments, and my vast embossing powder collection. There are lots of duplicates there, because my grandparents gave me all their stamping stuff a couple of summers ago. Yes, my grandparents used to stamp. How awesome is that?
So there you go, a quick tour of my stamping space. It's not as pretty and organized as some I've seen online, but it's what I have to work with, and it's mine. I'm blessed to have a space in my little house that I can escape to when I need some time alone and want to create. I've been learning a lot about being content with what I have, and when I look at this corner and all the stuff packed into it, it's hard to believe I could actually feel like I am somehow lacking anything. I have so very much to be grateful for!
