You?ve been meaning to organize your craft room for weeks now, but every time you go in there you are totally overwhelmed. You?re definitely not alone. The typical home in the United States has about 300,000 items in it, and for those of us who are crafty, we?ve likely got a lot more.
Etsy says that 97% of their U.S. sellers are working out of their homes, and 74% of them are so serious that they consider their crafting to be a business, not just a hobby. And crafting is becoming even more popular. In 2010, 56% of American households were doing it. In 2017 that number had gone up to 63%. That means more and more of us are in serious need of craft room storage ideas.
If you?ve even got a weekend, you can start creating a new and useful craft room storage system. And once you have a system in place, you?ll be pleasantly surprised how easy it is to locate the ink pad organizer without having to dig it out.
If you?ve got a weekend, here we go:
Managing Your Inks
If you?re a serious crafter, you?ve likely got tons of inks and refills hoarded away. But if things aren?t organized, you might not even be aware of what all you?ve got anymore!
The first step is to label. This is essential. You can use that label maker on every pad. But label them upside down, because that?s how you should be storing them so the ink stays wet. Try punching out a small bit of colored card stock for each of your reinkers and gluing it to the top. Then you can see at a glance which color you want.
Get an ink pad organizer that suits your personality and needs. If you have the right kind, you can even keep your daubers or reinkers with the matching pads. If you have a lot of time, you can re-organize your inks by hue; but some people will find it too difficult to make a color choice that way.
Organizing those Stamps
Once again, label, label, label. One good idea is to get some cube organizer baskets or craft storage bins and put all the stamps in a set into one. Label the top of the basket or bin with a graphic that lets you see examples. That way you can just glance at the top and know what you want.
You can also use storage dividers to hold your stamps, organizing by themes like holidays, birthdays, or seasons. Divide each group with decorated file folders if you want a splash of color and personality to the whole thing. Consider storing your background stamps in a different place. You could get a separate ink pad organizer just for background stamps, or even use an elegant maple storage cube to hold them so you can flip through quickly.
Card Stock and Paper
Your paper and card paper are just about the most essential parts of your crafting arsenal. You?ve probably collected all kinds of colors in the hunt for just that perfect shade, but if it?s all piled up unorganized you might have no idea where it is.
Magazine holders or cube storage organizers can let you line up your card stock in a very visible way. Use something like a white cube organizer so the color doesn?t fight with any of the colors of your card stock.
What if you don?t have enough room to store all your paper and card stock vertically? Stack store it according to hue and make yourself a little ring of small cut-out tags from each color in the same order you?ve stacked it. You can refer to your color ring to see what color you want and how the colors work together, then pull out card stock quickly because you know just what you want.
Even these small organizational changes will do worlds to make your craft room an easier and more delightful place to work. The right ink pad organizer and a few hours with your label maker can do miracles. You can do it: why not do it this weekend?
