Re-organised craft 'room'

Well, here goes... I promised you a sneak peek of my newly organised craft room.. and here it is! BUT be warned.. it's long post!

It all started because I was fed up with having my punches all thrown in to a large tupperware container  under my desk.. which weighed a tonne and I'm sure didn't help my bad back! So I turned to Pinterest!!! Well, 6 months later (literally) .. I'd paused (not finished you notice!) browsing the wonder that is Pinterest and had decided that the best method to store all my punches would be to invest in some nice shiny drawers from Ikea... a bargain at only £25... but then I decided I needed two! So a quick grovel to hubby to ask for an early Christmas gift, and the decision was made. I left home at 6.15 one dark Saturday evening and made the 40 mile round trip to the nearest Ikea... getting home at around 9.30..not bad I thought considering I'd been stuck in a traffic jam through the Dartford tunnel for almost  an hour! Only problem was, despite Ikea saying they were in stock, they weren't! So I ordered them to be delivered a few days later... which they duly did... BUT in flat pack form.. anyone who knows me knows that I don't DO flat pack so I had to wait a whole two days for hubby to be able to do them for me.. but they were worth the wait! My punches fill one unit completely and I can now find exactly what I need when I need it. Here is the inside of one of the six drawers..only problem is if I buy any more punches they won't fit! But I guess 6 drawers of punches might be enough! lol

The second filing cabinet houses buttons ( a whole drawers of them! In 'business card' boxes and colour co-ordinated, inks, adhesives (two drawers) wooden stamps etc. The other small white plastic cabinet holds all my clear stamps and some tools, glue guns, staplers etc.  I have managed to label all of the drawers but my Dymo labeller cartridge has run out so I've resorted to a good old fashioned pen for most things until my new cartridge arrives. 

This, of course, meant a complete re-organisation of my space.. I can't really call it a 'room' as it is such an awkward little place with steps up a small ladder and a squeeze between two beams to get into it! See the picture to the right

But once I'm in there I have good, if somewhat awkward space to work in with a large desk right under the window which gives me good light to work in. 

Above the desk I have a small shelf that I have managed to fit a lot of storage boxes on and this makes it really handy when I 'must' have something specific for my LO's. 

Added to which to my right I have these multi-coloured storage boxes with small embellishments in, brads, bows, charms etc, and I have two hanging pocket organisers where I stuff all manner of other packets of embellishments, flowers, ribbon etc. 

You can also see here the new carousel desk organiser that my DS2 bought me for Christmas..bless him.. the boy did good! I haven't got around to filling it all up yet..but I'm sure I will! 

The small cupboard (beneath the light) is an added bonus, because although I have to get down on my hands and knees to get in there, it is a great place to store my rolling totes and bags. To the right and left of the bags etc I have all my papers stored in 'bins' that I found at Staples that take 12" papers perfectly.. like the ones below on the bottom right hand side. 

They don't sell them anymore, but I bought about eight and they store my kit collections in their plastic bags perfectly. To the left hand side of these two 'bins' (that I keep accessible for ones I'm currently using), is a small rattan drawer unit that I keep a lot of 8" papers in with their offcuts. I keep my Big Shot in the black plastic crate on top of that with my long plates and dies. I got it from the greengrocer and it fits perfectly so I can take it off there and use on my desk or downstairs if the mood takes me.  All the shelves behind are for stuff I don't use too much because it is difficult to access as there is a large beam in there, which is perfect to smack your head on! In the boxes on the shelves are mainly blank card packs, toppers, pens, photos etc. I don't do a lot of card making, mainly scrapping, so I keep that stuff back there.  

THE OFFENDING BEAM!

THE PLASTIC 'BINS' WITH MY CURRENT KITS IN ON THE FLOOR

On my Expedit bookcase behind my desk, I also store two small totes, one I sit on a lazy susan and one that is a carousel that I keep a lot of regularly used pens, tools, pearl pens etc in. Because I have a swivel chair, I can just turn and the top of the bookcase is like an extension to my desk and I can grab things from there as I need them. There is also a filing rack on the top and I keep current issues of magazines and larger offcuts of scrap paper, A4 paper etc. I am quite ruthless at using (or losing) offcuts, so I don't have a huge mountain of it anywhere like some people I've seen on other blogs! (I'm glad to say)

In the bookcase itself is card stock, ribbons, tools, more card making stuff (the stuff I use more regularly) and an assortment of other 'must keep' items (!) The unit used to be an eight cube Expedit, but that wouldn't fit into my space so dearest hubby cut it down to make it a 6 cube one and I am using the off cut of the discarded 2 cube frame as a shelf to store the rattan drawers etc. Beneath the shelf is tissue paper, my Making Memories Slice, laminator and pouches etc. and my embossing folder file.

To the right of my paper storage 'bins' is an old CD rack that DH made years ago and since we no longer need to keep CD's (they're all on iPlayers now) I nabbed the CD rack to go in there. I then discovered that that Bold washing liquitab boxes fit perfectly on the shelves and so I have filled many of them up with hand made flowers, journalling pads, tags etc and above that I have used those cheap 'chinese take-away' type storage boxes for small offcuts of coloured card.. I bought them from the pound shop where you can get 8 for a pound!  I do love a bargain! They easily take lots of little pieces of card that is organised by colour so I can just grab a box when I need a heart or star (or similar) punched to match a LO perfectly. Beside it I have a small tote that I use when I go to a fortnightly two hour crafting session I attend. It is just the right size! It is a narrow space, as you can hopefully work out here, but it works-  after a fashion! 

Also in various nooks and crannies I have things tucked away in small spaces, like all my embossing stuff, and of course my dies, which I keep on magnetic strips above the door into the cupboard that I keep my rolling totes in. I have two strips at present, I bought the magnetic strips on a roll that is adhesive on one side, so I stuck it to the wall and stuck the metal dies to the magnets, keeping them all easy to see at a glance. I don't do a lot of die cutting, but I'm just getting into it a bit more, so I can't see this system lasting too long as I don't have any more spare wall space to put more. I already have an overflow but I appreciate that my collection is TINY compared to most... but my passion is paper and embellishments not really dies. So I'll address that one when the need arises.. probably next week the way the sales are beckoning me at the moment! He he he. 

I've just popped on to UKS and I have been reading a thread there started by Sue (aka Mini owner).. where she admitted she has 96 rolls of washi tape! Someone else owns 830 pens (!) and many of us have owned up to being craft stash hoarders! With all that in mind I think my collection is very restrained but as I have so little room for much else I don't think I'll get too carried away. 

Finally all that is left to say is HAPPY NEW YEAR.. may 2014 bring you all that you are wishing for. 

Phew.. that's it! Hope you haven't fallen asleep yet!