Scrap Room Organizing - Part 1

So I don't know about you but I am always SUPER interested in how people organise their scrappy stash! Part of the reason I LOVE this hobby is the organising aspect involved in it! I live in Central London so that in itself is not very conducive to scrapbooking due to the lack of space. Add 3 kids with a lot of toys to that and well you get the picture. My saving grace is that my husband is a all-my-stuff-I - have- ever-owned-fits-in - a- Volvo kinda guy..... So then well he does not have much space in this house apart from his wardrobe! We need to move!

I took loads of pictures of my scrappy area (what used to be the dining room) to add here in the next few days. I have most of my stuff in the dining room which is also where my kids do their arts and crafts stuff. However I keep my essentials in the living room as I scrap in there in the evenings. My husband watches TV and I scrap away. That way I don't feel lonely closed off in a room and he gets my company. If I had to scrap in a room I would not get anything done!

I have been scrapping for about 18 months now and boy have I got stuff! I have been busy these past 18 months..... I am now trying to consolidate my stuff and not buy so much. Using stash is my motto this year

This bit is the dining room - one side of it. I recently purchased these drawers from Lakeland as storage and they are great! I can't recommend them enough. I use these to store my stamps - by category (journal, alphas, numbers, flora, fauna, words etc...), stamp pad, embossing, ink, distress etc.... The furniture on the right I will get into greater detail of how I organise that it holds my A4 stamps, pictures and chipboard

The bit below stands in the living room. I had my alphabet stickers in this large chest but that was not working and I decided I needed them to be sorted out by colour. I am so loving this now and it makes choosing the titles a breeze. I am waiting for 3 more boxes to come through as I have a super load of pink alphas and I have underestimated how many drawers I was going to need. I found that by orgazining my stuff better I also have a better idea of what I have and then I don't go off and by more stuff. Like I know now I don't need to buy pink alphabet stickers for quite awhile!

This stands in the living room. This is what I use most often. When I need to scrap I take the boxes from the top and use that as scrapping desk. The boxes there hold a mixture of tools, tags, pens, tapes etc.... i will get in greater detail on it on another post. The boxes below hold all my stuff - stickers, ribbon, embellishments, felt etc... organised by colour. I however have not included my buttons as these are kept separate

This is the other side of the dining room wall. Some of the stuff on those shelves are my kids arts and crafts stuff. I organise my paper and embellishments by theme, kits (from the manufacturer or from kit clubs) and what is left over I organise by colour. At the very top are all my stash which is organised by theme. SO you have got baby, travel, halloween, tons for christmas, summer,spring, garden, fall, food/cooking, boy, water/swimming, zoo/animals, pets, japan, etc.... I don't tend to scrap by theme but I like to have the themed stuff separate so that it does not get me confused! Here is a little peek into my scrappy heaven. I will add more details in further posts. If you have blogged about your scrappy room/area leave a link as I would love to look at it!!!