Day 244 - Back to Reality... the amount of paper

It's been a long time since I posted 24 days - almost a month. Where have a been? Running with the running club again. Card making. And shopping. Just small shopping. $10 here. $20 there. With happy on clearance, on sale items. But they make me happy and I use them right away.
I now have a "bucket" that I put my new things in so I can see them and use them right away. This system is working well. Especially with cards. It gives me fresh ideas.

This past weekend I took Friday off and reorganized my room. I wanted to re-do the wall because I had run out of room for my 12x12 albums. I have a stack of pages (about 20 inches high) that need to go into their albums. Unfortunately, the line of albums currently on the shelf take up the ENTIRE shelf. Not including the 4 12 x12 albums in the living room.

Tony and I talked and we were going to try to jam yet one more book case in the corner of the dining room next to the piano. We are already tight for space there. With odds and ends stacked on the dining room table and the piano. And two boxes of miscellaneous items from his parents house. More stuff in that area would just make the entire floor collapses downstairs on the neighbors.

I thought if I could clear the top of my paper wall and get rid of the paper racks, I'd have room in the room where they belong. This stuff has to remain harassed, or it will "grow" in every room of the house. I've seen it. And yes, including bathrooms.

Thursday night from 7-10 I worked on it. I took before pictures.

I started to put like items together. Stamps with stamps. Flowers with flowers. Going through page kit after page kit and either keeping it, or in post cases breaking down the paper, stickers, brads and putting them where they belong. This process is long. The stack of projects is high and you think you will never make it through the stack. But I just focused on one packet at a time. Don't worry about the stack, just grab the next packet in your hand and put things away. Then the next one. Then the next.

With the garbage can over flowing from plastic containers, bits of scrap paper, and a couple of page layouts too ugly to even donated, I called it a night.

Friday morning, 5am, with coffee brewed and steaming hot I headed in for the day. This was THE day that I devoted to the project. No weekend chores, no where to go. So I started with my pattern paper wall.  3 racks, 20 sections each. One section at a time.
I'd go through each paper. Do I like it? Does it make me happy? Would I be happy to work with it. If the answer was yes - it was a keep and it went into the "vertical Cropper Hoppers" each having a designated color. If "no", it went into the donate box.

It took me 8 vertical cropper hoppers, (each holds 400 sheets of paper), plus multiple plastic paper holds to house what I'm estimating to be, approximately 4000 sheets of pattern paper. I had 4 of the cropper hoppers. I had to run to Joann Fabrics to get 4 more. And wouldn't you know it, this was the week the organizers WERE NOT on sale. Didn't care I wanted, and needed them to complete this project.

With all my cardstock now housed in one two drawer file cabinet; sorted by color, scraps first, then 8.5 x 11 paper directly behind it.
12 x 12 sorted by color in the second drawer.

All pattern paper is in vertical organizers and they slide out like record albums use to you. (You remember those... big plastic disks with music on them that didn't require a computer to play the music.) And room for my card paper ( 8x8 or smaller), and plenty of room for albums. I ordered up more white cubes from Target (free delivery) to put the rest of my 12 x12s in. I do have room to grow.
The new cubes will go on the top of the unit.. up to the little shelf. (It will hide the cords.)

And my rolling cart... that has all the supplies for my cards I'm always reaching for...black cardstock. Large sheets of punch out items.. brackets, swirls, tabs, file tabs, flowers, etc. All little items to be used on cards. Plus I an store card projects in there.

I worked on the room from 5am until 9pm. That was a full day! And well worth it. I feel the room is more "open" and certainly cleaner and more organized.

Which this process again reminds me of how much stuff I have!!! OMG! Amazing. I need a rider to our insurance policy in case of a fire!
When I did go to Michaels this week to use by 40% coupon and checked out their amazing clearance section - I looked at the pattern paper. And turned and walked away from it. No more "stacks" for me. (Which I tore them all apart and organized by color.) If I buy
any more pattern paper... which there won't be much.... it's one sheet at a time. No more 40 plus packs. In fact, with my stamps, I'm more interested in "designing" my own pattern paper. I'm trying that on a cruise layout tonight.

I did love the hours I spent in my studio. I'm so grateful to have the space and the time to enjoy it. It was like being on vacation.
To me... it's one of the happiest place on Earth. :)  Full of color and memories.