I started well. Really, I did. Carefully bringing items down from the bedroom I was converting for one of the little guys to the new, bigger space that is my art studio and office suite. Then, I ran out of time and ended up with a jumble of stuff that never got sorted. Add the mixed media artist’s, “Ooohhh, that piece of cardboard/tea bag packet/scrap of metal mesh would be perfect for something!” way of thinking, stir in five or six kids dropping in to make art journals and crafts on a regular basis and the result is one big, “Yikes!” So, I’m sorting out one category at a time. I’ve got a pitch bag, a donate bag and an organizational system.

First up, since there are a lot of people asking about scrapping and some of them want to do a summer class, is the scrapbooking stickers and rub-on category. I’ve tried organizing them a lot of different ways over the years and I think I finally have a method that works. I got a portable hanging file box and put the hanging files in it. Then, I got some folders and glued envelopes to one side of them to create little pockets for those little stickers and bits that always seem to be left over from big sheets. I labeled each folder with a category, put the sheets of stickers for that category in the folder, stuck any little bits in the envelope in the folder and put the folder into a hanging file.

Then, I switched folders around til they made sense. I have the holiday stickers in order by months of the year and then other stickers, like sports and school, set up behind those folders in ABC order. Finding the perfect sticker to complete a page will be really simple for anyone scrapping and I can find the rub-ons (which I tend to use a lot more for mixed media than stickers) really fast, too.

One down, a zillion to go.