Scrapbooking Storage

Here are some ideas for great scrapbooking storage items you can buy or make yourself.

Designing Scrapbooking Storage

Before you run off to the store, though, it’s important to consider you storage needs. Ideally you would find this out by getting all your scrapbooking supplies out of the closets, bags and bookshelves where they normally hide and spreading them out on a table, the floor, or some similarly large, flat surface.

Surveying your stash, you would begin to see patterns and organize things into groups accordingly: all the paper together, all the scissors and paper punches together, all the stickers together, all the ribbons and rick-rack together and so on until you had a bunch of piles that made sense to you.

You would then consider the best way to store each group of items and buy or craft something to hold those supplies.

Since we don’t live in the “ideal” world, I imagine it would be hard for you to find a space to spread out all your scrapbooking supplies that wouldn’t be disturbed by another family member before you can get all your work done.

So instead of actually looking at all the piles of stuff, we’re going to imagine them. Get out a piece of paper (or you can do this in your head, but working on paper will ensure you don’t forget anything) and make a list of the basic kinds of scrapbooking supplies you have in your house.

Everyone’s list will be different, but it might include some or all of the following:

• paper
• scissors
• stickers
• hole punches
• markers and colored pencils
• stencils
• rubber stamps
• die cuts
• ribbon, rick-rack, buttons, etc.
• brads
• envelopes
• pictures that haven’t yet been put in scrapbooks
• adhesives
• unused scrapbooks
• gadgets like a sticker maker, embossing gun, etc.

As you make your list, think about how much of each of these items you have on hand. You might have a ton of paper, for instance, but only a few pieces of fabric and ribbon. You may have tons of markers, pencils and pastels but very few rubber stamps.

Think about what things it would make sense to store together (paper and vellum envelopes, for example, or glue and tape) and how you would like to store those items: in a box? an envelope? a basket?

Consider also which items (such as adhesives, scissors and markers) might be used for other crafts. You probably won’t want to store something you use for many different crafts in a caddy or storage unit you only pull out for scrapbooking. Perhaps you could also devise a place to store general craft supplies while you’re organizing.

Purchased Scrapbooking Storage

The market for scrapbooking storage solutions is almost as big as the market for scrapbooking supplies. It seems like there’s always a new product that is going to make our lives easier by getting everything in one place for us.

When buying scrapbooking storage, remember that your solution doesn’t have to be fancy. A few clear storage boxes of various sizes can hold most anything (clear is good because you can see what is in it). Add a paper sorter to hold papers and sticker sheets and you’ll have nearly everything under control.

Of course if you have space and money, the sky can be the limit. You can buy portable storage, binders, portfolios and specialized storage. You can even buy a ready-made crafts closet to meet all your storage needs.

For more inspiration for your scrapbooking storage, visit the following sites:

• Scrapbook Supply Store
• Stacks and Stacks
• Scrapbook.com-especially for totes
• Scrapbooking Warehouse
• Archivers Online

Homemade Scrapbooking Storage

If you want to express your crafty (and thrifty) side when designing scrapbooking storage, you can certainly do that, too. You’ll probably find all sorts of items around the house that could be used to store your scrapbooking supplies.

• Shoeboxes are a traditional cheap way of storing craft items and just about anything else. The only trouble with shoeboxes is they are not acid free, so don’t store your paper or photographs in them.
• Other boxes such as shipping boxes can be repurposed to store craft items. My paper storage box came from an online bookstore. It just happened to be the right size and shape for the larger pieces of paper, and it contains all my scraps, too.
• Use glasses or mugs to store pens, markers and pencils. This way you can always see what you have on hand and they add a little color to your work station.
• Jazz up free boxes with a little decoupage: just pick out some paper you like and glue it to the box. Put glue over the top of the paper to make it extra durable.
• Don’t forget to raid the kitchen for glass jars, which are great for storing buttons, glitter, little pieces of fabric and ribbon, brads and other decorative items. You can then store the jars in a box or a basket.
• Look around the house for items to repurpose. A letter file that was going unused in the office can turn into a great place to store paper, stickers and envelopes.