Project Scrap Organization: Still Purging & another From Our Hearts Card Contribution

Someone has certainly lit a fire under my ass because I've been purging and organizing at a record rate these past two months.

I've watched enough Clean Sweep episodes that the following mantra is now my personal mantra:

If I haven't used it within the last 6 months, it's getting tossed.  I simply want minimalism and the peace and order it will bring into my life.  

 
So guess what? I started going through boxes in the garage.  Do I seriously need bank statements and receipts from 1997? Why am I storing boxes and boxes of empty photo albums, candles, xmas ornaments, linen, curtains, etc.   Yes, I just shed approximately 30 boxes of emotional and psychological weight out of my life!! 

I've come across another fabulous non-profit organization to donate to in addition to the ones I found last year. 

• Out of the Closet Thrift Stores is a nonprofit chain of thrift stores owned and operated by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), a Los Angeles-based global organization that provides medical, preventative, and educational resources for patients. AHF is the nation's largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare, research, prevention, and education provider. Out of the Closet thrift stores generate income to help fund the medical services AHF provides for those patients who are unable to pay. Proceeds from Out of the Closet Thrift Stores directly benefit AHF.

I've driven past this thrift store for literally the past year on my way to my Bikram studio when I finally had the time to pop in while waiting for car repairs a few blocks away the first week of June.

I loved the vibe of the store, the employees, and the very obvious bold positive signs promoting SAFE and HEALTHY LIFESTYLE PRACTICES.  The fact that they help the community, i.e. those people who cannot afford basic medical care or preventative medicine, with information, products and healthcare really pulled my heartstrings.  These are the kinds of charity organizations I've always supported my entire life.

Well, I have A LOT of great stuff, of which the proceeds, could help this organization do their thing.  So yah, I've filled my car to the brim - trunk and the entire interior - and have made 4 car trips so far.

• Disney Scrapbooking for Make a Wish Foundation 

Back Story: So many years ago, I, along with a few other Peas saw Sheri A's (zooreturns) amazing Disney Scrapbooks for the Make a Wish Foundation (MAW). We contributed all sorts of hand made embellishments, supplies, etc towards the making of albums for kids who's last wish was to visit Disney World.  Sadly, as is with life, life catches up with all of us and Sheri was no longer able to continue the effort.


I found another pizza box full of Disney page kits, shakers, etc that I had been saving.  My style has changed since then, so instead of it going to waste, this was the impetus for my search of yet another MAW type organization which could put these to good use.

Via a quick google search, I found a new contact, Make-A-Wish Missouri, Southern Missouri Region, that is willing to take Disney related supply/completed page/album donations:

Ashley Kennedy
Make a Wish – Regional Office So Missouri
1510 W Elfindale
Springfield, MO 65807
(417) 873-9474

Their Disney Scrapbook Wish Page


Their Organization Website


Their Facebook Page


All that purging was A LOT of work and it's been overwhelming I'll admit.  So much so that I decided I needed a break from it all and do something I enjoy.

I decided to make up as many cards as I possibly could over the long 4th of July Holiday (I took Thurs and Fri off, so it became a 5 day weekend! Whoohoo!) to donate to the effort of From Our Hearts.

Lo and behold, my final tally was 184 cards total!  I don't even know how much card stock I used up too as a result.  It just felt great!

Here's what the top filled to the brim of the large flat priority box looks like:

And underneath all of those cards were these along with 5 spools of Bazzil ribbon that are also being donated:

These were

• more found card fronts,
• personally received handmade cards from friends that I repurposed, 
• cards I made for Design Team assignments
• cards I made using  paper piecing swap embellishments, i.e. the shaker cards that I thought would be fun for kids, and 
• cards I made from finally cracking open one of my Club Scrap kits I still have (actually I won it back in 2005 at a Scrapbook Expo since I've long sold off most, if not, all of my Club Scrap kits on ebay for a killing - I still thank my lucky stars I sold those off when I did when I could garner close to $80 for each of those retired kits.)
• cards that were incomplete from various classes, i.e. most likely convention/expo, CKU, Heidi Swapp events. 

So I'm definitely sticking with the New Years' resolutions I made in 2011 that I'm still upholding.

Here's my tally of my personal donations to From Our Hearts as of this posting:

• 2012  Donations = 150 Pens & 184 Cards
• 2011 Donations = 598 Card & Card Fronts
• 2010 Donations = 751 Card & Card Fronts + 4500 Envelopes

I urge you to take a look at From Our Hearts and see if you can donate too....cards, envelopes, clear envelopes or even paypal money to help them send those boxes of greeting cards to our troops. It's a small but heartfelt way to thank our troops for their service to our country.

 

Project Scrap Organization: Go for Broke! Clean Sweep Time

Do I want to start small or go for broke?

I'm going for broke!! Yes, I'm sick of my own excesses!! I've watched enough Clean Sweep and Oprah shows to know that the best way is to take everything out of the room and start from scratch. I boxed everything up without a care of what was inside. Goal, get it out! Sort later.

Then, one evening at a time, I'll tackle as many boxes as I can to sort to put all like items together because I need to see exactly how much of everything I really do have. In the past several months, Ive been especially enthused when I discovered several opportunities to sell off my belongings at scrap yard sales at local crop gatherings, etc. This past December, I think within two crops and a few ebay sales, I grossed approximately $174? Not bad for turning junk into cash!

Here's my process:

1. Take everything out of the room by putting everything in boxes.
   
2. Sort one box at a time into the following piles:

• Keep: Put it with like items that already has a home
• Donate: Put them in designated boxes for various charities. Mail/drop off to the charity within the same week.
  
• Sell: Put them in designated boxes and devote any available down time to label and price the items for the next scrap sale opportunity.
  

This process, albeit it's just one blog posting, in actuality has taken me several months to complete. I wish I could take a week off from work to just concentrate on this. So I'm not following Wookiemouse's recommended process per se but using the method that works best for me with my time constraints. But I'd like to think I'm going for broke, just over a period of time.

Here's what the living room looks like now with everything taken out of my closets, lol. (You have no idea how embarrassed I am to share this.)


Yes, I need to get all of this stuff into ONE room. Think I can do it? I sure hope so!

NOTE: Follow along my organization journey every other Monday here on my Scrap Room Organization Page on my blog.

Project Scrap Organization: Brainstorming for the Perfect Space

So as you can see, I obviously fell off the organizational bandwagon since I first blogged about participating in Wookiemouse’s challenge waaaaay back in June of 2009. In my defense though, I’ve been purging through all of my possessions, not just scrappy stuff, like mad as if I were planning on moving out of the country. In this past year and a half, I’ve found so many wonderful non-profit organizations that would allow me to have a more direct impact towards those in need while fulfilling my own need to purge.

Clothes the Deal: They collect professional career clothing to empower women from battered shelters by providing appropriate dress so they interview for professional level positions.

Sierra Club / Adventure 16 Skid Row Hike for the Homeless: We collect and distribute warm clothing, blankets, food, tarps etc at midnight in Downtown LA to people and shelters we encounter.

From Our Hearts: They collect fully handmade cards, including card fronts that they will convert, for our troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Flip Swap: Their objective is to renew the (cell phone) equipment's life-cycle by enabling the re-use or recycling of exhausted products in order to prevent congestion of eWaste in our landfills.

Of course, I’ve given TONS away to Goodwill and libraries too in addition to participating in several successful Scrap Yard Sales which has turned my junk into cash. Wheee! To quote one of Oprah’s shows, it’s absolutely amazing to create so much (head and emotional) space by clearing out so much clutter.

So, I’m back to my crafting space now that I have more room to function in, so I'm picking up where I left off from last year.

This is what annoys me the most:

• Lack of table space – cluttered with lamp base, laptop, printer, etc. No room to really spread out papers/projects.
• Lack of floor space due to #1
• Frequently used items are not within arms reach
• Although, most items have been sorted, categorized, in identical storage and labeled, they are not housed together. They are spread out over 3 separate rooms and 2 floors of the house: all like items are not upstairs in one place with me.
  
• Not really using the Expedit for best efficiency. Out of 25 cubed spaces, I’m only using 7 of them for oft used items.
• Not enough lighting.
• Space Audit – Cluttered, no table/floor space, frequently used items are not within reach, and

So, this week, the challenge is to figure out why the areas I've previously identified are hindering your scrapping, and what to do about them.

** VERDICT ** I need to build my storage as such to achieve my goal of uncluttered space/room.

Here’s my “To Do” task list to tackle on the weekends based on the above observations:

1. Clear out all non essentials/boxes/clothes/furniture from the room/floor
2. Clear out closets and put in vertical Bonde shelving to put all cardstock, pp’s and monthly kits in there.
3. Make Expedit central area for most oft used items
4. Put all stamps in one area
5. Move in Ikea long desk
6. Determine WHAT my most frequently used items are? What items WOULD be used more if I made them more accessible?

As I envision my perfect space, what do I see?

• Everything in One Room
• Everything has a home and is in it's place
• Everything is off the floor and table top surfaces are completely clear

In Summary, I need it to be functional for myself, all in one place, and less frustrating for the whole family.

I've put a lot of thought into how I create and my creating process.

• I work best in an L shaped set up with the return to my right since I'm right handed. (I know this since my desk in the office is an L shape with the return to the left and it drives me crazy!! It's funny because I have two office chairs to my right which are serving as desks to hold my files / papers.) Then, behind me, I'd prefer for my Expedit Unit and my closet to form yet another L shape, so that when the two pieces are "put together," I'll have a perfectly square unit with all my oft used items within reach.
  

As much as I'd like to leave budget and space constraints out of this, I've mulled over my wants and constraints for several weeks. Here are my conclusions:

• Perform an organization tote/furniture inventory
• Determine which organization furniture to retire
• Audit every single cube / drawer to see what’s in each one. Declutter it.

My Most Often Used Items:

• Big Shot and accessories
• Dies (Sizzix, QK, SB, etc) & Embossing Folders & 6x6 Books ------I need a Die Station!
• Punches – I like them in Iris Carts – no dust!
• Laptop
• Photo Printer, Photo Paper and Plug
• Alpha Stickers – especially Thickers, Tiny MM alphas & Glitter Stickers – these can go underneath my desk in the metal Container Store rolling boxes? I should have two.
• Stamping stuff – inks, Stamping Acrylic Blocks, Baby Wipes
• Journaling spots/Bling
• Flowers (2 cubes)
• Glitter/Buttons
• Albums /Completed Page Storage
  

Items I'd use if they were MORE ACCESSIBLE:

• My Printer
  
• Cricut Machine
• Sewing Machine
• Patterned paper if it was more accessible
• Chipboard Letters and anything else that’s on top of the dresser that hasn’t been within reach
• All loose wood stamps need to be together one a book shelf.
• Patterned Paper, Cardstock, Class and Monthly Kits

Yep, this process is sooooo darn overwhelming!!! Here's a picture of my half cleaned out closet on it's way to being transformed into having IKEA Bonde shelves installed. :)

I agree with Wookiemouse's next step which is to empty out the entire room in order to 1) further sort by 2) touching each item one time 3) to put them in their final homes, etc.

NOTE: Follow along my organization journey every other Monday here on my Scrap Room Organization Page on my blog.

Project Scrap Organization: I'm an admitted Slob ... Gotta Get More Organized

Ok...

... I'm stepping over piles of stuff again.
... I'm shimmying in between thigh high piles of stuff and furniture
... I can't scoot my chair all the way back or near my Expedit shelf or my closet behind me
... I can't find my QK banner die
... I can't find my SU scripty small sentiments that would have been amazing on a few past cards
... My flowers are in disarray and now other embellishments are slowly creeping into one of my main flower baskets.
... I'm lacking table space again. Why am I scrapping on just a teeny tiny corner of the table?
... I can't move when I'm sitting without knocking something over

Yeah, I'm a slob and its totally affecting my energy, my mojo, and my ability to function. Its time to get organized!

I just found one of the most amazing organizational challenges over at 2peas hosted by Wookiemouse. Check out her organizational challenge blog and I think you'll agree with me, that this chick has got it together. Wookiemouse, are you a professional organizer? You make alot of sense, and I'm on board!

So, first up, is to do a Space Audit.

Here's what works for me:

* Everything is generally well organized, meaning ALL like things are together in one container or general area. But it hasn't been maintained well due to lack of "housekeeping" in putting things back when I've used them.

Here are examples of what works well for me. Here are my journalling spots all filed neatly by Mfg, type and then by color in one of those half baskets from Ikea. Two of these half baskets fit perfectly into one of the cubes of my expedit.

Here's what it normally looks like with the bigger sheets of journalling spots that don't fit standing on its side in the basket, just laying on top, so they don't get crushed when the baskets are stacked on top of each other.

Here are all my bling, filed in the same manner that my journalling spots are stored. All flat packaging are filed by mfg, then by design type, then by color. Anything in larger containers that cannot be stored flat are on the side or on top. (lol, this is what prevents me from buying even more bling. I think I have enough to keep me going for a few lifetimes. This baby is packed pretty tight!)

And when these two half baskets are stacked on top of each other in one of the Expedit cubes spaces, this is what it looks like. I have it at arms reach to the right of me when I'm sitting down at my card table. Thankfully, these two baskets are always neat and organized. I love that its really easy to take with me to crops too. The contents are so tightly packed that nothing rarely ever falls out when in transit.

I've resigned to accepting these baskets as my FINAL storage solutions for my bling and journalling spots. That way, I don't buy anymore. I don't want to constantly be moving "up."

Other items that I like and work well for me: (as I spent hours in the past couple of years getting it like this.) I can post pictures of these items in a future posting.

* My stamps and inks are stored well in one place. Mounted are in Sterelite drawers or in Target document like boxes. Unmounted are all in CD cases in revolving CD tower or in Target document like boxes. Everything is labeled.
* My punches are all stored by type in Sterelite plastic drawers in the closet behind me.
* My chipboard alphas and shapes are all organized and stored in Ikea Fira drawers and in Ikea baskets in my Expedit.
* My alpha stickers are all stored in CH Sticker holders by Mfg (like all my Thickers are together), and some by theme (i.e. Romance), and some by type (all my glitter stickers regardless of mfg are together).
* All my dies are stored together. All Sizzix dies are in Target cubes (the 4 drawer unit), all my smaller dies are in utensil plastic holders inside the 3 drawer Sterelite units. My Revolution, Cookie Cutters and Spellbinders are all in QK Books and QK Magnetic Holders. I still have yet to label the latter.
* All my tools are stored in sterelite 3 drawer units and labeled. My oft used tools are sitting on my desk in my AMM tool tote on a plastic lazy susan. Both are portable when I want to attend a crop.
* All my embellishments (i.e. brads/eyelets, ribbons, glitter/stickles) are all in their respective Artbin type containers.
* All my flowers are sorted by color in embroidery floss containers, and the bigger blossoms are stored in a large glass cookie jar and/or cloth basket that fits into one of the Expedit cube spaces.
* All my rubons are also in either small containers or CH Sticker Holders by mfg type.
* All my cardstock is sorted by color and stored in CH Vertical Paper Holders
* All my patterned papers are sorted by mfg, then by line, in CH Vertical Paper Holders (the smaller thinner ones).
* All my unused class kits and monthly club kits are stored together, and in a large box. I keep all kits intact so that I can use them more efficiently. I reach here first before going into my general stash.

Here's what DOESN'T work for me:

* I scrap in my bedroom, so I only have half the space of the room. Therefore, I really need to make use of all the vertical wall space for organization, and thus have resorted to the 25 cubed Expedit shelf. I have alot stored in this unit.

From what I can see, I only regularly access the contents of 7 of the 25 cubes. Thankfully, those 7 cubes that I do access are all located within reach when I'm seated. So I really need to move the contents of the remaining 18 cubes into the closet or some place else, and move other items in that I've got in other rooms of the house.

* Table space is limited to a card table. I use this instead of a full 6 foot Ikea desk I got so that I have the option of putting it away when I'm not scrapping so that I'm not always living around my desk in my bedroom.

Due to the lack of table and night stand space, I sure can clutter up the surfaces really quickly so that I'm always scrapping around moisturizers, mail, etc. I don't have space for Ott light, my cricut machine (so it rarely gets used), my portable printer, my Big Shot machine. These are my most often used large items that I don't have a permanent space for, which is problematic.

* Dies and Cuttlebug embossing folders are clear across the room in the opposite end. I have to climb over furniture, etc to get to it, so I often do not use them. However, being on DT's and having assignments to complete, I then have all these drawers full of my die tools out of the drawers and sitting on my limited table space and or on the floor around me. That's what contributes to the table and floor clutter.

* I haven't been good with housekeeping of returning items back to their designated storage place once I'm done using them. Further contribution to the overall clutter.

Ok, this is embarrassing, but I'm going to post pictures of both my desk and my Expedit shelf with all the table and floor clutter.

So there you have it. My space needs assessment. I think I have some thinking to do obviously after I tidy up. Looking forward to the next weekly challenge assignment over on the Organizational Challenge Blog.

NOTE: Follow along my organization journey here on my Scrap Room Organization Page on my blog.