Craft Room Challenge – Week 3 – Purging and Sorting

I can’t believe how quickly the Craft Room Challenge is flying by, and I’m so pleased with my progress.

Sorting, purging, separating, organizing, and dusting are not my favorite things, but when I  can see progress it encourages me to keep going.

Do you remember how my room looked when the Craft Room Challenged started?  Go look at my BEFORE PICTURES.

 

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking one of these links, I will receive a commission.

Meet the hosts of the Craft Room Challenge 2018.

 

 

Marie & Aleisha from The Inspiration Vault • Pam from P.S. I Love You Crafts

Yami from The Latina Next Door • Jolene from Create Pray Love

Habiba from Craftify My Love • Lyne from The Paper Addict

Megan from C’Mon Get Crafty • Erlene from My Pinterventures

Shirley from Intelligent Domestications • Valerie from Val Event Gal

Michelle from Our Crafty Mom

 

 

 

One of my first tasks this week was to organize my punches.  I had them stored in a plastic storage tote.  When my punch collection outgrew the tote, I put the extras in a Thirty-One utility tote bag.  Then my collection overflowed the tote bag, and it was so heavy that I could barely lift it.

I needed a better solution so that I could find punches when I wanted them.  Having them thrown into totes makes it difficult to find what you want, and the ones on bottom never get used.

 

 

My Mom’s friend sadly, has stopped making cards, and she was getting rid of this over the door shoe organizer.  She used it for her punches, and my Mom uses one too.

After going through my collection, I found many that I had forgotten about.   I took out a few that I haven’t used in years and one that was a duplicate.  I still couldn’t get all of the punches into the shoe organizer.

I have some fancy corner punches from EK Success that I haven’t used lately.  I put them in an Art Bin Tote.  If I find that I still don’t use them, then I’ll get rid of them.

 

 

I am so thankful for Marie with The Inspiration Vault for coming up with this great challenge.  It was so frustrating having a dedicated room for crafting but not being able to work in it.

You can see that my desk is cleared off again.  Yippee!!!!   I had it cleaned off for the Second Post in the Craft Room Challenge, but I needed the space to sort things.  I sit at my desk to craft, but I also plop in that comfy chair to make grocery lists, pay bills, or work on the computer.

 

 

The sort, purge, and organize process is ongoing.  I hate that I have the same things in several different places.   Like I said earlier, my punches were in two different totes.  I have stamps in four different spots, and adhesive scattered EVERYWHERE.

In Last Week’s Craft Room Challenge Post I showed you how I had cleared out the clutter on the floor, so that I would get all of my Art Bin Storage together.

I love Art Bin storage.  The boxes stack nicely, even if you don’t have the cube, but the cube makes it super convenient.

I started sorting and separating similar supplies together.  Embossing, inking, and stamping supplies are in a tote.  How many round sponge applicators does one crafter need???

An Art Bin Double Deep Super Satchel holds my ribbon, but I could barely get the lid closed.  Of course, I have more ribbon in a basket.  Then I have other Art Bin  Organizers holding rubber stamps, kids crafts, scrapbook kits, and adhesive.

I have room for at least three more deep Satchels and one narrow one, so I’ll be place an order to Amazon this week.

 

 

I used my Brother Label Maker to to maker the lids of all the totes that I have full so far.  I’m already seeing how important it is as I’m still sorting through supplies.

 

 

The unsightly filing cabinet finally has a new home.  I would really like to find it a new home, but there isn’t really another place in our house to put it.

Right now, I have my card envelope organizer on top of the filing cabinet for now, but since I have a problem with lighting, I’ll probably put a lamp up there.

 

 

I can finally get into the closet.  I haven’t been in there for years.  I know what’s in there though, and it’s nothing that I need…old varsity jacket, my grandmother’s Christmas dishes, and a few wedding mementos from 30 years ago.

My solid card stock and scrap paper organized by color are in the black totes.  After I clean out the closet, I’ll have room for the stack of games and the gift bags.

 

 

Whew!  After typing it all up, it doesn’t seem like I did much this week, but trust me, it took me a long time.   My husband was away for three days, and that gave me extra time to work on it.

 

 

Go take a look at my friends’ progress.   They are all doing great on their craft spaces and have great ideas for organizing craft supplies.