How to Organize Scrapbooking Materials

If you love scrapbooking then you probably have an enormous amount of supplies. If you’re a new scrapbook fanatic, then you’re probably excited and buying all of the supplies you can get your hands on just in case you need it in the future. The cute factor attributed to most materials used for scrapbooking means that many people have more stuff than they know what to do with, and not the best organizational system to keep it all together.

Before you buy the next album or piece of paper, you need to plan and implement an organizational system. This not only keeps everything you need neat and organized, but it keeps you from eventually going crazy from all of the clutter and just washing your hands of the whole hobby.

Take an Inventory

Before you purchase a large scrapbooking filing system, you need to take inventory of your supplies. There are elaborate setups designed for this hobby, but they can take up a lot of space and may not be in your current budget. There are simpler methods that are more cost efficient and don’t require you to build on a room in your house in order to accommodate anything.

Figure out which supplies cause you the most clutter. Do you collect pretty papers or have scraps of cut up paper everywhere? Are there shoeboxes full of trinkets, brads, photo stickers, and other small odds and ends? Do you save every photograph on the chance that you’ll use it in one of your scrapbooks? No matter which supply you seem to stockpile, there is a way to organize it.

Set Aside Time to Organize

Once you’ve taken an inventory of your supplies, you need to schedule a day to get it all organized. If you try to do it in bits and pieces, you’ll end up with stuff everywhere and your frustration level will rise because it will seem like a never ending project. Start by setting out the items you purchased to store your supplies in. This can be a file cabinet, a custom scrapbooking shelf and cabinet system, or a simple file box.

Begin organizing your items by type. Put paper with paper, stickers with stickers and so forth. Begin putting the items away and labeling everything. You may choose to put holiday papers and decorations in one place, photo stickers and glue in another, and scissors and other cutting implements in another place. Just make sure to create a label for each thing so you know where stuff is until it becomes a habit and you remember where you store each piece.

Keep It Clean

Do not let your organized area become a mess. Always try to return everything promptly and put things back in the right place. You can have the fanciest organized system in the world, but if you fail to actually put the stuff back you’ll still have clutter and scrapbooking materials everywhere. Remember that the more organized you are, the more you will enjoy this hobby.