Reorganizing Creatively

I used to scrapbook -- a lot. Ever since I moved, I don't do it much any more. That was two years ago. I've realized lately that I miss that part of my creative life, so I started thinking about why I've abandoned it for so long.

Nothing like seeing fun stuff in your favorite scrapbook store to get the creativity going.

A big part of the issue is space. Granted, in the entire time I've been scrapping I've never had a dedicated space just for my projects. I've always worked on counter tops, the floor, empty tables in corners of rooms and such. But downsizing to a studio apartment -- the smallest space I've ever inhabited -- took finding room to work to a whole new level. Since I don't have space to store all my supplies within easy reach, everything got packed into a closet. That meant pulling out a slew of bags, boxes and containers every time I wanted to work on something -- and putting it all back.

So I started thinking about how to address my space issues and came up with the idea of a rolling cart that would hold the stuff I need on every project -- stamps, ink, embellishments, cutters, punches, stencils, adhesives, etc.  If I could just get those supplies easier to access and put away, I could get my creative mojo back.

I decided this would help solve the problem.

 

I can roll it up next to the dining room table when I'm working on something, then roll it right back. Much easier than pulling all of this stuff out of the closet to find what I need.

The next piece of the challenge was getting as much of this pile as possible into the new rolling storage. It's still a work in progress even after spending a whole day working through this pile. The bad news is it won't all fit right now. The good news is the stuff that doesn't fit is consumable and will get used as I'm working through my growing list of projects. I think I'm off to the right start.

As an added bonus, going through all of those containers helped me remember how many cool tools I had I'd forgotten about, so I have a new crop of ideas in my head about what to make!

Now to reorganize all my photos so I have something to scrap...