These are 5 of my favorite things…

I thought it was about time to take all those great products that I use for organizing in my craft room and narrow down a list of those items I reach for over and over again. This is not the high level organization such as what drawers, furniture or cubbies to use in your craft room, but rather that extra level of organization that comes when you make yourself familiar with all of your craft stash. And isn’t that what we ultimately want? A way to know what we have, so we can USE what we have! Now, I know there is a lot to be said about retail therapy, but it is ALSO fun to find a place to put all the goodies you “haul” home. To see these items up close, you can watch my video here. These are not sponsored or affiliate links, but just items I really love.

label it all

First up are the Avery ultra tabs. Not only are they great for making tabs in notebooks, bullet journals and planners, they are great to use as dividers to organize different craft supplies. Just add them to a piece of cardstock and you have a divider, in exactly the size you need. You can place the tab wherever you want, and they are removable and reusable. An added bonus is to punch them for the style of planner you use and voila! You can add anything to you planner or journal your heart desires, such as photos, artwork, business cards, or envelopes. Make sure you have a punch on hand that works with your style of planner and you are good to go.

Separate it Out

Another product that I have found so much use for are the 12x12 “record” cover sleeves. These are the perfect size for holding 12x12 paper collections and 12x12 cardstock. These were originally made to protect vinyl record covers, but they have taken off in the craft world for all of us who love our 12x12 paper! I have an in depth video on how I organize my paper that you can watch here. Some other fun uses for these sleeves are for storing and organizing your yearly memorabilia and creating page kits if you want to plan your album pages or you are a scrapper on the go. Just make sure you get a product that is at least 3 mil thick, so it will hold up over time. For larger paper collections, I do use the Creative Memories Power Project folders ($20 for a 4-pack) which can hold a good inch stack of paper, and you can order those here.

Group your stash

Oh baseball card sleeves, what would I do without you? I use these little gems to organize so many different things in my craft room. I love breaking up embellishment packs and grouping them into all the slots so I can see all the different pieces at a glance. Then I just slip those in with the paper pack they go with (in the 12x12 sleeve) and everything is so neat and tidy. These sleeves are also great for organizing your sizzix dies, small embossing folders, and cut letters and shapes. They are perfect for organizing planner stickers and also make up one of my favorite binders in my craft room — my punch inventory binder, and you can see a video on that here.

keep it handy

And where to put all those baseball card sleeves? Well in a favorite 3-ring binder, of course! My suggestion here would be to get at least a 1” ring binder to hold a variety of different supplies. I keep on my shelves my punch inventory binder, planner sticker binders (I have three), and some of my smaller craft supplies —all organized in binders. I also use binders to hold other necessary things I want to keep on hand such as my font list, idea sheets, and page and card sketches. You can expand this to include motivational quotes, project lists, and other craft room inventory items. I will be sharing more on this topic in a future post, so stay tuned!

box it up

Probably one of the most versatile and most used products in my craft room, the 4x6 and 5x7 photo storage boxes from Iris can house so many different supplies, there are probably too many to name! I use the smaller boxes for embellishments, ephemera, tags, bling, small wood stamps, photo paper, you name it, it’s probably in one of the 4x6 or 5x7 boxes! The large boxes that the smaller boxes come in, are perfect for storing metal dies, embossing folders, cut cardstock, and my favorite, my pictures in my photo folders (check out the free download right here). I would not trust these boxes to long term photo storage, but they are handy for so many other things that need to be kept grouped together. Then I just take my brother label maker with clear tape in it, and label everything so it can be found at a glance!

Now doesn’t that feel better? Knowing that there are ways of organizing all those different supplies in your stash? No more tossing them in baskets or bins. Let’s get organizing! I’m ready to get my hands on some of my own supplies right now…