Storage Solutions

The end of the year always makes me feel like cleaning and organizing (so something  will be clutter-free when the new year starts :o) In all my re-org endeavors, I've been trying to make my craft room "green" and reuse what I can.  One of the things I am short on is organization stuff.  I don't want to use too much of my work bench as I tend to sprawl when I stamp, but I don't have a lot of available wall space for shelves either.  Plus I have a couple of left over book cases from a redeco of a few years ago, so I want to use those.

When I go my last PTI order, I actually ran out of storage space for my stamp set CD cases.  I thought I would never run out because they were so small and compact, but I did.  So got a new storage system to sit behind my sideways book case that stores all my card stock.

(The ribbon is a ribbon board I made on the back of my book case to display my faves - see green :o)

This storage unit I picked up a W-mart for about $10.  It's sturdy enough to do the trick plus it fits the CD cases from PTI as well as the DVD sized cases for the SU! clear mount stamps debuting in January.  I can always dress it up with some white rub ons so it looks like a stamp garden ;o)

Another thing I seem to acquire a lot of is punches, and those can be hard to store.  I  found that inexpensive curtain rods will store them on a section of wall next to my basement storage room/cave.  They are just far enough from the wall to allow the punch handle to slide in behind (even the smallest ones).  I was concerned about my storage system when SU! announced they were changing their punch style, but the new ones fit in just fine (see them there on the lower left ... )

But what to do with my old CD case storage.  I stumbled upon a great idea this morning.  See down there in the bottom right corner of the punch picture ... CD storage rack filled with .... patterned paper.

I took the pads of PTI paper and also my mini-decks from Cosmo Cricket and slid them in.  A couple are fairly new so still prettty full and they fit perfectly. 

Its great because it's green, but also because now I don't have to sort through the whole stack to find what I want ( I even found a pad I forgotten that I bought .... will have to start using that one again too love black & white :o)

Have a happy day!