For me, this is the really fun part about organizing – organizational products! I love all the wonderful products out there created just for the purpose of organizing. And probably just as much, I love to repurpose items from around the house to organize my supplies. Let’s take a look at some of the options that are out there, or perhaps right there – already in your home!
When selecting organizational products it is best to think about your own taste as well as how you work. Do you like your products to be visible and easily accessed? If so, you might want to consider clear containers or open baskets. If you prefer your supplies to be tucked away, out of sight for a neater, streamlined appearance, you might consider drawer units, cupboards, and solid boxes.
Store on Display
Try these organizational products to store your supplies out in the open.
Consider using a rail and container unit – designed for kitchen use – above your desk to organize scrap supplies as Mou Saha does.
Simply hang supplies on a coat rack for both a fun and stylish way to organize product.
Wall hooks and clip rings perfectly store ribbon and packaged items, and there are so many types of hooks to choose from. Try a decorative hook, multi-hook, or single hooks lined up in a row. Hang them anywhere: walls, side of a bookshelf, end of your desk – wherever is most convenient for the way you work.
Ribbon spools look beautiful and are easily contained on a paper towel holder.
Spinning racks, such as the Clip It Up, are perfect for so many different types of supplies. I use mine to hold letter stickers and rub-ons.
Carousels are great for organizing so many things. I use a Making Memories carousel to organize some of my smaller embellishments that I like to keep close at hand.
I love to use open baskets to organize supplies – chipboard, stickers, rub-ons, etc. each have their own basket. Baskets offer a big open area for holding your supplies and they are portable, allowing you to take your basket of supplies right to your project.
Keep a long bread basket right where you create for frequently used supplies, such as adhesive.
Nicole Harper keeps all of her “go-to” products in this cool multi-tiered tray from Pottery Barn right next to her work surface. A multi-tiered basket, found in the kitchen aisle would work great too.
A vintage tool box perfectly houses Nicole Harper’s spray ink and could be filled with all sorts of different supplies.
Organize supplies in trays placed on shelves. The trays are portable and can be brought right over to your project.
Clear, lidded jars are perfect for storing items that you want to keep visible and dust free. Megan Hoeppner uses these cute little glass jars for her itty bitty supplies such as brads and buttons.
Wall mount shelving units are a great way to utilize wall space to store your supplies. Laura Vegas uses this shelf to store her paint.
Create your own tray type shelves using sections of rain gutters. Have your local home-improvement store cut the gutters to size and simply cap the ends and mount them on your wall.
Paper trays store your paper flat, which prevents warping or curling, and there are many styles of 12 x 12 paper trays available. Laura Vegas organizes her cardstock using clear paper trays.
Repurpose an old soup or coffee can for holding supplies, like this pencil cup my daughter made for me. These could hold buttons, brads, beads, etc. Decorate yours to coordinate with the décor of your creative space.
Try mini buckets for mini supplies like brads, eyelets, beads and such.
Small embellishments can be easily organized in magnetic spice canisters. I keep mine on a magnetic blackboard above my desk.
Store Tucked Away
Try these organizational products to store your supplies out of sight.
Closets are a great place for scrap supply storage. Why not put all those great closet organizing products to use! This multi-tiered pants hanger is perfect for holding ribbon spools.
Store page kits in plastic zipper bags and hang them from trouser hangers.
Add clip rings or curtain hooks to a towel bar or a simple curtain wire, to organize ribbon, stickers and much more.
Small wooden drawer units meant for use in garden sheds work great for organizing markers as well as small embellishments. Plus you can pull out the drawers to take right to your project.
Digi scrapper Joey Manwarren uses this sleek workbench to organize her traditional supplies, and keeps tabs on what’s in each drawer with magnetic labels.
Customize drawers with individual drawer liners, to organize all sorts of supplies. These long clear liners were really made for organizing silverware, but they work perfectly for border strips too! Remember to measure the inside of your drawer before heading to the store. It also helps to take a tape measure to the store as the containers may not have the dimensions marked on them.
I’ve lined a basket with canning jars to hold my flowers, organized by color. I store another basket on top of this one which acts as a lid over the flowers keeping the dust away.
Try organizing patterned paper in hanging paper files as Megan Hoeppner does. These files would also work well for stickers, rubons, and other non-dimensional supplies.
Vertical files are also a great way to store patterned paper and cardstock.
3-ring binders filled with pocket sleeves make organizing smaller embellishments a synch. Plus they are very easy to transport wherever you want to scrap. It’s easy to organize your embellishments by color or theme with 3-ring binders.
Now that we’ve looked at some specific products to organize your supplies, let’s take a look at some creative spaces for more organizing inspiration!
Megan Hoeppner’s creative space.
Laura Vegas’ creative space. You can see even more of Laura’s space on her blog.
Mou Saha’s creative space. Check out this video tour of Mou’s space for even more inspiration.
Mandy Douglass’ creative space. Mandy also has a video tour of her space.
Nicole Harper’s creative space. You can see even more on Nicole’s blog.
My own creative space, which you can see more of on my blog.
As you can see, there are so many creative ways to organize and contain your supplies. Check your kitchen, garage, and garden shed for containers that you can repurpose for your scrap supplies. If you’re shopping for new, make sure you check the kitchen, bath, garden, and tool aisles for useful containers.
We’d love to hear how you organize your supplies too! Let us know in the comments for your chance to win a copy of The Organized & Inspired Scrapbooker, a Creating Keepsakes Embrace Your Space Hanging Embellishment Tote, or a set of Creating Keepsakes Hanging Craft Small Storage Drawers!
-Cindy Tobey, contributing writer
P.S. Give yourself permission to let go of things that you really won’t use and free up some room, both physically and mentally, to focus on the things that really get you excited to scrapbook! Decide which products to keep, and which products to let go of, by taking the product organization quiz on Club CK!
Hi CK peeps, I’m Michelle from Singapore. I’m just starting to purge my scrapbook supplies. “Out of sight = Out of mind”.
To be honest, I don’t have any proper corner for scraping at home yet. I usually store my supplies on a low tv console shelf. All the scraping papers are in two big 12×12 folders, die cut and embossing tools, ribbons, buttons & other miscellaneous items in separate transparent boxes.
Sometimes my hubby will join me for scrapping. We scrap on our Queen-size bed with a wastepaper basket beside us then tidy up by returning all the stuffs back to the shelf.
Have bought a simple 40 pockets (A4) folder for storing all the Alphabets & miscellaneous stickers in each individual pocket. I can simply flip and make my selection of stickers….We will make it a point to mix & match and utilize those remaining alphabets first before opening a fresh sheet of stickers.
Also bought another 80 pockets (postcard size) folder to sort and store each meaningful vellum cut out or magazine phrases accordingly to different categories eg. Love, Family, Friends, Vacation, Pets, Wedding, Babies etc. This also made selection a breeze.
Hope to have a room for scraping, board games, leisure in our future new house.
Have fun scraping, guys!
Hello – could you please tell me where I could buy the 3-ring binder “pocket sleeves” you feature mid-way down in your article? I am specifically looking for a binder insert with several zipper (ziploc) pockets just like the one the photo you features (I think that’s what I’m seeing, right?), but can’t find them anywhere. Thanks!
One of the greatest finds for me was using one of the over the door organizers from a storage solutions store. It is meant for small items like jewelry, socks etc. so all my small supplies fit great. The pockets are transparent so I can see everything at a glance and it can go on the inside of the closet door when I am done for the way, so it looks tidy. I love the big bright rooms in your article – wish I had a large room like that. Some of the storage ideas were outstanding – will go and buy some more caddies, the one I have is excellent but insufficient. Hope to win – I can use a lot of help in the storage area…
This is seriously crafters porn!
I have a wall unit that looks pretty next to a closet that is a hotmess! I keep the unit clean but it’s hard to maintain!
I’ve read some good stuff here. Definitely value bookmarking for revisiting. I surprise how much effort you put to make such a great informative site.
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Love the idea of the pants hanger for the ribbon. Can you tell me where to get a pants hanger like that?
Debbie,
I found the pants hanger used to store ribbon at Target. I think it was $5 or $6 dollars. I hung my ribbon on it tonight, a great idea! Way better than the box I had them all thrown in.
I love using tackle boxes, small tool boxes, and clear craft stackable storage boxes. I have limited space and these boxes can be tucked in anywhere.
I am in the process of getting rid of a lot of supplies that I don’t use. (I have sooooo much.) I think it will be easier to reorganize when I have less. In the meantime, here is a link to my blog post about my studio as it is organized now: http://lisascreativecorner.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-craft-studio-h2h-challenge.html
I plan to make a few changes after seeing all of the great ideas posted here. *Ü*
wonderful ideas for storage of crafts
I love using the over-the door shoe pockets for storage. Also, the little 3-tier rolling carts are great for stuff that you can keep portable. Thanks for the opportunity.
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Hi my family member! I wish to say that this article is amazing, nice written and include almost all vital infos. I’d like to see more posts like this .
I have a 6 foot wire rod hanging by cup hooks on my wall. I store my ribbon and
other small embellishments in clear plastic bags, punch holes in the top & hang these with ornament hooks from the rod. I keep them sorted by color.
Where can I find the wooden drawers on this page? it says there for garden sheds.
I love the basket idea. Baskets are the easiest way to organize and depending on the basket it can add a beautiful touch to any room. I have a few baskets made by Baskets by Vicky, that I use in my bathroom for toiletrees, for my magazines, and even in my kitchen for utencils. The website is below please check it out if you are an organizing machine like I am.
http://vickysbaskets.com/
I also love the hampers she makes.
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Michelle, the wood boxes I believe came from ikea.com
Wow! What a wealth of good storage ideas! I love the ribbon storage on the pants hanger and the ability to hide it in the closet. I’m going to make use of that idea tonight. Thanks so much for all your help.
Happy scrapping!
Jackiedancer
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I love these ideas. The ribbon spool is terrific.Hugs! Thank you for your bloggy friendship and participation at Katherines Corner xo
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Hello, I live in Mexico. I live near Texas. I’d like to know where I can buy the “organizational products to store (my) supplies out of sight”… Thanks!
I am using plastic video cases to store my word stamps in. I can easily see what is inside and have labels on the end cap to locate what I need quickly. They cost me all of 0.58 cents each at a local peddlers mall. I use a video shelf unit that has 5 shelves that hold 8 cases each. Loved a lot of the ideas posted here. Thanks.
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I was wondering where you got the vertical files for the 12×12 cardstock. I’ve been looking for something like that for my scrapbook room, but only find letter size. Please email me the source.
I need an idea of how to organize material. Any ideas?
Thanks for posting the wonderful Craft organizing AND the Beautiful Sdrapbooking rooms, .
I would like info on the clear 12×12 paper trays? a link ? Thanks so much.
My craft room is an upstairs bedroom, and the ceiling is angeled. the walls are only approximately 4′ high (if that ). I am very discouraged with this becasue my room is utterly disfunctional and i have ‘stuff’ everywhere. I don’t know where to start, so my productivitiy level is very low.
I love all the ideas above, but it does not work for me because i do not have the wall space that is featured.
Suggestions? Please!
Jen, you can find the colored vertical files here: http://www.paperwishes.com/categories/shop-by-manufacturer-148.html?browsing=293
Mae, one way to organize your fabric would be to fold it and store it in tall CD shelving units.
Cindy, could you create an island of organization in the middle of your room with drawer and shelving units pushed together?
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I am using an old dresser. I took off the mirror and used vinyl lettering to label the drawers. I love having a place to tuck it all away.
How creative you are and so organised. I always look around my place and think how can I organise it? I have things everywhere. Loved all you ideas.