A Thorough Purge - Spring Cleaning the Crafting Closet

Ahhh, and here is a nice glass of wine to celebrate a ruthless purge  and sparkling condition of my crafting closet. I haven't been stamping much but have started Spring Cleaning the house. Not only is it time to spring cleaning time, but the new Stampin' Up! catalog is soon to be released and it's time to make way for some lovely new products.

So, here you can see how ruthless I really am. I may regret getting rid of some of these sets, but I know I have My Digital Studio as a backup for most of them. It does feel very good to open up some space and DUST EVERYTHING OFF. I believe this is about 42 sets, 6 wheels and not shown is a stack of paper and accessories about 12" high.

AND OOh, Aahhhh an empty shelf!

Now, I will have to make sure I don't fill this shelf up too fast. Some space will be taken up by my wood sets that I will transfer to the new wood storage boxes when they are available May 31st. I am very excited for the new storage boxes!

I am offering my customers first dibs at my stamp sets and then will donate the rest to Goodwill. What do you do with your purged crafting supplies?

So while I was away.....

While I was focusing on the 8th grade project many things around the house were neglected so I have been  doing a bit of delayed spring cleaning. My main concern was my kitchen "command center".  This is the typical center from which everything important in the household is controlled . I do not have a calendar posted with all sorts of activities on it since everything is controlled via iCal and iPhone and Weplay (which is a must for team moms and any sports family- I will have to do a separate post on that later) programs on our individual phones and computers ( I love Apple!).  My go to drawer and cabinet were just getting too out of control and over run so I worked on that and other kitchen cabinets over the past few days and I feel much more mentally stable:).

So here is what I have been doing

Command Center Cabinet Before

Command Center Cabinet After

Total Command Center

Pens and Pencils OUTSIDE of the junk drawer

One of the first cabinets that I organized was my spice cabinet. I went through my various bottles and transferred the spices into same size bottles and labeled them, throwing away expired spices. I was amazed at how many bottles were expired - cha-ching!$$ I have always arranged them alphabetically but this is the first time I have transferred them into same-sized bottles and I love it; however, I need to restock all those out of date spices like Oregano.

A Very Empty Spice Cabinet

Labeled Spice Jars

I still have a few more cabinets and then it will be on to the next room.

My Closet and Organizers

One of the blogs that I love to visit is Snappy Stampin with Arielle. Well, her latest post really made me laugh as she showed her stamping/blog area. It reminded me of when my kids were little and all the toys, baby gates and all their paraphernalia. She asked other bloggers to post their stamping spaces, so I wanted to share mine again.

My space is actually a closet that I converted to a stamping space. I am very envious of those who have large crafting rooms to utilize. We have every room in our house taken, so my craft space is rather small but I love it.  I come in and close the door, put on a little music and stamp away. My dear friend Ellen Berman designed the shelving system for me and it works beautifully. All the shelves and baskets help keep me organized. During a project I am always messy, but once I am done, it is very easy and quick to clean up since I have a designated spot for everything.

I also love looking above my work space at the pictures of my family. It always puts a smile on my face. I just love my little stampin' closet.

While others such as Ricky Martin are coming out of the closet - I go into mine:)

Above my work space I have created a wall of family photos and the Stampin' Up! Definitely Decorative wall decor "Life Milestones"

My little "helper" Boo - who is always making her presence known

I keep my ink pads in the Stampin' Up! color caddy and all the tools I use daily in containers on a tray. They are always on hand and I don't need to "put them away".

I keep my ribbons in the Stampin' Up! ribbon organizers and all my small embellishments in clear kitchen drawer organizers I purchased at a large discount store that starts with a "T".

I  organize my paper in rainbow order in upright organizers that I purchased again from the large discount store that starts with a "T". I put smaller scraps on top and larger pieces back in the slot. 

My Big Shot dies and folders are kept in a dish rack - again from that big store that starts with a "T" all other items such as texture plates etc. are kept in the linen bins.

One of my favorite things in my closet are my metal basket drawers. I keep both my punches and my stamp sets in these drawers.

So that is my little closet and  how I organize the items I use the most. I joke with my daughter Megan that as soon as she goes to college, I am taking over her room and converting it to my craft room. If she wants to visit home again, her brother has a nice trundle bed ( he he he).