Month

August 2011

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Scrapbook Room Organization: Day 492

Okay, fine, that may be exaggerating a little bit but Geez Oh Pete, this is taking a long time!

Remember, I had planned to finish it in THREE DAYS. I know, right? What in holy hell was I thinking? Maybe for a normal person who is not a SCRAPBOOKER HOARDER that would’ve been puh-lenty of time. But not for me. No sirree bob.

If I count every day since I started minus the days I worked out of the home all day or was out of town – I’m really on Day 12. I’ve just been plugging away, doing little things when I have a few minutes and bigger projects when I have chunks of time. Here are some of the things I’ve accomplished:

– Assembled a 3-drawer cube; I own 3 of the JETMAX STORAGE CUBES from Michaels and there is still 1 left in the box. Ugh. Dreading putting that last one together, although it WILL be glorious to be done and to have that extra storage.

– Added doors to all of my STORE IN STYLE CUBES that didn’t have them already; I think I added 6 doors. GREAT addition. Makes it look so much cleaner and I can hide more. Oh, shite, did I say that in my “out loud” voice?

– Emptied all my glass ginger jars, rinsed and dried them, and re-did what I stored in most of them. Yes, you will have to wait until the Great Reveal to see for yourself :P

*This is from an old blog post – one of the many times I’ve posted about working on my scrapbook room. You can see the cubes I talked about above, before they had doors :)

– Cleaned out the piles of stuff under my large, L-shaped desk. It’s really great at hiding things. But it’s nice to have some legroom back, I tell ya’.

– I am labeling like crazy, girlfriend! Love my good ol’ label maker. I would marry it if I could. Well, wait, I’m in California. Maybe it IS legal? Hrm, have to look into that.

– Started and labeled IRIS clamshell cases for “Projects,” “Incomplete Layouts,” and “Put in Albums.”

– Purged boo koo (yes, I do know that’s not the real way to spell it but I did anyway, ha!) scrapbook magazines and catalogs.

– Got my magazine holder full of 8.5×11 cardstock arranged in ROYGBIV color order.

– Purged and cleaned the kids’ homework and craft area. Of course, it’ll be a hot mess again in 3.2 days but at least it was pretty for a while.

– Pulled everything out of my computer/electronics/office supply cabinet, cleaned, and re-arranged.

Okay, I can stop now, right? I’ve given you enough of a list that you can see I’m cereal about this, right? I am NOT Joshing you. I really truly am working on my scrap space. Not that you’ve ever known me to lie, but still.

{Well, there was that one little white lie when I said I would NEH-VUR buy another stack of any sort from Michaels again. But really, who can keep a promise like that? Can you? Yeah, that’s what I thought}.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. How about you? Anyone else on this “fun” little journey of scrapbook room reorganization? Tell us about it. Or just tell me how awesome I am. Whatever.

And in the finest seque seen in a super duper long time … Speaking of JOURNEY (my favorite band EVAH!), my bestie scrapbook friend sent this to me. Go ahead, laugh your ass off. I did. Toodles.

Status Check: Still Organizing, Not Buried … Yet

HA!

Carol left this comment on my last organization post, written 9 days ago:

Did your room swallow you up–we have not heard from you in a couple of days. I am working on my room along side of you. I am close, but we were crazy to think we could get this complete in 3 days!!!

First, I have to agree with Carol ~ WTF was I thinking that I could do this in 3 days?!?! Fool.

So I wanted to let Carol know – and ya’ll! I didn’t forget ya’ll, sheez – that I’m still plugging away on my scrap/home office space whenever I have time. I was out of town for a few days and also got tied up with work, but I’ll be getting some time in this weekend. It’s almost midnight Friday night and I’ve been in here for a few hours tonight.

I’m too embarrassed to admit how much of that time has been spent organizing my … erm … MASSIVE Basic Grey collection. It takes a long time to alphabetize papers from, like, 50 collections, MM KAY?? Now before you choke on your gummy bear (yeah, I watch you late at night at your scrap desk … I know about the bears, the Diet Coke, and let’s just say the empty brown tissue cups in the trash that smell like chocolate and peanut butter don’t lie) … I have figured out a way to justify papers from 50 Basic Grey collections. And it goes a little something like this:

I’ve been scrapping since 2001. It’s now 2011. That’s 10 years. So if you divide 50 collections by 10 years, that’s only 5 collections per year. Which I personally think shows a great deal of RESTRAINT, don’t you? I don’t think I should be criticized for having too much Basic Grey. I think I should be heralded for having ONLY 50 collections.

I also think I should be applauded for helping to keep BASIC GREY in business for all these years. Somebody has to do it, right? It may as well be me. I will make the sacrifice for you. I will buy the Basic Grey each year, at least 5 collections, so you won’t feel like you have to.

So the bottom line here is that I don’t have too much Basic Grey. Those who would care to criticize me: Maybe you need to ask yourself why you don’t have enough? You need to buy more because until you have papers from 50 collections in 10 years, I don’t even want to be seen with you. Not on the message boards. Not at CKU. Not at the scrapbook expo. If I see you at Michaels, I look past you like I don’t know you.

In a nutshell, you’ve let me down. So get busy on the Basic Grey Collection Buying and get back to me when you’ve caught up. I’ll decide then if we can be friends again.

Now that THAT is settled, back to scrapbook room organization. Tonight I’ve also been trying to include some decorative touches in my room. As much as we all believe that shelves of Stickles and jars of ribbon are decoration in themselves, it hit me that I could add some other pretty things that I like to look at. Things to soften the edges and to add other parts of my personality to the space.

I know you’re gonna’ ask for photos and I have been taking them along the way but I’m not posting any tonight because I’m too lazy. At this point, I may just save all the “before” and “in progress” photos for the Big Reveal, which isn’t too far off. Promise :)

Pink Paislee 2011 Warehouse Sale = Grab Box of Goodness!

It’s that TIME again! It’s their 3rd annual sale.

The Peas are talking about it HERE and HERE.

I got the PP warehouse boxes in both 2009 and 2010. However, I think I’m going to pass this year. When I look at the sample in their ad and also think about the lines they’ve come out with since the last box, I have to be honest and say not a lot of it was up my alley. Not that it wasn’t great stuff – ‘cuz it was, it was! Just not my style.

{Not to mention the fact that my current scrapbook room reorg. has me VERY well aware that I have puh-lenty of pretty papers and general scrapbook goodness}.

Yeah, I’ll probably kick myself later, especially when everyone starts posting pics of their boxes when they arrive. But I’m gonna’ hang tough.

How about you? Did you order a PINK PAISLEE 2011 warehouse box … or are you gonna’?

Nothin’ to See Here, Folks. Nothin’ to See … YET

I’m sorry I haven’t posted any updates to The Great Purge and Cleanup goin’ on in the hizzy. I’ve taken some photos and am … hmmm … about halfway done? It’s hard to say. And that’s halfway with the scrapbook part, not including the home office part … which could take a year or more, ha.

I wish I could download/edit photos and type up a post right now, but it’s been an exhausting weekend. I have to get up at 5am tomorrow so I’m going to bed way before my latenight blogging session usually takes place.

I will tell you that it’s nice to see the floor in here again … even if it’s only temporary … because a lot of my scrapbook shizzle is in the dining room right now. Well, I’m gonna’ enjoy it while it lasts :)

Just wanted to say “hey” and let you know I’ll be posting as soon as I can. Have a great week!

Scrapbook Room Organization: Going for Broke, Day 3 @ 1:30 pm

Can’t write much because … I’m going like gangbusters on my scraproom! I have it about 1/2 emptied out. I’m grouping, purging, and organizing as I take stuff out so it’s taking longer than I thought. I’m hoping that means it will be quicker to put back together.

Yes, I’m taking photos along the way so you can witness the devastation later ;)

I thought I was going to keep things arranged pretty much the way they have been because I like my system (it was just out of control). But I just made a decision to make a major switch and I think it’s going to be great.

Okay, back to work! Just wanted to check in :)

Scrapbook Room Organization: Going for Broke, Day 2, 10:30 pm

I’m not going to tiptoe around this, okay? I got pretty much nothing done on my room today.

NOW.

If you’re going to throw things at me, here are your choices:

– Chocolate
– Xanax
– Martini fixings
– Scrapbook supplies
– either things I want like BASIC GREY embellies or SMASH BOOK accessories
– or things that won’t hurt very much when they make contact, e.g., eyelets, glitter, ribbon, and the like (shop carefully, please)

Once you’re done being mad at me … what, you’re still mad??? Jeesh. I can give you some sad eyes. Oh! Better yet! I’ll have my dog give you some sad eyes. He gets stuff past me all the time with those freakin’ sad eyes. “Now, Mom, I know I barked all night when you had to get up for work at 5am but …” and – bladow – SAD EYES. Shoot. He got me again. Can’t be mad.

So … I had to work today. A lot. My plan this morning was to work for 30 minutes, organize for 30 minutes. However, that didn’t happen … too much work. It’s 10pm and I just wrapped it up. If I’d stopped to organize every 30 minutes, I’d have been working until 6am tomorrow, LOL. Which is probably what YOU would’ve preferred but, srsly, have some pity on me, willya?

But now I’m panicking. I have ONE DAY left to get my room done!

BLURG.

I mean, it’s not like the room self-destructs after Day 3 or anything. It’s just that after tomorrow, I’m tied up for several days and I want this room dunzo. I’m SO tired of putting it off and not getting it done. How many times have I gotten this portion or that portion of my room organized, but never the whole entire thing? Lots. Very lots.

I want my scrap space organized so I can find things and be creative. I want my home office organized so I can work efficiently.

I really thought this was going to be my time :( There’s nothing I can do about work – in fact, I’m inordinately grateful that I have so much work right now, because the life of an independent contractor can get scary at times – when the work doesn’t come.

But but but …

You know what I mean, right?

So now I’m going to decide between these two plans:

1. Start drinking coffee now at 10:30 pm, pray for a second wind, and get a bunch accomplished late into the night. Work while there are fewer distractions. Sleep in a bit in the morning, and finish up tomorrow afternoon.

2. Chill the rest of this evening, watch the “SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE” next-to-last episode I taped earlier tonight, then turn in early (well, early for me). Get up early tomorrow and power through everything in one day.

I’ll let you know tomorrow which option I went with :) And for those of you who asked, I’m going back to add photos to my past entries that show a bit of what I’m dealing with. But the best photos will be posted tomorrow of PROGRESS and hopefully SUCCESS.

And there WILL be progress. Damn it.

Scrapbook Room Organization: Going for Broke, Day 1, 5:00 pm

Well, it’s now 5:00 pm on Day 1 of the Great Scrapbook Room/Home Office Reorg … and not much has changed in here from the 10:00 am update, I’m sorry to say :(

From 10:00 am to noon, I worked in the garage and the spare bedroom, aka The Junk Room (where all the home office stuff is going for now). I pulled an oak file cabinet out from the corner and put it in the hallway, vacuumed and cleaned up that whole corner, and started making piles in that room.

I had to get the file cabinet out of the corner because it’s eventually going in my home office near my computer desk. One of the reasons I have so many work/school/misc. paper piles on my desk (other than I was apparently genetically predisposed to pile-making) is that there’s no real office storage near my work desk.

I have some accordion files on a shelf under the desk but they’re for specific things I need close at hand. And I’m not going to tell you what papers those are because all you technology smart, super-organized people are going to tell me that I shouldn’t even SAVE those papers because I can do paperless bill paying, paperless banking, and paperless paychecks. Well, I’m an old-fashioned girl and I prefer to have some things on paper. So quit trying to talk me out of it already. Jeez O Pete. You’re so pushy!

Back to the Junk Room … Now, I know you’re going to say, “I thought you were trying to get away from piles?!?!?” Well, yes, long-term but you have to admit, some pile-making must occur during the organizational process, right? So there’s the office stuff pile, the toys/games pile, the wrapping paper/gift bag pile, etc.

I promise to get the Junk Room organized next. In the meantime, it’s one of the staging areas. Mmm, kay? Anyway, I got all those piles sorted, threw some stuff away, etc. The room had already been purged of toys, games, books, and puzzles for our garage sale last weekend. The big job I have to do in there is going through school papers/art and files. I used to feel the need to save everything but I’ve finally come to the conclusion that, srsly, there is so much of it I don’t need.

I mean, I just sold all my cookbooks at the garage sale. I know, GASP! But honestly, whenever I wanna look up a recipe, I look online. I kept a few but the rest were sold. See? I’m ready to quit being such a packrat. Baby steps, baby steps …

Another thing that got moved back there was a childhood set of encyclopedias we just got from my mom-in-law. There are mounted bookshelves in there that DH wants them on; we just need to clean the shelf and get them placed in away that evenly distributes the weight. Them muthas’ are HEAVY. I know ‘cuz I carried all the boxes back there :)

I had the kids clean up their homework table (it’s in my scraproom/home office). It was a mess of projects, papers, and pencils. In my last post I said I was planning to keep my photos/memorabilia in the garage so all that crap … erm … stuff was not clogging up the dining room while I did the shorter-term scrappy organizing. Well, as someone pointed out, that is a baaaaad idea. Doy. Leaving photos out in the heat of a California summer is dum-dum-dum. So I’ll have to hatch another plan.

Then the fun had to take a break. I had to run some errands. One involved my new printer … ya know, the one I mentioned before that I might return? Well, yeah, now I’m sure I will. I just got it 2 days ago to replace my antiquated Canon because I wanted to get a multi-use machine that would fax in addition to copy/scan/print, and also that had a document feeder. Then I could also get rid of my little cheapie Brother fax machine. (Yes, I know you can fax online but I have a client who prefers to use a machine so I need to have one). The organizational point is: I’m trying to consolidate and have fewer things on my desk, especially since I just had to add the second laptop.

Long story short, the EPSON 325 WORKFORCE printer that I got at Target the other day ($99 marked down to $69) isn’t going to work out. I wasn’t able to sell my old printer or fax at the garage sale so I didn’t want to spend the $150-200 I had originally planned for an printer. But the document feeder keeps jamming and it takes forever and a day to print a 1-page letter. I’m sure I just got a bad one but meanwhile … I went to OfficeMax today for something else and found the Artisan 835 that I really wanted. Not only is it on sale ($299 marked down to $169) but I can also get $50 off for turning in my old printer. Suh-weet! Don’t have to try and sell that bitch on Craigslist :P

So, the moral of that story is … sometimes it’s good to save the box!

I was gone doing errands until 5:00 and once I finish this blog post, I need to work for a few hours. The good news is … while I was out, I bought a triple-shot latte so I’ll be good to go for organizing into the night. When I’m on a roll, I’ve been known to stay up until 2 or 3am so don’t give up on Day 1 progress just yet.

See you on the flip side :)

PS: I know there are typos but I have to get to work. I’ll either fix them later or you can just ignore them. Whatevs.

Scrapbook Organization: Going for Broke, Day 1, 10:00 am

I’m going to keep a blog diary as I go along for the next 3 days.

I was up early today … anxious to get started! I even dreamt about organizing my room, lol. I had to do some paperwork first but it’s 10 am and I’m off and running. I’m going to move stuff mostly to the dining room next door.

Things that are going to take some time to go through before they come back into my space will go to the garage (my memorabilia and some old photos are a huge mess right now, for one thing). I’m hoping most of what I put in the dining room can be back in the scrap room by the end of today. I hate leaving a mess in other parts of the house but we’ll see …

Here’s what I’ve accomplished so far:

– Folded up boxes from recent purchases of printer, laptop, and foot pedal (for my transcription business). This printer is giving me fits and I might return it so the box is in the garage for now. Other boxes to the recycle as I’m happy with my laptop and pedal.

– Found 2 new baskets for my {extensive, embarrassing, but oh so loved} Thickers collection. One basket had my “recently purchased/inspiration stuff” that I keep on my desk. Now that’s all sitting in a pile on my desk. Must find another home for it. Well, better yet, by the end of the 3 days, all that stuff will be put away and I’ll have an empty basket other than a few things I want to use soon. The basket that my Thickers were in also included all my other letter stickers, sorted by color in manila folders, standing up in the basket. Now that basket is 1/2 empty and, since I don’t see myself buying many more non-Thickers letters in the future, I should probably downsize that storage and free up the large basket for something else. The good thing is I have lots of empty baskets and bins to choose from :)

MY EMBARRASSING THICKERS COLLECTION(there are also faux-Thickers in there by Miss Elizabeth’s from the Dollar Tree)

MY SAD “OTHER THAN THICKERS” LETTER STICKERS (Yes, I used to have almost all of those Thicker packs jammed in this basket, too. Yike)

– Put my Heidi Swapp paper folder back together and on the shelf. I took it to a recent crop, so all the papers were pulled out and a mess.

– Also from the recent crop, my crop bags were strewn everywhere. I had managed to get them unpacked but not put away. I collapse the smaller bags down into the huge one for storage. So, got that done.

– For now, I’m going to take all office-related stuff to the guest room. That’s a whole NOTHER issue! Taming the paper tiger. I need to get a handle on that for sure. But for today, I’m only going to worry about the scrapbook portion of the room.

– Took a big bin of MEMORY WORKS stock and catalogs to the dining room. There’s not much I can do about this bin. It’s big but it’s organized and necessary. Same goes for a tote full of MW stock. My MW things have always just sat on the floor. I wish there was somewhere I could put them away. Maybe as the room progresses, I’ll find some free space. Hey, a girl can dream.

BIN OF MEMORY WORKS STOCK

Okay, I’ll check in again later today with a progress report! I’ll post some photos then, too.

ETA 8/10/11 10:45 pm: Added photos that go with this post :)

Scrapbook Room Organization: “Going for Broke”

Hey peeps, long time, no talk. Well, I hope you’re fittin’ to get sick of me because I’m about to take on ~ and blog about ~ a big project. I’m writing it down here so I don’t back out AGAIN with the “I’m too busy” or “I don’t have time” or “I don’t have the space” excuses.

I AM GOING TO ORGANIZE MY SCRAPBOOK ROOM-SLASH-HOME OFFICE.

Can I get a witness!?!?!

HOLLAH!

This is a WAY long time coming. OMG, just WAIT until you see the before photos! You’re going to fuh-reak when you see what a pigsty I’ve been working in. And by “work” I mean do bills, play on the computer, and do my home transcription biz.

I do NOT, however, mean scrapbooking. Because that particular activity hasn’t taken place here in quite a damn while. {When you see the BEFORE pictures, you’ll see why}.

Did you know it’s impossible to scrap on top of piles? Yeppers, I’m a “piler.” That means that instead of putting things away right when I get them, I just pile them on my desk, the floor, the couch, whatever blank spot I can find. It’s like I think the Pile Clearing Fairies are going to come when I’m sleeping and put it all away for me. {Hey, if there’s a Scrap Santa, I don’t see why there can’t be Pile Clearing Fairies!}.

Here are the things that tend to end up on piles in my scrapbook room/home office:

New scrapbook supplies – because who am I kidding? that goes at the top of the list
Memorabilia – because apparently I have to save every. stinkin. thing.
School and work papers – “until I have time to go through them” … um, yeah, right …
Scrapbook magazines and catalogs
Receipts – because you *know* as soon as I trash a receipt, I’ll need to return one of the items on it

Like I said, I’ve wanted/planned to do this for a long time but HERE is the 2peas thread that’s motivating me to finally do it. Well, that thread plus the fact that I’m tired of stubbing my toes in my scrap room and I’m REALLY tired of not being able to scrapbook at home (crops are the only things that have kept me sane).

According to the scrapbook-organizing Peas, you can either attack your room’s “hot spots” or you can “go for broke.” Going for broke means emptying most everything out of your scrap space, getting it sorted and purged, and only putting back what you’ll use. I’ve been doing the Hot Spot deal for years and, honey pie, it ain’t workin’. Time to Go For Broke, I say.

I have three days off from work starting today ~ although I have some transcription work to do, plus all the “mom” stuff like entertaining kids on summer break, making meals, laundry, etc. Oh, I have a question: How many frozen pizzas do you think a family can (be forced to) eat before they stop speaking to you? Hmmm … then again, if it’s quiet around here, I can get this done faster ;)

So wish me luck, I’M GOIN’ IN!

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