Stay @ Home Update #18

Each Sunday (at 5:00 AM) I'm sharing how the week's 10-minute stay@home organizational challenge went. If you don't have an idea what that means and you're curious, you can learn more in my original Stay @ Home Update blog post - found HERE.

Now here's the disclaimer: Some of these daily stay@home challenges are taking more than 10 minutes, but who's counting, right? 

Here's what I've accomplished this week...

Day 1 - SUN, August 2
This week's project is going to be on-going over a few days. I'm not sure, it might take most of the week. The picture to my left shows part of my paper pads (I shared the paper tower that holds the rest of them in last week's update - HERE.

I'm re-doing my storage (and possibly doing some purging as I go along).

I've been just slipping any scraps from the pads within its pages, but I've purchased (in bulk for Amazon) ticket holders and will be storing the scraps from each pad in one of these. The ticket holder will go on the shelf right beside its paper pad so when I want a paper from the pad it will be easy to check to see if there is a scrap that will work rather than cutting another full sheet.

Today I prepared the pads in three categories - Christmas, Christmas/Autumn, and Halloween/Fall. I'm going to add dividers to make it easier to find each category, but haven't started that yet.

They fit neatly on the shelf and look better than the bulky crates I had them in previously.

Day 2 - MON, August 3
This is what it looks like after 2 days of work. I also decided I needed to "hold the spots" for categories or it would be a huge chore finding them later, hence the little green slips of papers. So far the categories are: 

Christmas/Winter

Autumn/Christmas

Halloween/Fall

Beach/Summer

Travel/Vacation

Food

Animals/Nature

Men/Boys

Women/Girls

School

I am not loving this new system yet. The ticket holders contain the scraps great, but it is difficult to get them in/out of the shelf. I might just move the scraps to my existing scrap system instead and leave the paper pads on the shelf unit. That would work, since when I'm making a card I almost always check my scrap file first to see if there is a paper to use in it before I choose to cut a new piece of paper.

Day 3 - TUES, August 4
I added one more category to this shelf of paper pads - Flowers/Spring. The shelf is 45" long. That is a lot of paper! Lest you think that is all of it - nope, it isn't. It IS all the paper that I'll be putting on that shelf though. Tomorrow I'll start adding paper pads to the shelf above it. They are all in the Miscellaneous category.

Day 4 - WED, August 5
The upper shelf in this photo shows today's progress on organizing my Miscellaneous paper pads in my new storage system. I have about 8-10 more to go. I hope to finish them tomorrow - wish me luck.

Day 5 - THUR, August 6
I completed going through my 12 x 12 paper pads today and putting the last of the Miscellaneous ones on the shelf. I am still not sure I'm loving this system, so I'll not be surprised if I change it at some point in the future.

Day 6 - FRI, August 7
I sorted through the small amount of smaller paper pads that I have (8 1/2 X 11 and 8 X 8, plus a few smaller ones) and organized them in these holders that set to the left of one of the shelves of 12 X 12 pads. 

I plan to make the dividers for the 12 X 12 papers tomorrow. It's hard to believe that this entire week's stay@home challenge will be invested in paper pads. #ihavetoomuchpaper

Day 7 - SAT, August 8
I did it - I made the dividers for my paper pads. Labeling them will make it so much easier to look through them to find the designer paper that I want for a card/project.

I think my paper pad organization is much better now - except I'm still not liking the ticket holders for scraps. I think they are unnecessary, due to the way I choose/use scraps, so I suspect they will be going away soon.

Okay, that's it for this week. Stay tuned to see what I accomplish in the coming week.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!