Too Many Scrapbooking Supplies

Scrapbooking Supplies – Paper Edition

Today, I am going to talk about scrapbooking supplies. How many of us have too much stuff? Now I do not think this is news to anyone, but if you are struggling to make what should be simple decisions, maybe the problem is there are too many choices. I know this is definitely true for me.

Sometimes I think back to when I first started scrapbooking and all my supplies fit into one rolling tote.  I scrapbooked at my dining room table and would just put everything away when I was done.  Now I take up half of our home office, LOL!

My biggest problem is paper. When I start a scrapbook layout I always start with the pictures and then I pick the background paper. Lately, I have been having trouble with this step and I get frustrated, sometimes it takes me 30 minutes to an hour just to pick paper! It drains my creativity and takes some of the fun out of my scrapbooking time. So I have decided that restricting my choices in the first place might help speed up this part of the process.

Now, if you talk about scrapbooking supplies you have to talk about storage.  I currently have three paper totes that I got from Michaels (in the pictures above) and I still have paper stashed in a couple of other places as well. My goal is to use what I have until it all fits in two totes, get rid of the third and restrict myself to that amount of storage space. 

I have tried other paper storage solutions and I have decided that vertical storage works best for me.  The paper is in smaller  dividers within each tote and each divider is a specific category.  I have some paper by manufacturer, some by theme and the rest by color.  With it upright, it is easier to flip through and I know which folder to grab when I’m looking for something specific like Christmas, birthday or if I’m looking for something blue.  

I think this will keep me from being paralyzed by too many choices, make decisions faster and easier and then I will have more time to play with all the other pretty things I have.  (Here is a blog post about my rolling cart storage that is working well.)

I store my scraps by color in these older Creative Memories Deco files.  I really like this solution as well since I can just grab the color I want & flip through until I find the right size/hue of that particular color for my project.  I am also a very visual person, so I like see through storage that I can see at a glance.

I think that making kits out of your stash is also a good idea to limit your choices.  I am a fan of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog and love to see all the different ways each member interprets the monthly kit.  You can choose how much or how little to add to your kit.  This could be determined by your project or how much of your scrapbooking supplies you want to use up that month. I will have more on that later as well.

Although it is nice to have options, I personally think that there are times if you have too many to choose from it can hinder your creativity and enjoyment of the hobby. Leave me a comment and tell me how you store your scrapbook paper and if you are ever overwhelmed with too much.  Let me know if you have any other suggestions for dealing with your scrapbooking supplies.

Thanks for stopping by!

Machelle