Storage Solution Sunday - Scrap Bin

For today's storage solution, I thought I'd share with you one of my storage solutions that I'm most proud of - my scrap bin! It's not rocket science or anything, but still - I came up with it myself a few years back, and it completely changed the way I use my scraps - in that I actually do USE them! I used to keep all my scraps in one big bin. I'd have to dig through them all to find the color I was looking for. It was a pain (or maybe I'm just too lazy), and in the end I rarely used my scraps! And of course, I always kept generating more and more scraps (that I couldn't throw away, even though I never used them!) and generally wasting a LOT of paper! So one day I was feeling ambitious (this was pre-kid, I'm rarely ambitious anymore! LOL!) and decided to sort out my scraps. I had some girls over to scrapbook and instead of working on my pages, there I was with 48 little piles spread out across the table - they thought I was rather nuts. Once the paper was sorted I needed something to do with it, so I found something I happened to have on hand - page protectors! Each color went into a separate page protector. I found a clear box intended for file folder storage that worked perfectly for storing all of my little page protector envelopes of scraps. At first I didn't have them labeled, but I would get annoyed when I'd pull out the wrong color (is that Lavender Lace or Almost Amethyst??) - and I'm also a tad anal about having my colors in "order" - so I quickly decided to add labels! Nothing fancy, I just took out a trusty old Sharpie and wrote the color on each one. I also found numbering each envelope makes it fast and easy to put them back in "order", which makes me happy. :-) I haven't always done this, but I now have a rule that if there's a good half- or quarter-sheet of paper left, I put it back in the drawer with the full sheets rather than in the scrap bin - which also makes me more likely to use it! If I'm ever ambitious again (HA!) I should even go back and re-sort my scraps, and pull out the larger pieces that really still belong in my drawer. I also have a similar bin for all my non-SU scraps.

So there you have it - nothing super fancy or elaborate, but it definitely works for me! If you haven't found a system for organizing your scraps, I highly recommend it - being able to pull out the envelopes of the colors I'm using for a particular project makes using my scraps so much easier!!

I also just recently discovered Nancy Riley's awesome blog, iSTAMP (where have I been?!?). Her cards and projects are always fabulous - but I've especially drooled over the shots of her stamp room & storage solutions. Her stuff is all so neat and "pretty". I'm more functional than pretty. :-) Check it out:
Introduction to Nancy's room
Nancy's cardstock storage (My drawers look the same! Shopped from the same eBayer!)
Nancy's pegboard (My dream stamp room will have this!)
Nancy's chipboard (So cute!)
And this concludes my Ode to Nancy... :-)

Thanks for stopping by today, have a great week.

(PS... I actually stamped tonight too!! (gotta luv insomnia - NOT!) Check back tomorrow for a Halloween card (Laura I think you will love it!).)