Organization

Fresh beginnings. Out with the old, in with the new. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. 

  That’s what New Years is all about, starting out with a clean slate. Every year I make a resolution to get more organized and every year I get a little better at it. Some of my attempts work great, some of them, not so great. Sometimes a system starts out with promise but after a few weeks, or months I find that keeping up with it is a real pain and not as helpful to me as I had hoped. At first I felt like a failure, but then I realized, it’s OK. We live and we learn. Something what works for one person might not work for someone else. Sometimes they work with a little tweaking. You just have to keep trying. Take an idea here and a tip there. What works great one year might not work as well the next year.  The trick is to realize when something isn’t working and to stop doing it without feeling guilty about it. Yeah, when you’ve spent a lot of money on a filing system only to realize it doesn’t work for you; you might feel bad, or a little guilty, but hey, when it does work, you feel like it was money well spent. Right? So sell your filing cabinet on eBay or donate it to a worthy cause and move forward.

 This week I’ve been focusing on organizing my craft room. (Or as Hubby calls it, my Cricut lair.) It’s not very big, about 6’ x 11’ feet and one wall slopes up following the roof line, but it’s my little oasis. It’s the only room in the house that is lavender. I do my paper crafting, sewing, thinking, and all other crafting in the room. Needless to say, storage is at a premium. 

One of the first storage items I bought when I set up my craft room was a rolling plastic 3 drawer storage unit and a small desktop 3 drawer unit that I have sitting on top of the big one. 

Bottom drawers before

top drawers before

The drawers serve their purpose, but I dislike them both. You can see right through to everything I have crammed into them and they have no personallity.  Since they are functional I decided to keep them but because they are ugly I gave them a facelift. Using Mod-Podge, I covered the fronts of each draw with a piece of scrap book paper that complements my room color. 

Top drawers with a face lift.

Bottom drawers.

 Nicer looking, but now I can’t see what’s in the drawers without opening them. Never fear. I made some labels using my Cricut, a plaque background from Cricut Craft Room Basics, and lettering from Lyrical Letters cartridge. 

The top drawers now hold my color 8" x 11" papers

The bottom drawers hold, well,  you can tell what they hold

 I'm very pleased with the outcome and think that the drawers will help keep my crafts organized. Like I said, sometimes you have to tweak an idea to make it work for you. What are you going to try to organize this new year? If you use your cricut to help you, check out the Get Organized Challenge over at the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog!