Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Twenty Six

If you are a cardmaker, you may find that you have quite a collection of unsent cards.  Some people keep them to use as examples to copy later, some people keep them just because they can't give their hard work away and some people, like me, are just too lazy to get them sent out.  Postage is another factor too.  The thing is, cards are meant to be shared, they bring joy and comfort and if you are keeping all of them, you are making the world a little less more wonderful, at least in my opinion.

Who should you send them to?  Look around you during your day, you come across so many lovely, hard working people, imagine what an unexpected card would do for them?  Last Christmas I actually took a stack of cards with me and gave them out randomly.  It was sooo much fun!!!  You could also send to:

Parents
Grandparents
Cousins, Aunts, and Uncles and such
Your siblings
Your bank teller
The lady across the street who lost her husband years ago
The hard working postal workers
The local senior center
Your fellow workers or team
Old friends
New friends!
Your local hospice
Military organizations like http://operationwritehome.org

The possibilities are endless so don't be a card hoarder, spread the love!!!  Comment below on who you send your cards too and be in the drawing for a pack of shimmer trim!

The new catalog is live!   You can see it here!

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Twenty Five

So we all love containers, right?  Containers and bags and baskets and tins.  Problem is, the very thing we hope will organize our lives becomes just more clutter.  That's because, as the Flylady says, "you can't organize clutter!"   Nope, you can't, so no matter how many of those containers you have, you will still have clutter. 

Let's start with your scrapbooking bags, the ones you don't use much because you never go to a crop, or you use it but it's in bad shape and you really need to replace it.  The rules for this are very simple, if you don't use it, out it goes.  If you use it on a fairly regular basis, make sure it's in good shape or get a new one.  If you are taking MANY bags to a crop, you need to rethink what you are taking.  ONLY TAKE WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON AT THE CROP.  I can hear what you are yelling back at the screen, "but Barbra, I never know what I'll be working on."  Well, that's because you aren't planning.  We will do another post another day on how to do that.  In the meantime, go through your bags, more than three is really too many.

Now for the rest, the baskets, the wire organizers, the containers galore!  If it's not being used, let it go.  If you have something that will go in it (now that you have less clutter), fill it. When you declutter, whole drawers and cupboards will start to magically appear because you simply have less junk.  This is where you can put your good containers to use.  Don't spend a lot of time on making these spaces look "just right", put the container in, fill it with your "keepable" products and be done.  What does not fit, must go!

Lastly, let's talk tote bags, these tend to collect, especially with companies like 31 out there tempting you with your name on a bag.  In my company, we get a new bag given to us at every event we attend and, I will admit, I have some sentimental value attached to each one.  However, this year I have been slowly getting rid of them unless they are my very favorites.  Tote bags are just like the rest of your containers.  If they only thing that they do for you is look good on a shelf or a hook, then it's time to send them packing. 

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Twenty Four (the actual post)

Even though I have written a post on getting rid of old idea books and magazines, I'm going to go over it again since I've had many requests.  Let's say you're doing okay on the magazines and idea books but have torn out many pages from those, along with templates and other "instructions" for crafting items.  Before I tell you what to get rid of, let me tell you a story.

I once worked with a lady during a time I was starting a decluttering business way back in the 80's.  She was a substitute teacher and when she went to a school she would use the "ditto" machine (remember that's what we called it back then) to make one copy of each page in the teacher's "ditto" books, so that she had a great supply of quick worksheets to take with her from school to school.  She told me about this and said that she had too many now and needed help organizing them.  So, I went to her small apartment and there they were, everywhere, literally TENS OF THOUSANDS of these worksheets, in every spot of her apartment, her bedroom, her living room, everywhere, there was hardly room for her furniture, just piles, at least waist high, everywhere.

Now, yes, this lady had some serious issues and I'm going to assume that your home does not contain tens of thousands of ideas that you've pulled from books and magazines BUT, the principle is the same.  In her lifetime, she could have never ever used all of those worksheets.  It's the same with that big stack of ideas that you've gathered, you aren't using MOST of them, right?  So why are you letting them clutter up your life and have such a stranglehold on you?  If it's been sitting in a notebook or a pile for a year, time to let it go. Crafting is like fashion, each thing has a season and those ideas you thought were so great are probably already out of style.  Now I don't want you to take more than 15 minutes to go through these, WHIP though them!!!  Fifteen minutes, set your time, go!

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Twenty Four

So I am running out of items to help you declutter so I need your input.  Is there anything I've missed?

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Twenty Three

Today is going to be difficult for you because I'm going to ask you to declutter something that I have an idea, is very precious to you. 

We've all gone to crops and bought kits to make up completed layouts hoping that we'll have just the right photos to go in them.  But....and you know this has happened.....many of those layouts are still sitting in a folder or a box or in a stack still waiting for those right photographs, right?  Those magical pictures that would just be PERFECT for that layout never materialized.  

I know it will be hard to give those pages up but you need to take a serious look at them and REALISTICALLY ask yourself if you are EVER going to have the right photos for that pretty layout.  If the answer isn't a definitive YES, it's time to give them up.  Since these will not go over well at Goodwill, you may give them to friends.  Now go through your layouts.

Decluttering your Paper Crafting Supplies - Day Twenty Two

Close to my Heart just came out with some new markers and I'm excited about them.  It made me think about the markers in your stash.  How many do you have?  How many do you need?   If the answer was "all of them," you may want to rethink.  First of all, do you have both water based and alcohol based markers?  You don't need them both, you know.  Choose a type and get rid of the others.  I like the alcohol based markers because they tend to streak less and blend more.  I have Copics, I have Shin Han (our new markers) and I have Close to my Heart  alcohol markers (our old and retired markers). 

Here's how I look at markers: 

Do I have more than one of the same color?
Do I have markers that I hardly ever use?
Do I have more than one of colors that are very close in color, so close that I don't even use them to blend with each other?
Are my markers in good shape?  If the nibs are wrecked and can't be replaced, dump them.  If the ink is not running freely and can't be reinked, dump it.   If the colors are muddy, no longer pure, dump them.

Do not buy every single color of a brand just because you are obsessive-compulsive about that!  Buy what you need, keep only what you need and let the rest go to someone else!

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Twenty One

We've been doing this so long that I am afraid I might be repeating myself but this morning I woke up thinking I wanted to talk about buttons.  I notice that there aren't a lot of buttons being sold in craft stores and Close to my Heart doesn't sell them anymore which leads me to believe they are on their way out.  Having said that, I still love them and I have a lot.  Here's the thing about buttons though, you have to be very careful not to keep them all.  Here are the ones I recommend you let go:

1.  Buttons with backs on them.  These are not meant to be used in your scrapbooks, they are for clothes.  Let them go.

2.  Tiny buttons. I used to use these on the aforementioned paper dolls, they were the perfect size for those mini clothes.  Get rid of them.

3.  Wild colored buttons.  See the picture below, these are examples of buttons that are quite unusual and need a very specific page to go on.  It could take you years to find that page so these need to be in your giveaway box too.

4.  Button colors you have way too many of need to be pared down.  You do not need 200 red buttons.  Keep 100 or less of each basic color, red, blue, orange, purple, green, yellow, pink, brown, black, white, clear, peach and tan should be good enough!  

5.  Button storage needs to be trimmed down too.  You do not need to have more than one container per color, don't divide them into shapes and sizes too!  Sorting like that is for kindergartners, not you.  By color is enough. 

Go spend 15 minutes on your buttons.

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Twenty

Hello!  I"m back from my vacation so it's time to continue on with our decluttering!  Today let's talk about your deep dark secret.  Yes, I know about that.  It's the papercrafting supplies that noone knows you still have.  Let me tell you about mine.  Back when scrapbooking was at the highest heights, paper dolls were very popular and I loved a particular brand by Stamping Station called Stick Kids.  They looked like this:

They came in kits and I really made them a lot, so much so that I sold completed dolls at scrapbook stores and on ebay.  I love these kids, I used them on so many pages but, alas, paper dolls went out of style and noone wanted them anymore.  The company stopped making them and I just haven't been able to give up all of my kits because I know I can never get them again.

What I want to know is, what are your Stick Kids?  What product have you been holding onto tightly that you KNOW you NEED to give up because they are taking SO MUCH of your physical space, or, if not that, your mental space.  It's time to give it up and put that in your giveaway container or even the garbage. Before you do though, let me in on your little secret.  What is that product that you've been hiding away in hopes I wouldn't mention it on my posts?  Post here or on my facebook pages and one of you will win a little gift from me!  (All comments here do get screened so if you don't see your post come up immediately, just have patience).

Time for a break from your Decluttering!

I hope you've been enjoying (or at least trying to enjoy) decluttering your supplies these past few weeks.  Now it's time for a break, one, because you probably need one and two, because I'm heading to the Close to my Heart convention with very little access to a computer to write more blog posts!  I will continue when I get back so take a much needed rest while I do the same! 

Declutting your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Nineteen

At some point, when scrapbooking became a little less popular, the scrapbooking industry started to add home decor as another way to papercraft.  It's pretty cool and some of the products are totally worthwhile but many are sitting in bins in your house going unused, right? 

I used to be a cross-stitcher and I always had bigger dreams of what I wanted to cross-stitch than would ever be possible in a lifetime.  I bought patterns and floss and tools all to make hundreds of projects.  They were going to hand on my walls and on the walls of my friends and family too.  Well, I did a few but cross-stitching takes a long time and so it was very few.

Making your own home decor items isn't much different.  If your dreams of making all that stuff got away from you, it's time to go through those frames and shelves and boxes and who knows what else you have and be realistic.  If you have bought too much that you will never get to, do yourself a favor and pass it on to someone who will.  There's no shame in saying "enough"!

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Eighteen

I'm not a fan of chipboard.  I don't use it but if you do, ask yourself these questions:

Is it outdated?
Is it in good shape?
Is it easily stored (tiny pieces usually are a pain and not worth it)?
Is it something I TRULY will use?
Do I look at it with excitement or is it just okay?
Do I have specific pages I want to use this with?
Could I get along without it?
Is it more than a year old?

If the answers aren't good, neither is keeping it.

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Seventeen

Embossing folders should be one of your easiest items to declutter but since I know many of you still have this need to have one of every type, maybe not.  This is an item where only a few WILL DO!  Yes, you can have less than 10 embossing folders and make it through life.  I know there are thousands of different backgrounds out there but you really only need the basics.  Just like yesterday's washi tape decluttering, you need to get rid of the folders that you will only use once or maybe not at all.

Here are a few examples of the ones you shouldn't keep:

Seashells
Cupcakes
One Christmas tree
Birthday candles
Birds
Butterflies
Baby clothes
Soccer balls
Spider webs
Feathers

If you are not going to use it multiple times, don't buy it, don't keep it.

Better embossing folders to keep:

stripes
damask
dots
plaid
chevrons
swirls
hexagons

You get the idea.

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Sixteen

I love shimmer trim (aka glitter trim) and washi tape!  It's so awesome to have something that is quick, easy to use, and comes with adhesive attached!  However, just like any other supply, you can become a collector and not a user. 

When looking at your shimmer trims, make sure you don't go crazy thinking you need one in every color and print, you don't!   Primary colors are the best choice, red, blue, green, orange, yellow and purple.  After that you can fill in with pink, tan, teal, but don't go wacky.  Even though we sell a fuschia, I don't think I've used it once, be reasonable!  Look through your shimmer trim and be willing to give up bad colors.

Washi tape is super dangerous because it's everywhere now and in every print and color.  You need to be hard on yourself with this stuff.  Because it lasts forever you need to really decide in a no nonsense way which you really HAVE to keep.  How much of that roll of Minnie Mouse washi are you really going to use?  How about the roll that's Happy Birthday over and over again?  Really?  You're going to use all of that?  Polka dots, yes....penguins, no.  Stripes yes, cupcakes, no.  Plaid yes, clouds no.  Go declutter.

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Fifteen

Ribbons and twine and string, oh my!  I bet you have a lot of it!  Luckily, ribbons and the like are easy to organize, unluckily, they still can pile up into spools of unused, old product.  Go through your ribbon and be HONEST with yourself.  Pick up each spool and decide:

Do I use it?
When is the last time I used it?
Does it work for me?  For instance, wide ribbons look great on the spool but not on my pages or cards so I can get rid of those easily.
Is it in good shape?
Is there enough of it to make keeping it worthwhile (less than a foot, toss it!!)
Is it easy to store?  Some of those old fibery strings are messy and not worth having.
Is it a color or texture that I will use?

Remember that there is very little that you own, product-wise, that can't be replaced if you end up REALLY needing it down the line so you really can let it go.

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Fourteen

Embellishments are a more of a problem to store than any other papercrafting supply in my opinion.  They come in all shapes and sizes and so many aren't in good storage bags making it difficult to organize into any one form of container.  We've talked about eyelets and brads already but I'm talking about everything else now, sparkles, embellishments specific to a paper set, glittery strips and swirls, twist ties, stickers, diecuts, and the list goes on and on. 

Let's talk about the new in package items you have.  If you've never opened it and have had it for more than a year, you really need to evaluate why.  Does it go with a particular paper pack or did you just like the way it looked and so you bought it on a whim?   If it's the latter, you probably need to get rid of it.  If it goes with a certain paper pack then you need to figure out why you haven't used the paper pack in that amount of time.  Letting paper and embellishments pile up year after year is not good for you!   It adds guilt to your life.  Believe me, I know.  When I was not decluttering on a regular basis I would look at everything I had and feel badly that there was so much.  That's not fun!  It doesn't bring joy to your life, folks!  If it makes you feel awful that you're not using some product, get rid of it! 

If it's new in package and not over a year old, you may keep it if it goes with a particular paper pack and if you have a SPECIFIC item for which you'll will use it.   Be honest with yourself on this one and don't keep what you will "get around to using someday." 

Now we get to the very difficult embellishments, the ones that are not new and are in partial packages.  I have problems with these myself because they are not usually given to someone else, people don't like used items.  I also know that there are times when just one or two of an embellishment is just what I need, especially on cards.  So, if you don't have THOUSANDS* of these partial packages you may keep them IF you go through them and evaluate carefully the ones that are worth keeping and not ALL OF THEM is not an answer.  Go do 15 minutes.

*If you do have thousands then be ruthless, you will never use them all so get rid of a lot of them.  Start with your least favorite and work backwards from there.

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Thirteen

The problem with albums is that we get carried away buying them, because we see a sale or a brand new type and we can't resist.  The problem is that we really shouldn't buy an album until we are ready to use it.

Albums take up a lot of space when they are full, we don't need to use up that same space in storing one that we may not end up using.

If you're like me, you may own a lot of albums that could be filled but you just haven't taken the time to put your pages in them.  If that's the case today, see if you can use your 15 minutes to get some pages in the albums.

If not, and you just have too many, take a look at them and really evaluate if you ARE going to use them.  Make sure they are not outdated, that you have the accessories you need for them and then make your decision.

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Twelve

Punches are another item that I find people hang onto tightly.  I don't quite get it in this day and age of Cricut machines and the like.  To me, punches are more trouble than they are worth, they are heavy, break easily, are difficult to maintain and hard to transport.  I also find that only a few of the punches I had when I owned many, were being used frequently enough to counteract the drawbacks.  So, if I can pry some of these from your hands, these are the questions you need to ask yourself.

How often, honestly, do I use this punch?  If the answer is rarely, off it goes.

Is storing or transporting this punch more difficult than the benefits I get from having it?

How many of one type of punch do I need?  For instance, you DON'T need to have a circle punch in every single size out there.

Can this shape be made faster and easier on my trimmer.  This includes all rectangles and squares, you really shouldn't need any punches in these shapes.

Just for your information, this is what I keep (I do own a Cricut).  I have circles in about three or four sizes plus one scalloped circle.  I own three hand punches (mentioned in the tools post) 1/4", 1/2" and 1/16".  That's it, anything else I can make on my trimmer and Cricut.  If my Cricut machine cut perfect circles I wouldn't even have the circle punches.  Go spend 15 minutes on your punches.

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Eleven

Adhesives are difficult because you absolutely need them and never know how many you might need when you begin a project or go away for a crafting weekend so I'll be a little easy on you about them.  What I do recommend is that you go through them and see which adhesives you have NOT been using.  Also, check to see what shape they are in, liquid glass, any kind of glue can get gummed up and rendered useless so toss those.

Here's what I keep:

Liquid glass - it's strong and also acts as an embellishment too!
Tombow or something similar with refills
Glue dots, large and small
Pop dots or 3d tape
Double stick tape (in a pinch this works, especially for cards)
Mailing tape - for when a box falls apart etc.
Glue pen - I can't live without mine for small items to glue

That's it, keep them all in the box or container so you have easy access.

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Ten

Let's talk about tools, baby.  This is another place where we tend to go overboard because, in most cases, you do not need more than one of each of these.  Here's the list of items where you only need one, if any:

Quilling tool
Bone folder
Edge distresser
Ruler
Mat
Large scissors
Small pointy scissors (I love ours because they are non-stick)
Stamp scrubber
Spray cleaner
Spray refill
Piercing Tool
Sanding kit
Cricut tool kit
Dry embossing tool
Tweezers
Pliers
Un-du
Glue Eraser
X-acto knife
Pencil
White eraser
Stapler
1 box staples
Hole punch 1/4"
Hole punch 1/8"
Hole punch 1/16"
Brayer
Corner rounder

There are more tools but that gives you the idea.  Here are tools where it's okay to have two or more:

Blending pens
Sponges (no more than two or three)
Daubers (one for each color is okay)
Spray pens (three is good)
Trimmers (1 large and 1 small for travel)
Cricut mats (but no more than three)
Journaling pen (one set)
Trimmer blades

Bag these up and give them to goodwill, go put in your 15 minutes.

Decluttering your Papercrafting Supplies - Day Nine

Inks are today's topic and it's another easy one.  Unless you teach classes like I do, you only need one of each color.  Get rid of:

Duplicate colors
Colors that are so similiar they are virtually the same
Any inks that are dry (and you don't have a matching reinker)
Any inks with broken cases
Any inks that are ragged (inks are cheap enough to replace)
Inks that leak
Inks you never use (yes there are some, do you CTMH girls remember taffy)
Inks you just don't need

This is going to be hard for some of you but it has to be said.  You do not need every ink in a set, whether it be every Close to my Heart ink or whatever brand.  A complete set does not make you a complete person!!!!  Keeping what you don't need or like is a BURDEN to you not a blessing.  Remember that and go take a 15 minute date with your inks.