Organizing Tips

[Former_Member]

I am the type of person that always needs to be organized. Being a shop owner that creates paper good, my craft room tends to becomes chaotic quite often. If you have a system that works for you or items that you use to keep you organized, please share. I am looking for ideas to keep me organized or to get better organized.

Thank you!

[CaliforniaCrownJewel]

Well, I find it interesting that no one has posted any ideas. I certainly don't have any, but am waiting along with you Krystina;-)
I guess we are all a bit disorganized.
Jewel

[mirrymirry]

I'm not organised but help myself by doing the usual; keeping all my packaging in one place, my materials in one place, my shop cards, thank you notes, stickers, swing tags in one spot & my made items carefully stored in hamper baskets in the cupboard.

The obvious right? ;)

[MariasWorkshop]

I am constantly struggling with organization. I have three shops and two of them are on vacation in part because I am in the process of reorganizing and I wanted to change my pictures.

I have learned the hard way and I am hoping to get some ideas from this thread.

I am fully aware that jewelry is totally different from paper goods, but, in a nutshell, here is what has somewhat worked for me:

I separate all my beads, findings, etc. by type of bead (vintage, Swarovski, Czech, gemstones, etc.) and organize them by color in divided boxes. I place a note in each division stating the price I paid, the vendor's name, whether it was on sale and the vendor’s item number. I thought about just numbering the items and making a list in my computer, but this way I have the information readily available.

I keep those boxes in metal shelves in my studio. The boxes are labeled in large letters for easy recognition (I am a senior and my eyesight is not as good as it used to be).

When I finish a piece of jewelry, I place it in a plastic bag and insert a piece of paper recording the time I spent making it, and the price and quantity of each supply I used. I placed all the finished items in a large plastic box labeled with the name of each of my shops and the word "photograph". After I gather several items (sometimes too many) I photograph them. When I finish photographing, the item goes into a different box labeled with the name of each shop and the word "list" and after listing and giving each item an identifying number, I place it in a box labeled with the name of the pertinent shop and the word "sell".

I realize that I am dealing with very small items and they take less space, but I went crazy buying beads and they just mushroomed and overtook my studio and I needed to be more methodical.

I also keep my shipping materials in an old chest of drawers. Each drawer is assigned for specific items: wrapping paper, scissors, tape, stickers, jewelry boxes, ribbon, etc. I keep my scale on top of the chest for easy access.

I am eager to hear and learn from what other Team members have to say.

[StripesAndChevron]

Hi Krystina! I design digital cards instead of paper goods, but as a teacher still need to stay organized. I have a couple of things like these and I find they really help:

http://www.michaels.com/recollections-mobile-storage-tower/10197918.html

If you have a Michael's near you they have lots of options for craft storage! I love this one too:

http://www.michaels.com/10109501.html#start=3

Hope this helps!

[Former_Member]

Thank you all for your tips!

I will definitely look into the options that Michael's has.

I can't wait to see what other ideas are out there.

[MariasWorkshop]

I thought I would add this link:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-4-Shelf-36-in-W-x-14-in-L-x-54-in-H-Storage-Unit-31436PS-YOW/10065630...

This is the type of unit I use. You can adjust the height of the shelves. I love mine. They are very useful to place large or small plastic boxes on them and they are very sturdy.

[RomaMiaTradingCo]

I am finally starting to reorganize my items.

Since I sell at craft fairs part of the year, I try and organize as to how it will make it easier for me to a) transport b) make set up as easy as possible.

I have all my hats and coffee cozies in one wooden crate. I have my onesies and dresses in another plastic crate. I have my styrofoam heads in another crate. In one of those rolling cart things, I have all my misc craft fair items. I also have a shelving unit thats portable that I have capes hung up on it, and when I'm not using it for shows, I put the books and needles that I am selling on one of the shelves with my bubble wrap on the other shelf.

For my other shipping supplies, i got one of those shoe organizers that you hang in your closet, have that hanging up with everything in there.

For all my yarn, well, i bought a double hamper from ikea and have it all in there.

[Former_Member]

Thanks for all the tips! I have been searching for ideas myself and came across some examples. Once I gather all the links, I will share them. Keep the ideas coming!

[Plektra]

Maybe not many people have commented as we are all struggling with organisation? And the endless accumulation of stuff? Sigh! :)

I like plastic containers for most things as I can see what's inside. I am blessed with good amount of space so I can't say I struggle. I only buy what I need and make sure I use all materials so I don't have too much of stuff that I don't know what to do with.

And I make lists to organise my tasks / things to do. I also try to avoid procrastinating as I dislike clutter of any kind.

[CircusOfCelebrations]

Hi Krystina,
I shared some organization tips a couple of weeks ago, when asked about time management. Here's a bit of that thread:
1. Organization- I've added pull-out ribbon organizers in my cabinet, shelves and baskets attached to the walls, and a paper sorting tray is even mounted to the wall (all in my laundry room). It's amazing how much time I was losing trying to find things and pick up when everything fell over. It's wrecks your train of thought.
__ Just to expand on that, the paper orgaznizing tray fit under the cabinet, above my top loading washing machine. I run my business from the laundry room! I got it at Costco earlier this year, because it was the only one I found that holds paper at an angle, rather than straight up and down like the plastic office ones. I needed to get things up on the walls. It's sturdy metal, mounts to the wall, or not, and the projection from the wall is less than 10".
The shelves are like 4 inches deep, and have a ledge all around. Perfect for holding my glitters and another couple for acrylic paint bottles. One big cute metal wall-mount basket holds all my glues and artist medium bottles, and my templates and patterns in a folder.

The back of the side exit door has a canvas (so it's not ugly) shoe organizer filled with things I need to store but can't have a million little bins for. And flat things are in a paper organizer/ sorter thing I got from the office supply store. It's made of cardboard so it was inexpensive and assembled easily. It's shallow enough to fit on a half depth shelf in the laundry room, above the vertical ribbon spool holders I had my hubby make.
I don't want to post the stores where I bought the items, but they were all inexpensive and I could not find anyone here on Etsy making exactly what I needed, I checked here first. If anyone has a question about a particular thing I described, they can contact me through my store about that item.

2. Clean up after each step. Whether I'm painting, building, or shipping, if my space isn't clean then things get messed up, mixed up or slowed down. This is a new commitment for me. If we don't put things back in the boxes and bins, they don't help us much.
I don't know if any of this is helpful to you. My point is, I have very little workspace, so I need everything off of it, but within easy reach.

[Former_Member]

Cindy,

Thank you so much for the information. I have actually been thinking about moving my crafting room into our laundry room. I have the perfect counter in there! I currently craft out of my home office and at times it can be very chaotic. Thank you again for the tips, I now have a better vision for my laundry/craft room.

[UnexpectedTreasure]

Since my sewing room looks like a bomb recently went off I have no organizational tips to offer. LOL

[CozyDawg]

The exact organizing structure is going to vary for everyone, as we all have different products, workflows and work spaces. I am a fan of keeping everything tidy at all times. You should be able to start work at your station, and have everything you need within an arms reach. This maximizes efficiency, as you will not have to leave your station to complete the task.

Myself, I have three workstations in my small studio room. One is for fabric cutting (transitions into shipping/packaging), second is sewing and third is my ironing board, which doubles as a staging area. At my cutting station I have all the tools I need to cut everything within an arms reach. All my rulers, shears and rotary cutters, and patterns are located here. I also have a trash can here. At my sewing station, I have scissors, threads, sewing notions and another trash can. Yes, some of the tools here are duplicates of what I have at the cutting station. This is necessary to keep me from going back and forth.

Minimize the back and forth, minimize the time you spend looking for tools, maximize productivity. If you have time look up 5 S system. A lot of my organization is based on this system.

[sherischart]

After consolidating as well as down sizing my studio brick-n-mortar over the years to the home I have resorted to IKEA children's storage units TROFAST storage combinations with boxes; completed with additional assortment of boxes and baskets and wall organizers. The initial investment was affordable to most storage units and their storage boxes can go mobile with me wherever. Their STUVA storage combinations are endless with possibilities. I figured if the system didn't grow well it could certainly be re purposed for our grandchildren.

[SageNThymeDesigns]

Have you looked on Pinterest? That's my most favorite site for organizing ideas. I'm a sewer, so that poses a different set of challenges, but I've definitely found some great ideas and pictures that have helped inspire me. I personally like to reuse and upcycle stuff (yay for thrift stores!) and there's lots of ways to organize small stuff with recycled materials. All of my buttons are sorted in an old spice rack which makes it pretty easy to see what I need to restock. The whole thing sits on my desk and I can spin it around for the color and size I need.

Here's my craft room board for reference.
https://www.pinterest.com/joannescarbeary/craft-room/

[Former_Member]

As I was browsing through some websites, I came across this item call the workbox 2.0. It looked pretty cool and I thought I should investigate it a bit more. Needless to say, I loved the item. It is a bit expensive but I think it is very much worth it. My goal is to have this in my possession in about a year.
I have posted a link to the item as well as a link with a mini video.

http://www.theoriginalscrapbox.com/products/the-workbox-2-0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL3VCfi0-cg

[MariasWorkshop]

Thanks for sharing those links Krystina.