Creating the Ultimate Scrapbooking Room- Organization, tools

When it comes to scrapbook room organization, first and foremost is room layout. Now comes the placement of your tools. Are they easily accessible? Are all of your scrapbooking/paper crafting tools located in one general area or are they spread out all over the place because of poor organization and/or lack of space?

Have you ever heard of the term "rabbit holing it"? It's where you come home with scrapping tools and paper and just "put them" where you have space. I knew someone who would lose items and end up re-buying the exact same things- once she bought the same tool 3 times because she forgot where she put it. My friend has been reformed with help from yours truly (and yes she reads my blog-this will make her laugh). But honestly,there's not a one of us that has not ever has been guilty "rabbit holing". I know that I have and your probably guilty too, LOL!

There are a few different ways to tackle this and the one one that has worked the best for me is to have a designated "work area". Have an assigned place for your tools, from scissors, rulers,paper trimmers to the big paper cutters, Sizzix, Quickutz, Cuttle Bug and Cricut. Does this "work area" have elbow room? Where you can spread out your tools and use them? Is there adequate storage near this assigned work area for your tools- or at least for your frequently used tools? There's lots to think about when creating your work space. Do you have tools that you aren't using? Or ones that you use so infrequently that if you really think about it they are just taking up valuable space?

An easy solution for tool organization is the peg board. We've seen this stuff above our husbands work area in the garage. I had this in my littlest scrapbook nook and loved it! Everything was right there at my finger tips and the hooks were easy to move around to accommodate items of various sizes.. So hunting for scissors or rulers, all my needs where right in front of me. Another tool is the rail system. Through a series of "hooks" that can slide back and forth you can hang your tools and other items such as embellishments- similar in concept to the peg board but not requiring a large block of space but rather a horizontal area long enough to accommodate the rail and items hanging from it. I bought mine at Ikea (in the kitchen section) and was surprised at how inexpensive they were and there's these cool baskets that you can hang from them as well (nothing was more than £3 or $5 US), plus the hooks of course. I have one basket that I'm hanging from my work station for things I want to have right there or things that I can place there that will need to be put away when I'm done using them.

I know that I need to post pictures of these things I'm talking about (that's a New Years Resolution I'm still working on from last 2 years, LOL!). I also need to go on another Ikea run- I've got a cubby space to fill and I know exactly what I want to fill it with :-)