Organizing My Scrap Tote

Well part of my 2013 goal is, as usual, to get things organized.  A previous post had me organizing a few various things in my apartment, so I have been on this mini kick for quite some time.  I tend to grow tired of clutter after a while, and I like to make processes as easy and fast as possible.  For instance, I like to keep the bowls I use the most for mixing in the cabinet right above where I mix...clearly the best spot for them.  To someone who likes to have bowls with bowls and things of that origin...my most easily accessed cabinet would seem completely random.  To me, it is the essentials.

Likewise, I wanted my scrapbook tote to have the same ease of access.  Following, will be pictures and descriptions of how I arranged mine:

I like to put my little embellishments in my cricut cartridge boxes.  I keep all of my cartridges in one or two of these boxes and all of the keyboard mats in another.  This doesn't fill up all of my boxes, so I like to use the leftover boxes to store these flowers.

I got a sewing machine for Christmas and my mom also got me boxes of thread.  I was going to toss the boxes after putting my thread in my sewing box, but I decided that they would be great to store little findings and things in from my jewelry stuff.  I had this chain but did not want it to get all tangled.  I wrapped it around my hand and then secured it with wire to make sure it did not wrap around everything.

Command strips come in really neat boxes sometimes, so I made it my odds and ends container.  I had seen a couple different ways to upcycle gift cards, in case you are wondering why they are there.  I also kept my remaining command strips in there.  That is ok, because it is an odds and ends container after all.

I don't really understand the point of putting markers in these loops, because markers almost come in their own box or similar that stores them just fine.  So instead, I use these loops for things that just roll around and get in my way, or that I barely use.  My sponge brushes, cricut spatula, and cricut inks all found a home in here.

These two rolls of string have been unrolling and getting on my nerves for quite some time.  My solution is to put them in this netted compartment.  This will keep them in place, and I can feed the string through the holes and unravel it as needed.  I think that putting ribbon on small spools leftover from thread or wire and storing it in these compartments would be super handy!

I like to get various 31 bags and totes, and this one is like a mini tool bag.  It has a big compartment on the outside and small pockets around the outside.  I rolled up my small pieces of fabric and put them in the pockets around the outside.  I folded my larger fabric pieces and put them in the big compartment.  This fits right in on top of all of my other crafty bits in the tote.

As you can see by this picture, I finally found my other cricut inks.  The plastic organizer in the bottom has all of my beads, mostly separated by color.  This thing houses all the stuff I used most often.  I like to keep my cricut books and other paper things in the pockets so that they do not get bent.  I keep my inks on the bottom of the large tote section because I am absolutely paranoid about them leaking. The cricut boxes easily stand on end and fill in the gaps. 

After all of that, it is a process of stacking a few organized boxes on other organized boxes and filling in the spaces so that things don't shift all around.  A few random other things go in the pockets around the outside, such as my puffy paint in a larger side pocket and some tools such as hole punches in the front pockets.  The little fabric tote comes in on top of all of this and it all closes up really neatly. 

It does not look super awesome, but I like to think of it as a lot of little bits of awesome all stacked neatly on top of each other.  My goal is to keep this same concept in mind as I begin to organize my craft studio. My goal is to have little organizers here and there that make a larger and better organized craft space than anything I have ever managed before!