A tub full!

Hey, everyone!!

I am not sure if all this winter weather that has kept me cooped up in the house is bringing on my desire to get things cleaned up, thinned out and organized, or if it's just an early spring cleaning feeling coming on, but I have been bit by the organization bug! Do you ever get like that? Just want to tear apart a drawer in your kitchen and take everything out, put things back nice and neat and get rid of the things you held onto for no apparent reason? Me, too! I have started this in the kids' closets and then I went through some of the kitchen cabinets and my scrap space is now the new target! Man what a target it is! So big I can't miss it! LOL

I have been bending the ear of my dear friend, Christina, who has so patiently helped me with a lot of decisions on what to keep, how to organize it, where to put everything so it flows the best. This is not an easy task when you're like 20 hours away from someone! But she is amazing like that. She comes up with ideas that are probably no big deal to her and I am like, "Whoa! I never thought of that!" So I found some canvas totes at the Dollar Tree and I mentioned to her that I'd like to get some of them and have everything looking pretty and uniform on my bookshelf. It would cost me nearly $20 to get all the totes I wanted. I didn't get them that day but I went back, fully intending to get 8 or 9 of them just to see if I would like them. They had them all on the end cap, most had been picked over by that time and I really was hesitant. I put them in my cart and strolled around. I let the kids pick a toy each (aren't I a big spender? LOL) and then I proceeded to the section of plastic baskets and bins. I liked a few of them but they had holes in the sides and I really wanted solid bases so nothing would fall out or be seen from the outside. I moved on and there on the last aisle was a stack of black tubs. I thought about it, knew it would be much easier to find more of those than it would the designed canvas totes so I grabbed 8 tubs and proceeded to the check out. Want to see how well they are working so far?
The first tub here has all my inks, sponges, daubers, and refills. I love having it all in one place. The large clam shell case holds 6 of my Ink Spot sets. I have 3 more to purchase and then I will have all our colors. One of the medium size clam shell cases holds 3 sets so that is perfect!

This next tub is for all my adhesives. I don't have it all in there yet but there is plenty of room for more. I have a lot of my glue sticks, glue pens, Xyron and refills, pop dots and glue dots, tape runners and refills, etc. It's really nice to have ONE place to look for my tape runner instead of multiple which is a huge time saver!

This is probably the area that needed to be corraled the worst and makes me feel the happiest everytime I see it! I had envelopes of all sizes and colors in every direction! I had the top shelf of my bookcase crammed with them and could never find what I needed when I had to! So, I just grabbed them all and laid them all out on my bed by size and popped them into this tub! Instant gratification! I can grab a note card on the left there, create a fun card, pick an envelope it coordinates with and I am good to go! Love this!

Here are the six tubs I was able to get organized in a surprisingly short amount of time, while my children were playing so well together. After being snowed in for such a long time they were starting to wear on each other's nerves but they've had a break, gone out of the house and played and now enjoy playing together again... for a while! Maybe I can get the other two tubs filled and who knows; maybe I can pick up a few more tubs, too! Thanks for hanging out with me today! I hope you will share your organizing tips with me! I am always eager to hear more ideas. If you haven't had a chance to get a card made for my little motivational give-away, you still have time! Read here for all the details.

Angel Hugs,