My New "Organized & Inspired" Scrap Room

I promised in my previous post about the book The Organized & Inspired Scrapbooker that I would show you my reorganized room when it was finished! So, minus a few finishing details, here is what I did to overhaul my space.

(If you would like an idea what my room looked like before the overhaul, visit the photo gallery of a previous arrangement of it on this site here. I had changed the arrangement somewhat since those photos but the concept was still the same - the table in the middle of the room, lots of plastic drawers, two bookcases, the cubes, and a plastic drawer cart.)

After reading the "Organized & Inspired" book and evaluating my previous space based on their quizzes (to which there are no wrong answers - they are more like personality quizzes to establish what you need), I decided my space needed wholesale change. I also needed to make some changes to the other side of the room to accommodate a new desktop computer system in my office area instead of a laptop. And I had been unhappy for some time with the "functional" look of my space. It wasn't exactly pleasing to the eye and it is a room that I spend hours in every day since I work at home and it does dual duty as both scrap room and office.

The first thing that happened was that I decided I needed to simplify. A lot of things had to go. The clutter was distracting me while scrapping. A lot of things were sitting unused and just taking up space. A big box of stuff has been removed and will be donated, given away or sold when I have a chance to sort through it.

The next thing that happened was that I decided that except in the closet and for two 12" x 12" units in the room, the plastic drawers were history. They were inefficient, since the drawers were often half-empty, and ugly to look at. Some were given away, some repurposed in other parts of the house (in closets), and the rest donated.

After all of this, I was able to get rid of one of the bookcases, and I decided that the desk would go against the wall. It's not the best for light, and I am a little claustrophobic sometimes sitting against the wall. But it made the room feel much bigger and less cluttered.

The closet now houses only stuff that I don't need to see to know that I have, things like adhesive refills, paintbrushes, and extra sandpaper. That seems to be working really well.

The result of all this change is dramatic. See for yourself:

All of these changes were made for only a little over $150! The baskets on the bookcase are all from Michael's, bought on sale for 50% off. They allow me to be able to have a lot of my things out where I can sort of see them. Because I have realized that if I can't see something I won't use it. But yet the baskets look nice while still making things somewhat visible.

The 3 drawer cubes are from Target and cost about $25 each. The same ones are also available at many craft chains. The shelves on the wall came from Lowe's and were very inexpensive. They let my ribbon and buttons be seen by me and also be decoration for the room. (I already had the containers for those but they weren't well used.)

Another angle of the desk area:

There were some unexpected benefits to moving the table out of the middle of the room. My 4 year-old daughter immediately brought her new toddler sized papasan chair in the room, set up camp in the middle of the floor and now likes to play or read in here while I work or scrap. That may not sound like a benefit in a room that is supposed to be Mommy's getaway at times, but most of the time it is a joy. And when Bridget is not using her chair, the cat thinks it is a great place to "supervise" me from while I work or scrap.

I still need to add labeling tags to the baskets and the drawers, but so far I am very pleased with the function - and the form - of my newly reorganized and inspired space!