New Year/New Organization

Happy New Year to all!
I thought I would share with you how I reorganized my cardstock scraps since it seems like the new year is a good time to wipe the slate clean and get a fresh start on things.

I keep my scraps of cardstock in this file. In some ways it works very well. It keeps each color separate. Say I was looking for a red scrap (I kept all shades of each color all in one folder) I would just grab the folder marked red.

But once I opened the folder it just seemed to take me a long time to find  what I was looking for especially if I was looking for a small scrap. My folders had gotten so full especially the colors that I tend to use the most that when I would go through the folder pieces would fall out and I had a hard time finding the smaller pieces as they would get lost among the larger scraps. So if I was in a hurry or just didn't want to go through the hassle of the messing with the overflowing folders I would just grab a new sheet of cardstock. Of course that was just making more scraps to go in my already full folders.

 

This is a photo of the folder once I had taken out all the small scraps. All that is left in the folders now are pieces of cardstock that are larger then 5"x7" or strips that are too long to fit in the with the smaller scraps.

I now am storing the scraps that are 5"x7" or smaller in this old photo container that I was no longer using.

I didn't spend any time on making it look pretty as I wanted to make sure that I was happy with the system before spending time making it look nice. I have to say I really like the system. For dividers I just cut chipboard to fit the size of the box and punched out labels of each color group and stapled it to the top of the chipboard divider. I have used it a few times now and it seems to work really well. I know if I need a piece of cardstock about the size of an A2 card or smaller to look in this box first. It is big enough to hold all the scraps and allows me enough room to browse through with ease.

Here is a top view:

Like I said it isn't pretty but I really like having the smaller scraps separated. I am finding what I want faster and using up more of my scraps this way.

I plan on sharing with you some pictures of my craft/office room It is nothing fancy but I am so happy to have a room with all my things in one place. It saves me so much time.

Do you have any organizing ideas that work well for you?