Cleaning up scrapbooking and sorting part 1

[Utah Ann]

Sorting paper - I have enough paper to last me forever and beyond.  I have stopped buying any paper.  Now am trying to purge ..........

I am starting with fiber paper - I love it all, but some is pretty thick and/or the pattern is so predominant that  I am not sure how to add - it could be used as a border  - help me decide what to do with it. 

                             

[Far North]

Ann I don't think anyone has a magical formula that would work for everyone but I do think we can look at how much we use our products. And from there make a decision. I recently took a class on downsizing for & with Seniors...most of us will eventually downsize to smaller homes.  My best take away is not to do it all at once.  Things that are hard to make decisions about....keep for round 2. The goal of round 1 is to make enough clear space to have room to organize what you do keep.  The 2nd round is serious downsizing...and maybe a 3rd round will be necessary.

I am taking a hard look at all printed paper......I have not bought much in years so this is probably very old design. First I'm tossing all ugliness;  then kiddo appropriate designs to separated to go to child care facilities and adult designs to our women's shelter.

Handmade fiber papers-I bought many 36" sheets that are rolled up like a tube of wrapping paper....I am now cutting them down to 8.5 x11 sheets and keeping 3-4 sheets so I will not have more that 1 drawer full along with more current pieces I have bought or made. 

I am not down-sizing my specialty papers like foils, glossy, vellum, acetate, watercolor, kraft, etc...I want more time to think about that group.

Plain color cardstock....This is my largest group since in my early years of stamping the only thing I could buy was packets of 24 or 36 sheets of one color...but then of course I wanted newer colors.  Now I am keeping 4-6 full sheets depending how much I love the color. Good-bye to the rest.

The other item I worked on this week was ribbon...I looked at my gallery and general gallery and the first 2 pages of the AI gallery had minimal or no ribbon used.  Again most of my ribbon/fibers are from the early days when I couldn't buy any locally.  I still had lots of fluffy fibers I don't even see any longer.  So I carefully selected my top favorites and kept one small box.  The rest is bagged and labelled for distribution.

Ann please keep up informed of your progress.

[howdyheidi]

This is difficult!

I am currently sorting out stuff in other areas of the house, but I may need to look at my 6x6 pads, there are some that I may be able to get rid of.

[Utah Ann]

Once I get my craft space (floor and table tops) I can move on to other areas.  I have been hard at work on this craft room off and on for two weeks, occasionally, I run into some product in the craft room that I need to do know to make more room. 

I wish we had a downsizing class somewhere in my area. 

The fiber papers I decided to only keep the 2 sheets of the  colors or patterns that I really liked and the rest went into a bag for local thrift store.  Had 12 by 12 and on down in size to small pads.

I am going to reach out my church and friends to see where donations of paper would be well come.

Thanks so much for your responses.  Far North, I think I am going to print your response and tape it to a cupboard. 

[Iring]

I wish we had a downsizing class somewhere in my area. 

Me too!

I'm wondering ... by fiber paper, are you referring to mulberry paper? 

I have some too I'm sure ... I can't remember the last time I used it, but it's so cool!  Haha!  I think you were smart to just keep your very favorites.
If you use it up, I'm sure you will be able to find more.  And then, just buy only what you need for a specific project.  One project I can think of to use some up, is to cover a book with it ... maybe a composition notebook, blank sketch book or steno pad.

I've just taken up crocheting again.  This time, I'm trying hard to only buy yarn I need for a specific project, and then finish that project.  I want to stay away from building a "stash".  I haven't been completely successful, in that I have more than one project going at a time ... but I'm trying to confine the yarn to only what fits in an over the door shoe rack on the back of the craft room door.  Not there yet ... but I'm trying.  And I've actually had yarn in my cart at Hobby Lobby and taken it out and put it back on the shelf!  So that's progress!

Good luck on your downsizing.  I desperately need to declutter my craft space too, so I'm interested in hearing what you decide to keep and toss/donate.

I like the idea of posting Jan's words of wisdom where you can refer often!

[Utah Ann]

Yes, I think it was probably called mulberry paper, but I forgot the name. 

I am still working on it, but with summer comes my favorite part.  My grandson comes over often and so have slowed down, but am going to get back to it this week as he is going camping with his dad.