Organizing MY Stuff Pt 1

I came across this wonderful "Organize Your Stuff" challenge on Two Peas last week and although I had already started going through my scrapbooking stuff this was an even bigger motivator. It was created specifically for scrapbook supplies and focuses on one area each week. You can either search for it in the Two Peas Message Boards (they are currently on week 10 - Alphas) or visit Wookiemouse's blog where each week is already posted and you can work through it at your own pace.

I had already purged/organized my scraps and papers and organized my embellishments. Next they talked about storing "ideas" and I had already created my colorful "Ideas & Sketches" notebook but when they mentioned magazines Wookiemouse made an excellent point... "I found it was much easier to flip through an idea book essentially tailor-made for me, rather than several magazines that had a handful of what I was looking for."

So I started grabbing 2 or 3 magazines at a time, when I had time to just sit and flip through... Sitting in front of the tv, sitting by the tub while kids take a bath, sitting down to eat... Luckily I had already gone through each magazine as it came in and marked things with a red pen that caught my interest. Going back now though it was interesting to see how some things I had marked didn't interest me anymore and others that weren't marked did catch my eye.

I stashed the clipped out ideas in a big envelope then went through and separated them by number of photos, I also added a category for layouts that I liked specifically for the title/theme and a category for mini albums/other projects. Next step is to now glue each layout to an index card (I cut 5"x8" cards in half) and file them in a coupon-size accordian
file.

When I'm done with each magazine I stick them all in a box that I will be able to donate or giveaway when I'm done with them all. I'm doing the same with my stack of cooking magazines also, but those will be sorted into a 3-ring binder later.