Sunday, February 2, 2014

Stuff's Gotta Go

I recently got back from a weekend of scrapbooking with a few friends. It is one of my hobbies (with the others being reading, decluttering, and now blogging), and it is not pretty. The finished pages are pretty, but the supplies and the STUFF, well, that's just a plain old mess, is what it is.

This is the rear of my basement:


It's hard to see, but there's sort of a desk in the left corner that is supposed to be my scrapping area. However, stuff has moved from there onto the extra bed and is slowly creeping across the room. (To be fair, not all of this stuff is mine. My husband has a bookcase behind that bed that contains only his stuff. I mean to work on getting him to go through it one of these days.)

It's easy to ignore this area. I haven't scrapped in a year and I don't go into this area of the basement that much. My boys play video games down there, but they don't care what it looks like. And it's not heated, so it's cold. But I don't want it to be another year before I scrap again, so I must fix this mess.

My goal for this area is twofold: 1) I need to reduce the amount of scrapbooking stuff that I have because I NEVER USE IT, and 2) I want to make the corner desk area workable again.

I plan to start working on this as my next project. I need to schedule with a local charity to make a pickup because if I don't, then it may stay that way until the spring thaw.

8 comments:

  1. Scrapbooking is my weakness too! I hope to get back to it but it's hard with a very very busy 14 month old! It will be the last area of decluttering for me for sure.

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    1. I did not get into scrapbooking until my older son was about 8, but still, here they are now 14 and 17 and the only time I usually scrap is if I go away for a weekend to do just that. It's hard for me to get into a groove and get my creative juices going, and when I do, that's when I don't want to stop!

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  2. I can't wait to see the after pictures or in process pictures of this room. It is a very pretty room. Patricia

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    1. Patricia, thanks for reading. Pics of the scrap corner coming shortly!

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  3. I have switched to doing digital scrapbooks. I bought a program for my computer called Scrapbook Factory. You create online and then print the page 8 1/2 X 11 and put in a page protector in a photo album. It has eliminated all of the mess and extras's.

    Nita

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    1. Nita, thanks for commenting! I have thought about going digital, but I really do like the paper crafting part of it all. I should try an online program though for smaller books and see how I like it. When I think of digital, I mostly think of ordering books from an online photo service, and I know those can be pricey. But doing it at home and printing on your printer...hmmm I may have to give it a try.

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  4. When I started scrapping it was an unheard of hobby in the UK. There were a handful of art shops that sold some cardstock and paper but otherwise we had to buy online from the US. I scrapped more in those early days than I ever do now. I was ALWAYS up to date on my photos! Now I have far more stash than I will ever use and I hardly ever scrap. I think it's because I have too much choice. When I had very little I didn't spend hours choosing embellishments or stamps because I had so little to choose from. I am packing most of my stash up and putting it on ebay, not because I want to give up scrapping but because I want to get back to it.

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    1. Yes! I get OVERWHELMED with all of the stuff I have and don't end up using 3/4 of it. I refuse to buy anything more until I've used most of my stash. I might buy something really specific, for example the name of a city that we visit, but other than that, I'm no longer buying something because it's on sale. I haven't been to a crafts store in over a year. I need to visit one soon because I need adhesive, but other than that, I'm staying out of the scrapbooking aisle!

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