Boxes crammed full of photo's, plastic bags full of rubber stamps I have not taken the time to cut out and mount on the wood, dried out glue sticks, embossing powder, and paper all falling out of my closet when I open it. A mad dash to find a perfect sticker you had for a birthday card you need to finish today, and you cant seem to remember where you put it. Where oh where is that embossing heat gun? Could it still be in your son's room after he tried to heat up some ants he found? Does that sound familiar to any one? How do you control the madness of all the scrapbook clutter?

We have some fun ideas to help organize your scrapping space and to bring order to your scrapping bins, bag, or whatever you may use. We have tried to keep things simple and inexpensive. Can you give up 20 minutes a day to get organized for good? Let's begin!

The most important thing of all in the organization of scrapping supplies is being able to SEE all that you have. We have some solutions for keeping things in plain sight.

• CLEAR CONTAINERS: are a great tool for being able to see what you have and what you don't have. Clear shoe box sized containers are wonderful for your paints, rubber stamps, ribbon, punches and embossing powders, your adhesives ad many more scrapping supplies. You can stack them, and you can see inside to locate what you need easily.
• PAPER: is easily stored in stackable office storage files, or cut out storage containers so you can see inside without moving the container off the shelf. Cropper Hopper has some great vertical storage containers so you can see what colors you have on hand, and you can sort my color and type of paper as well. Office supply stores also have sturdy card board containers that have many different full sheet paper slots to store your paper. I keep one color of card stock in each slot, and have a slot for different specialty papers, and one for patterned papers.
• EMBELLISHMENTS: There are great containers at Target and Wal Mart that are clear, and have different compartments for buttons, brads and other embellishments. I have also seen a great container at Michaels with different compartments. If your container is not see through. Glue one of the particular embellishments on the outside of the compartment so you know what is inside.
• LABEL LABEL LABEL!: If you have a label on each container, you will know what you are out of if you take a look and a container happens to be empty. It's and easy way to keep track of everything. You can use a label maker like Dynamo, or something as simple as masking tape and a sharpie to label the outside of each container.
• PUT AWAY: When you get home from the scrapbooking store, and you have bags of new things, put away everything in the right container right away! This also goes for when you get home from a crop party at a friends home, or a day of card making. If you put everything back where it belongs, you will stay organized.
• KEEP A RUNNING LIST: It's a good idea to have a list handy to write on at all times to jot down page ideas, an item that you just remembered that you need, thoughts for journaling, or any other item you may want or need to remember. It's also a good place to write down a fun new store you discover when you are out and about. I keep a small note book in my purse to write down my list.

Start with 20 minutes a day. Take some time to start organizing, and you will be amazed at how much more you will accomplish, how much easier it is to sit down to scrap, and how proud of yourself you will be. Don't get discouraged. It can take a while, so just take a piece at a time, and work to make your space a user friendly, efficient place. Take our ideas and add your own, and you will be surprised at how much you will enjoy yourself!