Craft Room Clean Up

Yearly event..... so how to move things along so it is organized chaos?  Seems as I am crafting for Christmas I still have out supplies for BOO Day and Thanksgiving with no time to put things away before Christmas crafting begins.... or continues.... but long ago I figured out a system that works for me when things seem like everything in the craft room is on my work table or counters..... grrrrr

Used index cards from the Dollar Tree and a pack of their black binder clips. Cut the index cards in half and used Sharpie markers to write on the cards words that would help me sort through the mess faster so things could get back to their homes. Once that was done I used my laminating machine and laminated the cards and cut them out using my junk trimmer for plastic sheets and card board pieces. I punched a hole at the top of each card so I can keep these cards on a hook in my craft room. Here is a photo of the cards I had made long ago and use when cleaning/organizing:

The colours of Sharpies do not mean anything -- basically when I made the cards it was while I was organizing and whichever pen I pulled out I used on the cards. Only the holiday cards did I use colours for that holiday that would make sense to me. To start the sorting I grabbed some empty baskets on my shelf and I clipped on one of the cards on each basket and began sorting things I need to put away:

This photo is just a sample of a few of the baskets - these baskets I am using for die sorting on this day. The one on the left is "future projects" which are dies that I bought between Oct and Dec that I want to use soon. The middle basket "new products" are dies that I bought during the Black Friday sales and I plan to use them in future projects but many of them are for Christmas projects for next year. The "Christmas" basket has die sets I used this year - bow dies, box dies, etc.. The "future products" bin I will keep out on the worktable as I am starting my crafting for Valentine's Day and I will be using those products soon and this way I have my items together so I won't forget about something I wanted to make. 

When I do this sorting after the holiday season - Fall, BOO Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas I sort each type of product - dies first, stamps, then inks, trims, etc..This way I have a basket with each type of product in it and it is easier to put things away -- IE  all inks are kept in one area, I store each holiday dies in that bin for that holiday, etc.. Once I get done sorting and putting things away I remove the binder clips and put the laminated tags away with the rest of them until my next clean up. Baskets are easily stored empty as they stack and go back on the shelf. Before I made my laminated tags each time I did the sorting I would have to stop and label my baskets as to what I was sorting.... this way I have a stack of the laminated labels ready to go each time.