Oops, it's been quiet again for some time here, so it's good that someone asked me to post photos of some of my storage solutions when we talked about them. I am sure that there are a lot more fancy ways of storing supplies and tools, but they work for me and I think they are easy to customise to the needs of scrapbookers, cardmakers and other creative people.
Most items are not specifically made for crafting, and whilst I do not intend to promote any specific shop you may find that IKEA or Dänisches Bettenlager (if you live in or are close to Germany) are worth a trip. Aldi (again in Germany) also sometimes has great things.
Let's start with a little tour of my favourite room of the house - clockwise:
The shelves are from IKEA - they are discontinuing the Expedit line and replace it with shelves with thinner frames, but apparently the same inside measurements. The drawer unit (Alex) and the wooden trolley table are also from IKEA (Bekväm). The Expedit on the left used to be my bookshelf in the living room and the trolley table used to be in the kitchen before I moved. The small white cart is from Aldi and the turquoise trolley is from IKEA again (Raskog) - see my earlier post.
More Expedit - two of the 2x2 units are cheaper, more flexible and easier to assemble than the 2x4 unit:
All furniture is IKEA again. The drawer unit on the left is great for 12x12 papers. The lower drawer originally has two inside drawers. I have just put one of them in to have enough room for papers in hanging file folders. The TV is ancient (got it in 1995 and it is still working) and the piece underneath also used to be in my living room. The Billy shelf was a new addition for the craft room.
I love the cart for hanging file folders, which I got from a friend who no longer needed it - again perfect for papers. I keep my kits in them.
Now off to some detail on storage. I have shown my Project Life box in an ealier post:
I just added a bit of embellishment to a cardboard box I got at Aldi's for 5 EUR or so. Inside divicders were easy to add, and I now have drawers for 4x6 cards, 3x4 cards, mini kits (including the box) and assorted embellishments and little things (aka decorative clutter). Aldi has these about twice a year.
This is another size of the cardboard boxes (three drawers), and the fit into the Expedit inserts with a little bit of extra space left:
I keep my ink pads in the top one and scraps in the lower ones.
Two of the Alex drawers:
The other drawers hold glue, border punches, Chipboard and spare page protectors, plus of course a bit of clutter. But overall Alex is reasonably tidy. By the way, the Prima greenhouse at the top is originally made for cutlery and available from Butler's (Germany).
On the trolley table there is drawer unit for screws, nails etc., which I use for punched items, metal embellishments and various other little things. The little jars mostly hold wood veneers.
IKEA has a very cheap storage solution for Thickers - with a handy handle in the middle. It also fits into the Raskog cart.
The handle is useful if I need to open the bottom drawer of the screws box:
There is extra space for tapes on the side of the Raskog cart - the hooks are from Tesa, held with removable, but strong "Power Strips", which are available in supermarkets. The black things on the side are intended for kitchen racks, but they are cheap, they fit and are therefore great.
The divided plastic holder in the middle is also from IKEA, perfectly divided for Project Life cards or other items up to a length of about 6 inches.
The two boxes below are from IKEA's Samla range and also fit perfectly into the cart. I normally don't need the lids so they are just kept underneath.
Another repurposed item from IKEA is this cable sorting thing, which is normally fixed underneath a table, but you can also nail it to the wall. I used V-shaped nails for this, as it seemed more secure.
You can fit any number of items on there, such as IKEA kitchen rack accessories, and S hooks come in very handy:
You can see on the first picture that this rack is fuller now. On the right you see a glimpse of a fabric organiser for children's rooms, which I attached to the shelves with Power Strips hooks.
I was also looking for a solution for storing ephemera and large wood veneers that don't fit into the glasses. This unit is available at Dänisches Bettenlager. I can't remember how much it was, but it was less than 10 EUR.
The drawers are quite high, and if I threw little ephemera pieces in like that I would have a fine mess, so I made some pizza boxes with slightly amended measurements so that they fit. The original instructions for these can be found
here and you can easily adjust the size to your needs.
A little hint: add the eyelets and ribbon before glueing the box together. And yes, I found out the hard way.
Last but not least a little view into the chest of drawers in front of the craft room:
There are fabric boxes inside, again from IKEA. I think they are normally intended to fit into Pax wardrobes to keep socks, belts etc. organised.
This particular box holds small stickers, enamel dots and other little pieces. I usually get this box on the table for the finishing touches on a layout or Project Life page.
That's it - I hope you have enjoyed the little tour, and I would love to see your storage ideas and craft spaces, too. Feel free to leave a comment with a link to your blog.
