Happy Tuesday!  Are you having a good week so far?

It’s my pleasure to introduce Shellye McDaniel to you.  Shellye is currently designing for a few of my favorite manufacturers including Authentique, Bella Boulevard, Doodlebug Designs, Little Yellow Bicycle, Pink Paislee and Simple Stories.  She has been an avid crafter her entire life, and a scrapbooker for the past sixteen years.  If it involves paper….she’s all in!

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Hello!

Our laundry room is big … yes, I’m in with the laundry!  I often find myself using the Cricut or Sizzix next to a stack of folded towels on top of the clothes dryer.  My vision is to install a new counter top over the washer and dryer and extend it to where a smaller counter top is now.  This would grant the added space that’s needed for die-cutting machines and allow me to stand-up while I scrap.  One of the perks of being in the laundry room is that it houses a full wall of built-in cabinets…perfect for storing bins of design team supplies and seldom used items.

The washer and dryer are on the opposite wall of my desk.

 The green bins that I have above the desk house paper pads (8×8 and 6×6), packaged stamps, and small embellishments and in the last bin the file folders holding rubons and letter stickers.

I also use wire Locker baskets (in a previous photo) and in one of those I have the medium punches.

For storing embossing folders, I’ve adapted a 6×8 binder and the solid 6×8 page protectors…makes it so much easier when I’m trying to find a certain pattern.  I also embossed the design on a paper so that I can reference the design.

I like to see the pretty things, so I’ve gathered all sorts of glass and apothecary-style jars for spools of baker’s twine (wound around wooden clothespins), ribbon and straws.

I also added a few more photos of things that I’ve organized like letter stickers, embossing folders, punches and straws (my new obsession!).

1. What kind of budget did you have when organizing your space?

Honestly my budget for organizing is like that of my clothing budget…I’d rather spend money on crafting supplies ‘n stuff!  When I first settled into my scrap space, I did purchase four large, heavy duty drawer systems that I found at Wal- Mart; it has been my greatest expense so far at around $250 for all pieces.  My husband was kind enough to build a temporary work station.  To that I added inexpensive shelving to the walls and pre-fab cubbies for paper packs and kits.

2. What was your greatest challenge?

Ribbon.  I have collected more ribbon over the years than I will ever, ever use!  I have one drawer that stores spools of ribbon and then six glass jars that display ribbon by their color family.  I have a metal locker basket handy that I use to keep smaller pieces and frequently used ribbon in.

3. Are you a “organize it once” kind of girl, or are your storage solutions constantly evolving?

About two-times a year I like to purge and then reorganize. But I’ve been known to tear the room apart, only to put it back the same way.  I don’t mind organized chaos while working on a project, but too much sitting around tends to overwhelm me, hence the need to ‘hide’ things in tubs and bins.

4. What is one thing you’d like to improve about your storage/organization?

My next project is to organize my scraps of paper…my system now (large Ziploc bags) is not working for the obvious reasons. I have seen several ideas on Pinterest for either a hanging file folder or labeled drawer system.  I’m really looking forward to implementing one of the two!

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What do you think?  Isn’t Shellye’s space lovely?  And what do you think about using her laundry room as her crafty space?  Brilliant, I think!

To see more of her space and work, please visit her blog!