One of the best organizing decisions I've made in my scrap room, hands down, is organizing my embellishments by color. I started using this method last year and have continued to expand throughout this year into color bins. I still don't have all of my embellishments in bins- flat alphas and ribbons are not included mostly because my most popular color bins are full and won't hold another thing! I'll be adding those items in, though, as I use current things up and make more space in my bins.
I should pause here and say that color bins are definitely not my idea. Stacy Julian is probably their biggest proponent, and she has the most adorable series of videos about hers here at her blog. You can also find further information on organizing by color here, here, and here.
As you can see in the photos above and below, my bins live in my Expedit. The bins are actually really inexpensive Sterilite dish tubs from Target (less than $2.50 each). I found that they were the perfect height to stack two-high in an Expedit cute, and Darren kindly cut two small shims to place between each set of tubs to keep the top one from crushing the contents of the bin underneath.
Each bin holds a single color, and I've put as many items as possible into color bins. I even moved my flat embellishments (that were previously stored here) and bling (previously stored here) in with the mix and couldn't be happier with the results!
When you peel off the top layer of flat embellishments (I'm using my green bin as an example here), you find all kinds of goodies underneath. Flowers, felt, foam, photo corners, frames- anything green is in this bin!
I use Frappuccino jars to corral tiny items like buttons, brads, and eyelets (read more about that project here). Ooooh, and is that some decorative packing tape I spy? It's so much more likely to get used now that it's in the green bin!
You can see the bling more clearly here in my blue bin (which is not nearly as full as my green one is).
And see that tiny border strip in my purple bin? It was part of a larger multi-colored package and would have been difficult to match to a project had I left it there. I simply cut all the borders in the package apart and placed them in the appropriate color bins.
My white bin is crazy full and overflowing, but that's okay since it's a color I reach for often when I need a neutral base for an embellishment cluster.
It's where all my clear bling and white rub-ons live now (instead of in their old homes in my "most used" and "bling" baskets).
Remember a couple of days ago when I said I'd split up some of my old kits? I found packages of little beauties like these in among the paper scraps...
...so I took them out of their packaging and placed them in jars the appropriate bin.
I also found some big packages of flowers which...you guessed it! I also split them up and placed in color bins.
Though I hung on to some of the cute packaging to use in projects later. :)
Lest you think that I have it all together, I have a massive bin of items that still need to be sorted (or items that I just couldn't categorize right away).
And I managed to clear out my "most used" basket (from here). It was way over-full and impossible to find anything in. It's now functioning as an "inbox" of sorts for bills I need to pay.
And a lot of the multi-colored items from that basket ended up here, in the basket that used to hold my flat colored embellishments.
The bling basket has also been cleared out, with most of the items going to color bins.
The glitter, though, went into my new "messy stuff" basket on my Expedit. The basket also holds stamp pads, paints, and Stickles (many of which used to live here).
Whew!! I'm exhausted just thinking of all the work that went into that! It was totally worth it, though. I have a space that's ten times more inviting than it used to be, and infinitely more usable.
I hope you've enjoyed the organizational posts this week! Leave me a comment if you have any questions, and I'll do my best to get them answered!