My scraproom is worse than ever. It is true. I now have no armoire, so the only organized portion of my room is now piled on my desk. So I need an organizational system fast. I am torn between 3 things...a scrapalong, scrapbooking cube system or a scraprack. They all have pros and cons.
The Scraplong is the neat trashy cany looking upright tote that has drawers built in.
Pros:
It is on wheels. I love to be able to move my stash from room to room.
It has drawers. I can organize my embellishments in the drawers and then put coordinating paper in the bottom. I can get a few of these and line them up against the wall.
Cons:
The drawers are not that big. I have loads of stuff, I am not sure if it all can be adequately housed in the thing, even if I did buy 3 of them.
It is an ugly color. I usually don't care about such things. But this would function as more than just a tote. I need it to be a little be visually appealing.
My stash would be concealed. I am a firm believer in out of sight, out of mind. Will I ever use the items housed in the scrapalong since I won't be able to see them?
Those scrapbooking cubes. Various companies make these white wooden cubes (some with drawers, or doors) to organize your craft area.
Pros:
They are white. I have a weakness for white furniture. I guess it is a throwback to my childhood.
They are available at my local craft store so I can use my 40% off coupon.
They have all sorts of configurations...paper dividers, drawers, doors...I can create my organizational utopia.
Cons:
They are white. All the furniture in my craft room is brown. Now I am not into decorating at all, but I still think this may not be the best design choice.
Depending on the brand some of the cubes cost as much as $50 dollars. That seems a bit pricey to me. One trip to Ikea could probably yield me a shelving solution at a fraction of the price.
They are dense. My room has a huge bulky desk, built in wooden shelving, and possibly two banquet tables. It is very crowded in there. Do I want more wood furnishings added to the mix?
The ScrapRack - a desktop file system that uses a series of binder spindles and pocket protectors to store items at your fingertips. Read about it here.
Pros:
Everything is at my fingertips. I just flip to a section and voila...there are my brads or my stickers.
Takes up less space than a cabinet or cube.
Cons:
I have to organize it all. I am lazy, but this task just seems insurmountable when I consider the size of my stash.
It is expensive. A complete system is $450! How can I justify spending that much on plastic and binder spindles. I can find furniture for cheaper.
I know they have a means to make this portable, but really the amount of items I have make me reluctant to disassemble bits of it to carry to a crop.
It takes up lots of table space. I wouldn't be bringing in any new furniture but I would need to use my long banquet table to hold my scraprack. That definitely limits my design choices for the room
It is all plasticy and bulky. Do I want to look at a big wad of page protectors all day?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I definitely had the most cons with the ScrapRack, but that is the one I think may work the best. The Scrapalong seems like a viable option as well. I wish I could find one in person and really measure the drawer space. Those cubes...hmm...they have a good deal on them at Oriental Trading. But all the space they require. I would hate to think about transporting them when we move. Decisions, decisions.
