If you give an organizer some new bowls…

OK, I won’t go there again and do the whole “if you give a pig a pancake gig.” (Although that was fun.)

But I will tell you this:  those little bowls created an organizing monster in me!

This past weekend I reorganized all my itty-bitty scrapbooking stuff…the buttons, brads, paper-clips, and so on, all because those cute little bowls jumped into my cart (when I wasn’t looking) last time I went to Target.

So here’s the low down on what I did, and some of the other details about furniture and what-not in my space. (I’ve been getting a bunch of questions about the furniture in my space…so I’ll try to answer a lot of that here.)

Before reorganizing I used these nine votive holder’s (from IKEA) to store small, silver embellishments. This tray of votives (tray also from IKEA) sat on my white, ladder shelf from JC Penny (although in this photo they’re sitting on the black work desk from Pier One. The same work-desk that’s on the cover of the book. And while we’re talking about the cover, the cubes on the cover and the large set of cubes inside the book are from IKEA.) OK…back to the tray (from IKEA.)

I liked the silver things in there…but I thought it would look oh-so fun to put more colorful items there. And so that’s what I did. Here’s a shot of them, sitting on the above mentioned ladder shelf from JC Penny.

So what happened to the idea of putting the new little bowls from Target in the drawers from Crop-In-Style? Well…I didn’t like all my little stuff all together in one bowl. The brads were buried, and that was one of the issues I was trying to address in this latest reorg—make the brads easier to get to. I also wanted to be able to easily see what color brads I have so I don’t overlook (and not actually realize I don’t own) often needed brads like basic white, for example.

So…brads and the small silver embellishments (that were in the votives (from IKEA)) went into these little boxes (from Making Memories.)

Here’s a before of one of the boxes.

And a story…because, well, if you’re reading this far you’re a scrapbooker and you’d appreciate it.

So, I got this box of buttons at a scrapbook convention, oh, maybe eight years ago. Right around the time when buttons were the next big thing in scrapbooking. I remember that this was such an indulgent purchase. “How on earth would I ever use all those buttons?” I thought. Uh, I guess that question is answered. (I won’t…at least not in the first eight years of ownership.) It also proves that packaging sells! (At least it sells me. Orange clearance stickers and good packaging and this girl, organizer or not, gets weak in the knees.) So maybe now that those buttons have been freed from their cute little box, I’ll actually use them.

OK…you’ve waited long enough. Here’s the after.

And you should know…sorting all those brads and all the other tiny stuff…took forever. But with the help of a recorded episode of American Idol and a warm, burning fire, it was actually pretty enjoyable.

OK, what else…yes, the drawers.

Before, one of the drawers stored “fun stuff” which is really “miscellaneous stuff” in a friendly disguise. Since I’m in such the mood to go off on tangents tonight, I’ll just share my “professional opinion” 😉 of the term miscellaneous. If ever you’re tempted to use the term miscellaneous when labeling something, think “Mess-ellaneous” because in all eventuality, that’s what you’ll end up with:  a mess. (OK, maybe you won’t, but I would.) Here’s my messelaneous fun stuff, before:

And now, the drawers, after:

The drawer includes four boxes (from Making Memories) of brads and other small stuff, plus three bowls (from Target) of larger metal things and some chipboard flower buttons (from I don’t know where that I didn’t like the looks of in the votives from IKEA) on the white shelf from JC Penny.

OK…I’m tired. I suddenly ran out of oomph. (Just like that. I know, I’m surprised, too.) I have more photos to share (and stories to tell, heaven help you.) So stay tuned.

Good night.