How do YOU organize and categorize your papers?

Okay, so I've read the helpful articles, but now I want to know how you categorize and store your papers. Red blue green, then red patterned, blue patterned then holiday, or what? What about different size papers, and paper packs, etc. Please share!

i have these two expanders, i have been using them, but i will be converting to this: I will organize my papers so that only colored cardstock will be in the organizers organized by color. the printed cs will be in a tray style organizer on the desk by type: floral, dotted, striped, plaid, gingham, paisley, miscellaneous. then my pads i will have on a shelf still in the pad so that when I need to know the brand for posting, and the name of the pad, i will have that accesible. i hope this makes sense.

I have mine in cropper hopper's vertical storage. I have colored CS in rainbow color order. Patterned paper is by mfr... also in the vertical storage.

i have a sterilite 3 drawer container that i put all my cardsock in. I do it by "Neutrals" (black, white, grey browns, tan, etc.) and then have my normal colored cardstock by ROYGBIV in another, and the other drawer is for "stacks" paper (luxury stack, indian summer etc)

I keep misc themed PP and misc PP in page planners since i don't buy alot at a time.

Cropper Hopper.
Plain cs in roygbiv order.
Patterned paper in categories like polka dots, stripes, flowers, ornate, holiday, etc.

Manufacturer means nothing to me so I pull pads apart.

I do the same as Michelle. Cardstock by color, patters by manufacturer. I do have some misc. papers that are in kits right now...most of the kit is gone and I need to just sort the papers by color. That or maybe just give it away. hee hee

CS in CropperHoppers in ROYGBIV order, but struggle with how to do patterned paper, constantly changing it.

I have all my patterned paper and cardstock in vertical cropper hopper holders. I have my pp separated by manufacturer and then my cs is also separated by manufacturer and then by color. It works really well for me!

Cropper Hopper Vertical Storage user here! Solid cardstock is by color. (Rainbow order here for everything in my room!) My favorite manufacturers (Basic Grey, Bo Bunny, MME, Fancy Pants, and Echo Park) all are sorted in their own Vertical Storage. I only have two Vertical Storage containers that my misc pp. Those are sorted by color too. I keep everything that's too many colors or really themed in a separate drawer.

I have mine in file drawers. Solid cardstock by color in one file then pp by color in a folder right behind the solid. That way all my red pp is in a folder right behind the red cs.

Hope this helps!

My 12x12 and letter-size cs is stored roygbiv/brown/white/gray/ black in the vertical Cropper Hopper holders. My pp is mostly by manufacturer in Iris carts. Cosmo has its own Iris box, MM has a box, DCWV has two boxes, K&Co has two boxes, Scenic Route and MME share a box, Sass and Colorbok share a box, and so on. The problem for me is that I've also bought single sheets or a pack here and there from lots of other manufacturers. Those are all in two boxes and they're a bit of a mess.

Lisa

I also use the Cropper Hoppers ... cs in rainbow order, then white, tan, brown and black. Patterned paper is usually by collection or theme (school, seasons, holiday, etc.). I usually keep paper packs as a pack until there aren't many pages left and then put them in a hopper as well.

I keep all my paper sets paperclipped together, same theme clipped together, cardstock by color, and misc paper on another shelf.

I have 18 sterilite 3 drawer container stacked in 3 rows of 6. I seperate by color and company.

My paper is stored in page protectors in a 3 ring binder. I'm kind of a freak about my paper corners being messed up and I store vertically so it was a good solution for me. I have photos in my gallery. I only have two binders, but they hold a lot of paper (I keep about 8 sheets of paper in each protector). I have them separated by color. I organize patterned paper by the base color or by the color that stands out to me the most. I put collections of paper in the same page protector so I keep them together. The cardstock is organized lightest to darkest. I also have a section for vellum and transparencies and holidays and themes. My paper stacks are stored on a shelf, but I plan to purchase a paper holder for them because i don't like my things out. My 8.5x11 paper is a binder also with page protectors. I hope this gives you another idea. Good luck.

• Ms. Mom Said:

I put my paper in 12x12 albums. When I use up the paper I fill up the spaces with layouts and buy more albums.

I have all my 12x12 paper in cabinets due to light fading it,,,,I can open up the cabinets to see what I have when I scrap, and close them for dark when I am not,,,,

I have several piles,,,like six, I think, maybe 8,,,,juvenile (boys and girls), feminine, vintage style, holidays and celebrations, masculine, elegant, etc,,,

My 8.5x11 plain cs (which is really all I buy plain colored cs in) is in ROYGBIV (black and brown on top) order on a table next to my desk, right near my trimmer,,,, the kind I use most often is on the top because I just go through it too fast to worry about fading,,,

works for me, because I almost never look for a certain manufacturer,,,,I almost always am looking for a certain look or theme,,,

I forgot to add that I do store Christmas and Halloween stuff separately. Two boxes of Christmas paper and embellishments and one for Halloween.

Holly, I know what you mean about looking for a certain look or theme, but to me most of the manufacturers have a particular feel to them. Sass is always playful, OA is retro, etc. Since I'm so obsessed with all my scrappy supplies, I remember what I have of each and when I go to do a boy page, I think, "Do I want to use that Fancy Pants kraft stuff or the CC Lil Man, or maybe some of the wacky Sass papers?"

Lisa

I use my 2 Michaels cubes with dividers for almost all my paper stacks. I have 2 Iris carts with 6 drawers each. One has colored cardstock-arranged from light to dark colors and black and white together. The other has theme drawers- dogs, Christmas, Wedding, boys, etc for different types of albums and projects I'm working on. Also have a plastic tote with a handle and file folders inside to carry papers to crops and to organize singles of patterned and specialty papers. Also have 2 Iris drawers for plain and patterned scraps. I like to have my papers horizontal so they don't bend easily. All my paper is along the wall right behind my work table.

I have my stacks organized by theme. I don't have that many (compared to some people, lol), so I have: Halloween, Fall, Christmas, Baby, Kid, and then a huge stack of coordinated paper. All my other pp needs to be organized. They are in accordian type organizers justall mixed up. My stacks are stored vertically using a paper sorter thing I used to use to hold baking sheets. My cardstock is either still in the stack or sorted by color. I need to get rid of most of it b/c I've figured out that I prefer textured cardstock. My mat stacks are in a 12x12 drawer.

Mine is in a chrome roller cart I bought online at Walmart for about $40. It's a hanging file cart. It holds the legal size hanging files on one size and the letter sized on the other side. it has a shelf on the bottom with two small drawers underneath. It is on casters.

In the legal size file side, I put my cardstock in ROYGBIV order and then patterned paper by collection or theme. The paper sticks high out of the top of the cart, so I can flip through it and see easily what I want.

On the letter size side, I store colored scraps in ROYGBIV order. I put them in file folders, which I put inside the hanging folders, so if I am looking for scraps of a particular color, I can just pull out that color file and lay it on my table - leaving the hanging file folder in place.

On the bottom shelf, large paper stacks fit perfectly. In the drawers underneath, I keep 6 x 6 paper pads, card blanks and blank tags.

Best I can tell, you can't buy this cart AT WalMart, you can get it only online.

• lstory Said:

I totally agree that you should organaize the way you scrap,,,,,makes it so much easier,,,,,,I just don't scrap like that,,,,,The only paper i've honestly wanted to separate out and store separately is my DCWV, although I just got rid of a ton of it (gave it to the gc) because it's just not my style mostly anymore,,,,

I also usually have a pile of papers I am in love with currently inside my cabinets,,,,,this usually includes the brand new stuff I just bought, and any "classics" that I go to over and over again,,,,,

• Tammy Sue Said:

That sounds like a nice cart - I'll look it up. thanks

If checked out Walmart site and they do have some nice options. I found one cart for around $40 - rolling- holds legal size hanging files- about 21 inches high. I will measure to see if it will roll under my desk. Hopefully they will start having some in the stores to look at......thanks.

I've got one Cropper Hopper for black/white/neutral cardstock, another 3 CH's for colored cardstock (sorted by ROYGBIV), and I've got horizontal file cubes for my pp, which is sorted by theme (different holidays, different seasons, birthdays, music, cats, dots, stripes, geometric, etc.) My scraps are stored in 6 IRIS boxes by small, medium and large scraps each in cardstock and pp. It's a system that works for me, but I know different people sort their pp in ways that work for them.

I was lucky enough to find a paper holder on ebay. It's tall and thin and has 30 shelves. I store 12x12 papers by color, season, holiday, plaid, flowers, polka dots, etc.
I am looking for a rolling file for 8x11 cardstock and for my scraps.
Right now I have my scraps in an accordian file folder which works but I think a rolling file cabinet would be better.
Hope this helps.

I think it's best to organize your paper the way you like to scrap. If you scrap by color, organize your paper by color. If you scrap by theme, organize it that way. If you scrap by manufacturer, organize it by manufacturer. The way you scrap might change over time and if it does, you can just re-organize!

I used to scrap by color, but sometimes it was hard (for me) to match and I was spending too much time picking out pp. So I started scrapping by manufacturer and found that to be tons easier.

Since I scrap by manufacturer, I store my pp that way, ie Basic Grey (by line) in a container, Cosmo by line in a container, Oct Afternoon/Bella Blvd/Echo park in a container (they all have similar looks to me), Websters/Graphic 45 in a container, Sassafrass in a container, American Crafts in a container, Little Yellow Bicycle in a container, etc. Some manufactureres have more than one container and some share containers, depending on how much I collect. Some manufacturers are stored in cropper hoppers and some are stored in Iris containers with the coordinating embellishments.

Loose sheets from manufacturers that I don't have a lot of get sorted by color or theme (stripes, florals, Christmas, etc) in a hanging file box. This box tends to get woefully neglected, but it is handy because sometimes I am looking for a red pp or for a stripe or a floral.

I sort my cardstock by color in cropper hoppers with separate ones for black/white/kraft.

my friend has these great colored drawers and sorts like that...for example all the green paper (either solid or pattern) would be in the green drawer....good luck and you laides have some awesome ideas

Ok I hadn't had a chance to read all of these yet so sorry if this is a repeat but this is how I do it......
I was fortunate enought to purchase 2 free standing paper racks when our local scrap store closed last year, I separate my paper accordinly:
boy colored argyles and plaids
boy colored strips and diagonals
boy colored polka dots
boy mis.
girl hearts
girl florals
girl colored argyles and plaids
girl colored stripes and diagonals
girl colored polka dots
girl mis.
wt.
blk. and greys
all other colors of plain cs
glitter
mis
sports
school
jan. (snow/ winter themed)
feb (valentines)
march (st. pattys)
april (easter)
july (4th)
oct. (halloween)
nov. (thanksgiving)
dec. (x-mas)

I think there may be a few more but I'm not in my scrap room, lol!! I think now that I've been scrapping a while I should rethink my way of dividing it, but it woeks and I always find what I need when I need it.

i have changed my pp a few times. first it was solids in one place and patterns in another. but that took a long time to find which solids matched the pp.

then i had holidays and specifics (says boy) in one drawer and the rest by color. i found i forgot about a lot of those (even for holidays) because i got used to not looking there.

now i have everything sorted by color and that works well for me. the drawers are:

red/purple (i dont own pink)
orange/yellow
green
blue
brown/tan
white/grey/black

i'm sure this will change again after i build my dream space.

hth

I have just organized my papers, so that's a current issue for me =)
I divined them by sized: 12*12, letter-size, scraps. Scraps are sorted by color and are stored in a file-holder each color in individual pocket.
Letter-sized papers are combined by type: most of them came in sets like "embossed cardstock of different colors" or "a set of stripe-patterned paper", so I keep them according to their type. Plain colors I keep aside.
Vellum, no matter what size, I also keep separately.
And 12x12 are stacked according to the color. Solid color and pp together. Yellow, then orange, then red, then burgundy, then violet etc. I think it's convenient, better than sorting by theme or pattern: because you never know which pattern can be ideal for what theme =)

I need to sort my paper. I have so much of it, that I spend so much time looking through piles of it to find what I want for my projects. I'm going to sort it all by colour - the same way I sort my scraps. Its going to be a major project, but I'm off work for a while so I have the time. I want to have it done before Christmas.

This is a topic that drives me bonkers! Whoever invents the "perfect" paper storage system will make a ton of money... along with the "perfect" adhesive and the "perfect" trimmer!!!

My paper is, quite honestly, a disaster, but I try. I have a Sterilite 12x12 drawer thingie, and in one drawer I have scraps, in another is special paper (glittered, vellum, shaped, etc) and the final drawer is cs... all just dropped in with no organization. I also have a letter size Sterlite thing that I keep any smaller sizes in (8.5 x 11, 8x8, etc.). Finally, I have the Cropper Hopper vertical storage racks, and pp is in those. I have it partially organized by theme and partially organized by color for paper that doesn't fit into a theme. This is obviously not working for me at the moment because I can't find anything in it... I'm currently trying to reorganize it. I like the idea of organize how you scrap... I'll have to explore that idea...

Hmmmm All my papers are categorized in colors, patterns in sterlite cubes.

I keep it pretty simple...by color in a cropper hopper vertical storage rack. If a PP has a dominate color then that goes with that color. If the PP has lots of miltiples then it goes in a magazine holder like thing & I just look though it when I want something.
The specialty cut out papers have their own place as well.